The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-09-20
CHICKAsAW LANDS.

Some of the best lands in the Indian ter
rltory are those of the Chickasaws and you
ind some of the largest farms among them.
Frank Murray, white man, married to
Chlckasaw woman, has 10000 acres under
cultivation and he keeps 5000 head of cat
tie He is said to be worth half a million
dollars and he adds to his lands every wear
Sam Paul, half-breed Chickasaw, has
5000 acres under cultivation, and white
man named Rector, who married Chicka-
saw girl, is farming 500 acres Here among
the Cherokees there is a half-breed named
Starln, who has 5000 acres, and there are
many other farms much larger The
ChlcKasaw country is the only one which
has been surveyed and divided into sec
! lions, and don't think that there is good
system of records among the other tribes.
Lands may be sold as far as their improve
ments are concerned, but an Indian cannot
sell his land to white man. The Texas
cattle men look with envy on these rich
plains of green and they try all sorts of
lodges to get in. Not long ago in the Creek
country they tried to steel 250,0e0 acres
and they built 10 miles of wire fence
around this. They had something like TO-
COO head of cattle on this land and they
rather deied the Indians. The Indians
held council and went long the fence
and chopped off the posts close to the
ground. They said: 1--WE don't know
about the wire, that may belong to the
white men and we won't touch 1t. But as
Tor these posts, they were cut from our
forests and they belong to the Indians and
we will cut them down. The result was
that the Texans had to take their cattle out
of the country. A great many Texas cat
tie are grazed in the territory by Indians
for Texans, and there are numoer of pas
lures in the Creek country ranging in size
from 10000 to 10000 acres. They receive
from 81 to S1.59 head, and though the
grazing of cattle in this way is against the
law of the tribes, it is winked at and per-
mitted to be done. Many of the Cherokees
employ white men to work for them and in
Chickasaw nation in the Washita valley
there is farm fifty miles long. the owner
! of which is an Indian and the laborers are
white. There Is an Indian here who has q
| costly residence in the centre of coo acres
of beautiful land and among his hands are
some Cherokees that get sic month. They
could have farms of their own but dom,
seem to care to take them.
THE CHoCTAws.
had talk with Governor Smallwood
who was for long time chief of the Choc
taws. l met him at the little town oil
Atoka and found him a very intelligent
man. He tells me that the Choctaw nation
has seventeen counties in it and it has its
I have. Its governor gets 1900 year as a
i salary, aud is elected tor term of two
! years He has the same authority as one
| of the governors of our states, except tina,
he cannot pardon. Governor Smallwood
! says that there are about $4,000 Cnoctaws
/ and that these believe in the Christian
religion and are OF all denominations except
/ Catholics. The Choctaws live in log houses
and plain cottages and their people are
! steadily advancing in culture. There is nc
state in the Union that pays proportion
ately more towards education than the
Chocta US aud l lind that the Cherokees
here have an excellent system of public
schools.
THE EDUCATIONAL FIGHT AMONG THE
CHERoKEEs.
One of the leading political issues here
at Tahlequah is the public school system
They have a big boys college here and g
female seminary and they have system
of public schools, which extends through
out the country. The revenue of the
nation, however, ran behind and these
schools have all been shut up for year or
account of there being no money to pay the