The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-09-20
Big Plantations Owned by Halr-Breeds
How the Whites Marry for Land
White Rufnans of the Territory.
TAHLEoUAH, I. T.. Sept. IA.

cc5FzT| They have
civilization, laws and government of
their own, and these Cherokees among
whom l am now living, have their
own parliament here at Tahleduah,
and they elect their Senate and
House without regard to the United
States. They have president or chief,
who is elected by the vote of the people,
and they settle all civil matters in their
own courts, the cases being pleaded by
their own lawyers and decided by Indian
judges. They have their own secretary of
the treasury and their own police, and
politics cuts as much Of figure here
as IT does at Washington City. Table
quah IS town of perhaps 1000 people,
and the state house IS in its center. 1t
Is big two-story brick building, which
looks more like q country courthouse than
like national capitol, and it is located In
large park filled with great forest trees.
Around this the streets extend out in every
direction. They are wide and unpaved
and are lined with such buildings as you
will find in town of 1000 inhabitants in
the United States. The houses back of the
main or business street have big grounds,
and some of them are eight and ten-room
cottages. Only few OF the houses are
built of logs and the most of them are of
boards and some are after the models furn-
ished in books of suburban architect
ure. The capitol contains the legis-
lative halls, the treasury depart
ment, the supreme court and the
department OF education. / visited ii to-
day, and | found the treasury much like a
country bank, consisting of a counter rum
ming across ten by twelve room. Iron
bars ran from the front of the counter to-
the ceiling, and in the space behind there
was q safe and an Indian who talked to me
through a little hole over the center of the
counter. The legislature was not in ses-
sion, but took a look into the halls and
called upon Mr.. Mays, who has for two
terms served as chief of the Cherokees, L
found him IN his executive chamber on
the second floor of the capitol. He
is a big, broad-shouldered man with
a big head and an intelligent
face in which few signs of Indian blood
are to be seen. His hair is dark brown
and the lower half of his face is covered
with short brown beard. He was dressed
in citizens clothes and his talk was in as
good English and as full of ideas as that of
the average American congressman. He
has been supreme judge of the nation for
years, and he is a very intelligent man.
he HAS q llit ldIili IOb idT Oh lTOfn lalIe-
quah and he cultivates the soil after as
scientific methods as those which prevail
on the estate of Uncle Jerry Rusk in the
garden of Wisconsin. During my talk with
him the question of the Cherokee strip
came up, and he told me there was no
doubt but that this valuable piece of land
would eventually be sold, and he evidently
thought that the Indians ought to be al
lowed to sell it to the highest bidder. Said
he: This strip contains over 100000
acres, and these are as fine lands as exist
in the United States. 1t lies north of
Oklahoma and west of the 0sages, and it is
well watered and valuable. | have re-
ceived number of offers for it since I
have been chief, and Kansas City firm
would have given US $50, 100000 for it,
Another party offered US $50, 900 600, and
third offer which we have had was SIS, CO.,
600. We may have to sell it to the United
States, but if we do we ought to get fair
price for it,"
CHEROKEE FARMS.
This strip has nothing to do with this
part of the territory. The nation owns
some of the finest lands in the United
States in the northwestern part OF the
Indian territory, and from the stage rides
which have taken through their country,
I Judge that not more than one-tenth of it
is cultivated. Still it all seems to be rich.
| rode from Muskogee, the biggest town of
the Greek nation, to the Arkansas river,
which We forded, and then came on to
Fort Gibson, and by another stage down
here to Tahlequah. Along the whole way
the soil was fertile. There were great
plains covered with luxuriant grass. and
the ride was more like one through a we'll
kept English park than through a
1 = 81. a L.
is the same throughout these civil
lied nations. The Missouri, Kansas
& Texas railroad passes through four
of them and this is the best road for visit
ing the Indian territory. All along 10,
from Texas TO Kansas, you see rich farms,
fat cattle and there are a number of verv
fair towns. the biggest of which is Musko-
gee, with it's $3.50 people. You see also
great stretches of unoccupied land, and
these Indian nations have curious reguia-
tons in regard TO their lands. Every
Cherokee has the right to as much land as
he can use, and he can hold all the land
he fences in, provided he cultivates il. He
has also the right TO quarter of mile Of
land for grazing outside the fences all
around MS farm, and some Of these In
dians have big estates. The farms here
range all the way from 160 acres to 5000
acres, and many of the farms are managed
by white men who get in here by marrying
Cherokee wives There are about - 60
Cherokees, but the whites have so mixed
with them that the full-blOoded
Indians have practically died out, and the
Cherokee nation is more white than In
dian today. | am stopping at very fair
hotel here, and an Indian editor and an
Indian physician, both graduates Of East
ern universities, sit down with me at the
table. The only sign Of Indian blood in
them IS their high cheek bones and they
talk English and are dressed in the same
sort Of clothes you find on Broadway.
| The Hon. Mr. Bushy head, one Of the most
prominent of the Cherokee statesmen,
who has been several times chief of the
nation. and who is as intelligent as any
white man in the territory, tells me that
40 white men have married Cherokee
girls within the iasr t1f wears, and that
| there are now 200 white men IN
/ this Dart Of the territory. Many Of the
/ Cherokee men marry white girls, and Just
/ here | would say that l ind Indian girls
| here who are well educated and good
| housekeepers. There are about 1000
/ Cherokees engaged in farming. and they
| have about 1000 head Of cattle, 1860