With the filing deadline only two months away, the Bureau of Indian Affairs reported only 2,000 applications have been received from descendants of Miami Indians who believe they are eligible to share in more than $4 million in Indian Claims Commission awards to the tribe as additional payment for Ohio and Indiana land the Miami's sold the Government in 1818.
Virgil M. Harrington, BIA Area Director, Muskogee, Okla., said that he has issued 5,000 application forms and received only 2,000 back. All applications must be received at his office no later than July 31, 1967, he said.
Miami descendants are found in all parts of the Nation, Harrington said, with many living in the Midwest.
To be eligible for enrollment to share in the funds, Harrington said, a person must have been born on or prior to and living on Oct. 14, 1966 and be a direct lineal descendant of a person named on one of the rolls listed below: (Copies of the rolls are available upon request, he said,)
Roll of Miami Indians of Indiana of July 12, 1895.
Roll of "Miami Indians of Indiana, now living in Kansas, Quapaw Agency, Indian Territory, and Oklahoma Territory."
Roll of Eel River Miami Tribe of Indians of May 27, 1889, prepared and completed pursuant to the Act of June 29, 1888 (25 Stat.223).
Roll of Western Miami Tribe of Indians of June 12, 1891, prepared and completed pursuant to the Act of March 3, 1891 (26 Stat.1000)
Harrington said that part of the award, under Indian Claims Commission Docket l24A, totaling $64,700, less $3,400 in attorney's fees, will be paid to those who prove eligibility as an enrollee or descendant from a person listed on any of the rolls except the Roll of Western Miami Tribe of Indians June 12, 1891. Those on the current tribal roll of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma are ineligible to share this portion of the award.
The rest of the award was paid in Claims Commission Docket 67 and 124 which totaled $4,647,500, less 10 percent for attorney's fees.
Application forms are available from the Bureau's Muskogee Area Office, Federal Building, Muskogee, Okla. 74401, or from David W. McKillip, Room 222, Spencer Hotel, Marion, Ind. 46952, Harrington said.
He noted that the burden of proving eligibility is on the applicant and that completed application forms should be accompanied by birth certificates and such other evidence as is necessary to trace ancestry to the person through whom eligibility is claimed. Applicants are not limited as to age, degree of Miami Indian blood, or generation, Harrington said.
