<p class="ql-align-justify"><strong>&nbsp;The&nbsp;Applications for Enrollment of Choctaw Newborn, Act of 1905, National Archive&nbsp;film M-1301, Rolls 50-57, are found under the heading of Applications for&nbsp;Enrollment of the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes. These applications&nbsp;contain considerably more information than stated on the census cards found in&nbsp;series M-1186. Series M-1301 possesses its own numerical sequence, separate from&nbsp;M-1186. To find each party's roll number researchers must reference&nbsp;M-1186.</strong></p><p class="ql-align-justify"> </p><p class="ql-align-justify"> <strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The governing 1905 statute (H.R. 17474) defined Choctaw Newborn as&nbsp;"infant children born prior to September twenty-fifth, nineteen hundred and two,&nbsp;and who were living on said date, to citizens by blood of the Choctaw . . ." It&nbsp;also authorized the Department of the Interior to enroll and make allotments to&nbsp;such children based on applications received on their behalf no later than May&nbsp;2, 1905.</strong></p><p class="ql-align-justify"><br></p><p class="ql-align-justify"> <strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The Choctaw--as well as the Chickasaw allotments--were likely some&nbsp;of the most sought after properties in Indian Territory. There was supposed to&nbsp;be a 25-year restriction on the sale or lease of any Indian lands so as to&nbsp;ensure that the owners wouldn't be swindled; however, the presence of huge&nbsp;asphalt and coal deposits in both the Choctaw and Chickasaw Districts elicited&nbsp;pressure from private interests to purchase the lands. On April 26, 1906,&nbsp;President Roosevelt signed the Five Tribes Bill removing some of the&nbsp;restrictions from the sale of all inherited land but continuing to prohibit&nbsp;full-bloods from selling their land for 25 years.&nbsp;</strong></p><p class="ql-align-justify"><br></p><p class="ql-align-justify"> <strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Mr. Bowen's faithful&nbsp;transcriptions of the Choctaw applications provide the names of the applicants&nbsp;and their relatives, as well as the identities of doctors, lawyers, midwives,&nbsp;and others.</strong></p><p class="ql-align-center"><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p>