MUSKOGEE, INDIAN TERRITORY
October 23, 1900
Mary Caroline Atkinson is sworn. She is applying for herself and six minor children. Myra Young is taking down the examination. The transcript identifies the questioner only as “the Commission.”
COMMISSION
What is your name?
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
Mary Caroline Atkinson.
COMMISSION
What is your age?
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
I am 38.
COMMISSION
What is your post-office address?
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
Durant, Indian Territory.
COMMISSION
Are you a resident of the Indian Territory?
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
Yes sir.
COMMISSION
How long have you resided in the Indian Territory?
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
About five years.
COMMISSION
Where did you live prior to your residence in the Indian Territory?
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
Pontotoc County, Mississippi, in the town of Pontotoc.
COMMISSION
How long did you live in Mississippi?
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
I was born and raised there.
COMMISSION
Born in Mississippi and lived there continuously until five years ago when you came to the Indian Territory?
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
Yes sir.
COMMISSION
Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory?
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
Yes sir.
COMMISSION
And have resided there ever since that time?
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
Yes sir.
COMMISSION
How much Choctaw blood do you claim?
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
I suppose about one sixth.
COMMISSION
What is your father's name?
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
Robert Bell.
COMMISSION
Is your father living?
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
No sir.
COMMISSION
What is your mother's name?
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
Elizabeth D. Bell.
COMMISSION
Through which one of your parents do you claim your Choctaw blood?
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
My father.
COMMISSION
Was his name ever on any of the tribal rolls of the Choctaw Nation?
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
Yes sir it was on the roll of the Mississippi Choctaws, the treaty of 1830. It was registered in Mississippi.
COMMISSION
You state that your father was a member of the Choctaw tribe of Indians in 1830 and was enrolled by the Choctaw authorities at that time?
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
His name is on the register.
COMMISSION
Have you any evidence of the fact that he was a recognized member of the Choctaw tribe of Indians at that time?
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
Of course I don't know anything only what I have heard them say. His name is there and I have often heard him speak of his right here.
COMMISSION
When did your father come to the Indian Territory?
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
When I did, five years ago.
COMMISSION
Did he make application to the Choctaw tribal authorities in the Indian Territory for citizenship in the Choctaw Nation?
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
He never did. He was sick when he come and did not live very long after we moved here.
The tribal roll of citizens of the Choctaw Nation in the possession of the Commission is examined. Mary Caroline Atkinson's name is not found there.
COMMISSION
Did you ever make application to the Choctaw tribal authorities for citizenship in the Choctaw Nation?
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
No sir, we considered ourselves Mississippi Choctaws.
The record of applications made to the Commission for citizenship in the Choctaw Nation in 1896 is examined. Mary Caroline Atkinson's name is not found there.
The record of parties admitted to citizenship in the Choctaw Nation by judgment of the United States Courts for the Indian Territory is examined. Mary Caroline Atkinson's name is not found there.
COMMISSION
Will you state plainly to the Commission the ground upon which you make this claim?
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
Well, my father's name was on the roll and that is the ground that we have for citizenship that our father was part Choctaw.
COMMISSION
What evidence have you of the fact that your father was a recognized and enrolled member of the Choctaw tribe of Indians?
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
His name is there on the roll.
COMMISSION
On what roll?
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
I don't know what they call it. Mississippi Choctaws. The treaty of 1830. I don't know what they call it.
[brief silence]
The Commission states that no party by the name of Robert Bell appears upon the approved roll of locations of the Choctaw reservations under the fourteenth article of the treaty of 1830, approved by the President of the United States June 3rd, 1836.
COMMISSION
Mrs. Atkinson, there is no record of your father having been on the roll of citizens of the Choctaw Nation who elected to remain in Mississippi under the 14th article of the treaty of 1830 and who received and claimed land there.
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
He didn't receive any land there.
COMMISSION
Do you claim under the provisions of the 14th article of the treaty of 1830?
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
That is when my father registered there.
COMMISSION
Do you make your claim under the provisions of the 14th article of the treaty of 1830?
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
Yes sir.
COMMISSION
Did any of your ancestors ever comply with the provisions of the 14th article of the treaty of 1830?
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
I don't know.
COMMISSION
Did any of your ancestors ever receive or claim any land in Mississippi as beneficiaries under the 14th article of the treaty of 1830?
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
Not that I know of.
COMMISSION
Are you familiar with the law that empowers this Commission to hear and determine the rights of applicants for identification as Mississippi Choctaws?
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
I don't know much about it at all. I have never read much about it and don't know very much about it.
COMMISSION
Have you any documentary evidence showing that any of your ancestors ever complied with the provisions of that treaty either in receiving or claiming any lands in Mississippi as beneficiaries thereunder?
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
I don't think that my father ever received any land there or was ever benefitted by the lands there. If he was I—we always had a home there and lived there until we come out here. I know that he was very anxious for his family all to come to the Indian Territory.
COMMISSION
How did your father acquire possession of the land that he held in Mississippi?
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
He bought it.
COMMISSION
Did you or your father ever live in the Choctaw reservation in Mississippi?
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
I don't know. I don't think we ever did. Grand mother's people did.
COMMISSION
Do you make any claim by reason of any of the other provisions of the treaty of 1830?
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
I want a claim, if I am not accounted a Mississippi Choctaw I want to be recognized as a Choctaw because my grand mother was.
COMMISSION
What I am trying to find out from you is on what ground you are basing your claim. You have said that your names were not on any of the Choctaw rolls, that you were never admitted to citizenship in the Choctaw Nation. That you never made application to either the Choctaw tribal authorities or this Commission. You claim as a Mississippi Choctaw. You state that your father never received any land in Mississippi—
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
I said not that I knew of.
COMMISSION
And the Commission is unable to identify your father, whom you claim to have been on the 1830 roll in Mississippi as being there, and I want to know if you make your claim on any other treaty stipulations?
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
I don't know much about the treaties. I have never read anything about them and of course I don't know very much about it only what I have heard my ancestors say.
COMMISSION
Is there anything further you want to say in regard to your claim? Any material facts that you want to present to the Commission?
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
Nothing more only that my father was a part Choctaw. That is all the grounds I have. There may be a whole lot more but I don't know what it is. Of course I don't want to say anything only what I know to be so.
COMMISSION
Have you any children?
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
I have six.
COMMISSION
What are the names and ages of your children?
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
Don Ellis aged eight.
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
Cammie Elizabeth, seven.
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
Robert Pratt.
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
Sallie Bell.
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
Twins, Leonard and Lottie.
COMMISSION
Is there any written evidence you desire to offer the Commission in support of this application?
MARY CAROLINE ATKINSON
Yes sir.
The original petition and application of Mary Caroline Atkinson, and affidavits of Elizabeth D. Bell, W. R. Collins, F. Atkinson, Margaret Elizabeth Williams, and T. E. Donaldson, are offered as Exhibit A, identified, filed, and made part of the record.
The oral examination ends. The Commission says its written decision will be mailed to Mary. Myra Young, the stenographer, certifies that she reported the October 23 proceedings in full and that the transcript is full, true and correct to her notes.
[silence]