The Kanzas news., 1858-01-23
The Kanzas News.
SATURDAY ::::::::...J ANUARY ss, 1853.
From the Washington Republic.
The Indian Territory.

The Indian TERRITORY.
We have more than once directed atten
ton to that fine agricultural and pastora
region west of Arkansas, known as the In
dian Territory. 1t lies Immediately south
and contiguous to Kanzas, and Its southern
boundary is Texas. Its area is II, ,127
square miles, and its population is abou
seventy five thousand souls, consisting main
Iy of Indians, with few hundred whites
and few thousand slaves belonging to the
half Indians, who have been removed
thiIher from Georgia, Alabama. Mississippi
and other Southern States. The Propagan-
dists of Slavery have long had their eyes on
this fine Territory, and two or three years
ago it was suggested that it should be divi-
'ded into three Territories, with a view tc
their immediate admission into the Union as
slaveholding States. 1t was freely asserted
that the high civilization of the Indians quail
flied and entitled them to become American
citizens, invested with all the privileges and
responsibilities of State sovereignty. We
shall not be surprised if Senator Douglas,
or some other "Northern man with South
'ern orinciples,'' should at the next session
OF Congress, take the country by surprise,
by deliberate proposition to admit the new
State of Cherokee, or Chickasaw, or Choc-
taw, or probably all three, into the Union
as members of the Confederacy; as an off
set to the three free States of Minnesota,
Kanzas, and Oregon, which are expected to
come into the Union about the same time.
And whether or not this bold policy is ven
tured upon, there can be no doubt that the
Propagandists of Slavery cherish the idea of
converting the Indian Territory into Slave
States, at the earliest possible moment.
1t therefore behooves the friends of Free
dom and free white labor to be ON the alert.
They have advantages in their favor in the
impending struggle for this Territory, which
they did not possess in the case of Kanzas,
now at length gloriously won. In the latter
case, great and powerful Slave State inter-
Yened between all the Free States and that of
the Territory to be settled; while in the case of
the Indian Territory, we shall have a young
and vigorous Free State bounding it on the
north for distance of six or seven hun
dred miles. On the west, its bounded by
Missouri in which there are
very few slaves, together with Arkansas,
the Northern half of which is equally des-
Sonth, t.niggers'' TIE free white laborers
of the country will therefor have decided
advantage over the owners of negro stock,
and nothing but disgraceful supineness can
deprive them of the victory. Any such eff
forts as those which have been made for
Kanzas will insure success beyond perad
venture.
The propagandists of negrodom, in order
to deter free white settlers from the Terrific
ry, have put forth the statement that there
is already large slave population on the
ground, owned by the Indians. They 60 so
far as to assert that the number of slaves is
equal to the number of Indians, which, ac-
cording to the most authentic accounts, was
about twenty-five thousand some four or FIVE
years ago, with tendency to decline. We
had reason to regard this statement as gross
ly exaggerated, and our investigations into
the matter have shown it to be about as
to the truth, as was the ac
tual to the imaginary number of Falstaff's
enemies in the famous night encounter.
Finding no returns of the number of the
slaves belonging to the Indians in the cen
sus, or in the reports of the Indian Bureau,
it occurred to US that such information
would likely be in the possession of the Mis-
sionary Boards. We accordingly addressed
notes of inquiry to their Secretaries, and
one of them has responded, through friend,
as follows:
"When I was in the Territory (1848, I
was told there were ten or twelve hundred
slaves among the Choctaws; about one thou
sand among the Chickasaws; about fifteen
hundred among the Cherokees. Of the
Creeks or Seminoles L cannot say anything.
NEARLY all the slaves are held by Indi-
ans who have more or less white blood in
their veins; full blooded Indians owning very
few. You know, of course, that the insti-
tuition crept in among them when they lived
this side of the Mississippi.
There is every reason to believe that the
above estimate is fully up to the mark, for
the tribes named, making 3, 500, or, at most,
5, 700. If we suppose that the Creeks and
Seminoles owned ], 800 more, we shall have
an aggregate of about five thousand for the
whole Territory, which is larger than the
State of Missouri The extent to which
Slavery actually exists, presents, therefore.
no formidable obstacle; and if the accounts
We derive from the Washington Union can
be relied on, there is growing up a feeling
of dissatisfaction with it among the Indians
themselves
We regard the estimates above given of
the number of slaves belonging to the In
dians as sufficiently large, because the con-
uguOus portions of Missouri and Arkansas
have but few slaves-in fact, not one in
twenty of the withstand it is utterly i'm
probable that the Indians, who are general
ly poor, own more slaves than their white
neighbors
Finishing the Work.