The Sully County watchman. (Clifton, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1894, 1888-09-08

State and has no semblance of govern
mert or law. aud ia the safe resort of
every kind and shade of fugitive Grim
inals from all over the country, com prises
3.G72.64O acres. The "Cherokee outietn
"a vast tract conditionally granted to the
Cherokees simply granted rs q highway
for them to get out out from the reserya.
ton to 90 buffalo hunting on the plains.
but which they have no more use for now.
since there are no longer any buffaloes to
hunt-has in il n little over 6,022 900 acres.
The rest of the country which it is con-
tenn plated shall be set apart to form the
new territory OF Oklahoma, within the
boundaries | have mentioned, brings the
grand total up TO somewhere about 25,-
100000 acres.
Concerning Oklahoma, which gallant
Captain Payne, now dead, and his able
confrere, Captain Couch, had made such
heroic efforts to have opened up to settle
ment, it is simply a wicked absurdity to
say thst any Indians have any rights there
at all, aud that bona hde white settlers
shall not be allowed to go in there and
develop its rich natural resources. The
government bought back the land from
the Seminoles and Creeks. with the iden
OF having there some of the dangerous
Northern Indians, particularly the Sioux,
and more or less of the freedmen
OF the South, but the latter
being elevated 10 the dignity of citizen
ship, preferred 70 stay where there was
more hootblacking, whitewashing and
waiting to be done, and nobody had any
right to send them TO q reservation. AS
for the Sioux, there was grand concert.
ed kick among the more or less civilized
Indians already on other reservations
against having such dangerous neighbors
forced upon them, 80 the project, so far
as they we're concerned, was abandoned,
and that beautiful, fertile, we'll -watered,
finely timbered and healthful country lies
idle.
TEANsPLAETISG THE INDIAN KILLS HIM.
Even If the Sioux had not been killed
off by the joint efforts OF their neighbors
bad they been sent down there-the
measure would have been fatal to them
However bleak, inhospitable and bad the
country msy be in which the Indian is
born and bred, you kill him when you
transport him 10 another, even though
the new may be in all respects infinitely
better than that TO whicn he has been ac-
customed. He pines away and dies.
That was demonstrated in the case of the
Nez Perces. They were brought down
from the North and given a reservation
that was paradise in comparison with
their former home, right i'll the bGs. part
of the Indian Territory, get they got so
homesck that they died off like rotten
sheep, and the government had to send
them back whence they came to save
them from utter determination.
Much of the strongest opposition to
the enoroachments of civilization upon
the Indian Territory comes from the
seattle barons.' The cunning Cherokees
assumed the responsibility of leasing to
the Cherokee Live Stock Association"
for term of five years, the vast tract
krown as the Cherokee o1tlet," over
which they had actually no more right of
disposal! than you or have, an got $780,
600 for it. Then the still more cunning
white men who had got the lease sublet it
in sections to nearly one hundred cattle
barons and spectators for an aggregate
Of 100000. All those leases expire next
October, by which time it is to be hoped
that Congress and Democratic admin
isrration will have settled this whole
question IN the way that the people of
the West looking for homes have right
VI SA pecFt euu Llat Is unQuestlOuaDiy
for the best interests Of the Indians.
The red man must be absorbed by the
white race, or, ii they are unable to adopt
themselves to civilization, must pass
away. | do not think that the latter will
be their fate, though it is altogether
probable that their numbers will be sadly
reduced before they fully acsept in spirit
as well as deed, their altered condition of
life and the reaction comes to save them.
Bnt the logic OF the situation ia inexor-
able, they can no longer live, as their
ancestors did, by the chase, nor can they
exist as the helpless, idle, dispirited ward
Of the government. To be saved from
extinction they must learn to help them.
selves. For term of years they should
be protected IN business, and in posses
sion of their lands by such rigid laws rs
would be for them safeguard against
the willy whitemau, for they are as mass
merely big children. But they are not by
any means un'ntelligeus children, nor are
they naturally vicious ones, except in
such vices as are 10 them the virtues OF
their old predatory Ishmaelitish, savage
life. Throw open the doors of civilization
to them, and you will ere long have them
educated to self reliance.
They will make good citizens. And ut
the Same time you offer to hundred
thousand white men, eagerly and anxious
ly looking forit, the most inviting land
OF homes on all this broa and glorious
continent.