Joseph McKenna

“ The court decided that under the Cherokee constitution of 1866 the freedmen became citizens equally with the Cherokees, and equally interested in the common property, and equally entitled to share in its proceeds per capita. But the court did not attempt an analysis of § 5 of the constitution nor of article 9 of the treaty (they are alike) , but defined the rights of the freedmen and the free negroes in the language of the constitution and the article. ”

“ But before that final date arrived Congress passed several acts, the provisions of which are relied on by relators as establishing their right. The acts would seem to demonstrate the contrary, and that the conditions which arose demanded changes in legislation. It is true that it is provided that the rolls of the tribes which were directed to be made, when approved by the Secretary of the Interior, should be final, and should constitute the several tribes which they represented ”

“ The Seminoles answered to the same effect, and asked that article 3 be changed to admit only colored persons lately held in bondage by them and free persons of color residing in the Nation previous to the Rebellion, to a residence among them, and adoption in the Seminole tribe upon some plan to be agreed upon by them and approved by the government. ”