Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1881-06-03
THE INDIAN NATION.
How White Men Marry SQuaws
There-The Children.

MUSkOGEE, May lA.-An lnulan
with a slouched hat and a suit of but
ternut got aboard the train at AtOka.
He had a clear eye, and a fine, open
face, as smooth as a girls although he
told me he was thirty-two years old.
When l asked him what he did for a
living, he answered, in as good English
as you hear in Boston:
Il farm it, with a little stock"
"How many acres2"
twenty-five or thirty"
why don't you have more?"
Don't want it. | can have as far |
can see over the prairie, ten miles
square; but | don't want it. | have
all l can eat and drink and wear
What do | want for2"
The man was fat and sleek, and with
a little soap would have been hand
some. He certainly seemed happy.
DO you want white men to come
into the nation2" | continued.
oh we dom care, if they pay US
for the privilege"
How much do you have to pay?"
"a mechanic or a renter pays SIT a
year. A laborer or a farm hand pays
s.. If they marry a squaw, they can
stay for nothing, and own all the land
they can see"
But the Indians can give no title ?"
"No-Do legal titleth would stand
in the white courts. But the Indians
gives the land away, and no one dis
turbs the owner"
you sometimes rent land to
whitesP'
"Yes. A white man can pay $l7,
come in and rent a million acres of the
Indians, if he want to-"
will it always be so 2"
Certainly. The Indians own the
country. We will always own it. If
there is anything to be made out Of it,
we will make it. We will never con-
sent to have the government sell our
land to the whites. We can not sell
it ourselves, but we car always rent
il, and live on the rent, and let the
Wulle IOlkb 10 Jue WOTk.
Above McAlister, IN the Indian ma
ton l saw a big prairie, which they
called Ream's bottom. Nh. Ream has
a ranch OF perhaps two thousand acres.
He has good stock, lives in a log
house and is raising a family Of half
breeds.
"How came Mr.. Ream here, and
how did he get such a large farm2" l
asked.
"Ream is a citizen, sir" they said.
"He is Winnie Reame's brother-Vin-
ME Ream, the sculptures, who married
Lieutenant Hoxie. Ream married a
squaw-a Choctaw squaw. He has
an the rights of an Indian now. He
can own all the land he wants"
| saw the squaw wife of Mr.. Ream
at the station. Icould hardly tell her
from a pure white women. She wore
poke bonnet with flowers in it, and a
stylish ulster. She talked and laughed
and joked with the white people, and
was as sharp at repartee as the beauti-
full, flirting Kentucky girls are. There
are many educated squaWs among the
CherOkees, Greeks and Choctaws, like
Mrs. Ream and they are being picked
up by the whites every day,
my sister Olivette,
She smokes a cigarette"
AT Atoka a Mr.. Phillips is running
a big store. Many picturesquely
dressed Indians we're sitting on their
ponies around it. They did not have
any scalping knives but they all wore
slouched hats, with big red and yellow
feathers in them. As Mr.. Philips is a
white man, l asked him how he got
his right to open q store. rs he a
citizen r"
mo, Phillips isn't a citizen, but his
brother is. His brother married a
squaw, and Phillips does business in
the name ofhis brother. His brother
protects him and claims ownership. "
SO, you see, one white man cal mar.
ry a squaw, making him a citizen, and
then protect a whole drove Of brothers
and sisters who wish to do business IN
the nation.