Publisher's Synopsis
The records in this volume were transcribed from the National Archival film rolls 7RA53 2-3, Cherokee Hearings on Intruder Cases, Dockets of Hearings on Intruder Cases 1901-1909. For definition purposes there are two parties involved with each case within these pages. One is the "intruder" and the other is the "allottee." The term "intruder" refers to an illegal resident in the Cherokee Nation who was living on land that, in the eyes of the Cherokee Commission, did not belong to him/her. The term "allottee" refers to a legal resident of the Cherokee Nation who had been allotted, or given, a parcel of tribal land in the Cherokee Nation through the Dawes Act of 1898-1914. The intruder cases were heard and resolved between 1901 and 1909, and many of them involved contested citizenship claims made by persons claiming Cherokee citizenship based on partial blood. Some of the intruders had made improvements to their parcels, a situation that gave rise to the ambiguous Supreme Court decision in Stevens v. Commissioner in 1906. Other intruders were railroad or mining companies.