Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1884-09-18
THE BOOMERS MEETING.
The President Tells Payne'S Side of
the Story Which Has Been Told
Many Times Before.
To The Editor IF Tie Daiig Eaole:

To the Editor Of The Only EAGLE:
WICHITA, KAN, Sept. IL, 1885.
Reviewing briefly your lengthy editorial
of yesterday headed Oklahoma, permit me
to correct certain statements personal to
myself and to notice certain statements
made which are misleading if not actually
erroneous The opening of the Indian
Territory to settlement will insure Wichita
to be the great commercial mart and whole
sale point of the Southwest the Arllan
sas Valley, as Kansas City is of the Missouri
river valley. Only the circmmscribed area
Of country now tributary to Wichita pre-
vents the establishment of scores of whole
sale houses here. The city has the natural
location and start Of all border towns and
defies competition.
Your statement that The Oklahoma
country so called was set apart by an act of
congress for certain peoples uses, and until
released from the operations of this act, and
devoted to the uses by the same authority,
that country is no more subject TO settle
mcnt by Capt. Payne than are the parks in
the District Of Columbia
Now ask is il true that this region known
us Oklahoma or any part Of il was ever set
apart by an act Of congress for certain
peoples uses? If there is such an act |
never heard of it. and will reward Literally
YOU or any one else that will show me the
act There is no such law, nor has there
ever been such one, certainly none since
the war.
At the close ofthe war treaties were made.
with all five of the tribes. The four that had
Joined the confederate cause ccdcd and sold
without conditions all their outlet strips.
This sale and transfer was absolute and UNI
conditional. The government is holding up
on these two strips by virtue of no valid
treaty or law five tribes of Indians as prison
ers Of war. Can prisoners lease their do
mains Ifso / believe ! will go TO our coun-
~ Jail and rent of the inmates the public
square and set up in the garden business.
Don't a statement of the case expose the
thinness ofthe pretended leases of Oklahoma
lands! Your statement that no cattle are
held on Oklahoma lands is ridiculously en-
roneous Great tracts of Oklahoma are
leased to cattlemen in from 100000 TO 500,-
600 acre tracts, by prisoners who don't now
nor never did own an acre of it.
Now, ms TO the Cherokee strip il was sold
TO the government in 66, and 100000 has
been paid on IT, rhe Indians were allowed
to levy tax on all white occupants who
might go into it. But To ''lease" it is con-
trary to the United States statutes and can
not be done if the land is actually an Indian
reservation. The simple facts are that they |
are allowed to collect tax of of occupants |
in lieu Of interest on unpaid collections due
on sale of the strip in &C. No one knows |
better than the Cherokee Strip Live Stock |
Association that their so called ''leases" are
in direct violation of the United States law |
and that they cannot be sustained or en-
forced in any United States court.
Again you state that anyone can become |
a member of the SO called association" If
you had ever read the articles of incorpora-
ton and bylaws of the association youf
would never have made such an erroneous
statement. Only such already held, at |
the time of incorporation IAN undisputed |
range were eligible to membership. Inas-
much as the occupants at that time had |
claimed all the range how can new man |
get in save by buying the range of the claim
ant, although said claimant may hold ten
times as much rnge as he can consume.
Talk about boomers wanting to speculate /
in land" why the average ranch and grazing /
privileges is worth, and when il can be
bought at all, brings mere than does the |
average farms in Sedgwick county. The
very fact that the ''association" is an aggre-
cation, or syndicate of monopolsts, similar
to the Standard oil monopoly, and that small
holders of stock were fenced in. squeezed out
by larger ones, and that when even the |
small holders gets in the way of larger one,
the latter only has to make contest before
the committee. and there money talks. The
fact that the association sent the editor of IL
paper to assist in burning property, and TO
jeer at the infamous treatment Of men whose
only crime was they were poor men, and
were actually seeking home. say all
these facts, combind with the humiiating
sight of detachment Of the United States
army, under direction of UNANIMOUSLY and
VIGOROUSLY corrupt Indian agents. forcibly,
with bayonets, arresting men. burning pro-
perty, and CARRYING OFF private effects of
prisoners, all without process At law
and in insolent defiance of the
civil officers and civil processes:
constitutes summing up of villianous in
famies, too unspeakably great to be passed
by uncondemned by honest, fair men. Why
not be outspoken, frank and honest, and
say affairs in the west end of the Indian