After statehood, the Chocktaw and Chickasaw Nations were cut up into many counties and probate matters transferred to the County Courts of the counties which included the court towns. Provisions were made to transfer probate cases to the county which would have had jurisdiction had such case been inaugurated after statehood. Little effort has been made to transfer these cases, because the Indians themselves are ignorant of the fact that administrators and guardians have been appointed elsewhere and only in those instances where the grafter wants to sell or lease the land is any pretense made to have everything regular. This condition has resulted in the appointment of guardians in the counties of the residence of the minors to recover lands and rentals. Much litigation has grown out of these conflicts, and it is safe to say that in very few instances have the grafters surrendered to the Indian lands allotted to him. Charles McKinney is an ignorant, easy-going quarter-blood Chickasaw with four or five minor children. Their lands were scattered in Poulatre, Johnson, Marshall and Carter Counties. He was their guardian. He sold these various allotments through the County Court of —— County and received something like $7000. The mayor of the city was on his bond. A certain judge, the mayor and several other politicians decided to buy a local newspaper which was too independent for the good of the party. This money was loaned to the mayor, who gave as security a mortgage upon several tracts of land which he did not own, and used the money in the purchase of the newspaper plant; the latter became insolvent and was sold by its creditors, and the guardian squandered the balance of the money. The Mississippi Choctaws are Indians of a low order of intelligence. They were imported into this country in 1902 and 1903 by land companies, among which was the Choctaw Investment Company, now defunct, and J. E. Arnold. They were herded in barracks around Ardmore and other places during 1902, 1903 and 1904; the smallpox broke out among them and they died like sheep. Before they left Mississippi, contracts were made with them in which they agreed to prove up on their lands and sell them to the promoters. The stockholders of the Chocktaw Investment Company and other non-residents furnished the money and have stood the loss, but J. E. Arnold and Senator Owen are now pressing before the Court of Claims large accounts for allowance. To secure these claims if allowed, J. E. Arnold has filed a lien upon almost every allotment of a Mississippi Choctaw in these two nations. Congress has recognized these claims by permitting them to be litigated. RECOMMENDATIONS