The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1891-09-12
CHEROKEE LAND TITLE.
A CURIOUS ILLUSTRATION OF THE
SOClALlSTlC IDEA.

Inc Lana helu as common property
but the improvements Are the Prop
erty of the Individual - Certain Re-
strictions Laid-Farmers and Farm.
To the student of land problems the Chero-
kee land title is most interesting feature of
their life, and the differences to be drawn
from its workings are many and valuable.
The Cherokee is usually known as a COM
munist, and in some sense of the word this
is true; but the peculiar situation is such
that what he lacks in legal communism he
makes up through other circumstances. In
so far as the ideal of the communist will be
realized when every man lives his own
land and finds his wants as member of
the community supplied by the central gov
ernment-in so far as this is the communistic
ideal, the Cherokee presents today an illus
tration of national land holding.
On the 1st day of August, 1888, the Chero-
kee tribe, assembled in camp at Oquohee, l.
T., began their proceedings with this some
what grandiloquent claim:
Whereas The title of the Cherokee people
to their lands is the most ancient and abso-
lutte known to man, its date is beyond the
recall of human record, its validity con-
firmed and illustrated by possession and en-
joyment antecedent to all pretense and claim
by any other portion of the human race"
NATURALIZATION OF LAND.
On this basis the remarkable men assem-
bled in this council proceeded to form the
wonderful constitution under which the
tribe has lived and prospered SO signally,
and from which were copied in measure
the constitutions of the other nations. Prob
ably influenced by the Indian idea of prop
erty in land-the idea of socialism-they
A ~ l. Il I
tribe, and not to the individuals thereof.
Land, says the Indian, like his communistic
brother, is as air and water, the property of
all; it cannot be given away to the few Pur-
suing this theory, the Cherokee constitution
secured the naturalization of land in the
Cherokee state in these words:
The land OF the Cherokee nation shall re-
main the common property but the improve
ments made thereon and in the possession of
the citizens of the nation are the exclusive
and indefeasible property of the citizens re-
spectively who made and may be rightfully
in possession thereof"
These improvements therefore descend to
the heirs OF the citizen, or they may be sold
by him, but the land, occupy it as long as he
! will, can never be his. He may occupy as
much land as he can cultivate, provided he
does not come within one-quarter of a mile Of
his neighbor This prohibition does not, of
course refer to the towns. He must esta blish
a claim to this land by proving it to be I'M
occupied, and at the proper distance from
his neighbor, and when he shall have fenced
it, or put upon it $50 worth Of improve
ments, he has the right to occupy as long as
| he chooses; but if he fails to SO occupy it for
two years, it reverts to the nation again.
There is absolutely no limit to the amount he
may thus use if he can cultivate it.; but if he
wishes to possess himself of two different
farms, they must be the required quarter of a
mile apart.
CERTAIN RESTRICTIONS LAID.
To be sure that speculation does not inter-
fere with the common right of all to her
land, the Cherokee nation through her legis-
lature has laid certain restrictions upon her
people. The valuable black walnut and
pecan timber belongs to the nation the in
dividual may neither cut it nor sell it. The
possible mines Of her rocky hills may not be
opened, for an old statute makes the discov-
cry of a mine punishable with death. The
remembrance of their cruel ejectment from
their rich mineral lands in Georgia is thus
curiously embalmed in the law. And while
there IS no limit to the amount which a citi
zen may cultivate, he can take up for pastur
age but fifty acres, thus effectually prevent
ing the absorption of the land by great graz
ing firms Thus the Cherokee has his lane
held for him forever 10y his state. He may
sell his improvements, and he and his family
may practically reside in the same place per
manently, since the right of occupancy MAJ
be devised. This right may also be sold
But the individualizing of the land tina
would seem to be thus brought about is neu
tralized by the vast tracts of rich unoccupiet
territory waiting the industrious hand.
How thoroughly this plan has worked, a
its sanguine modern advocates would hav
us believe it always will work, is shown b.
the exact correspondence between the mum
Der of male inhabitants and the number o
dwellings 5000 eachl, and the nearly simila
number of farms and farmers, 800 farmer
on 1000 farms. Moreover the right of
woman to the land is the same as that of
man; and her husband, although not Cher
okee nor even an Indian, may acquire he
rights by marriage, and be adopted into tn
tribe. This is the only dover; for alien pre-
prietorship and Cherokee rights joined t
the pretty faces gained from a mixed India
and white ancestry, have proved a strong at
traction to many wanderer, and a herit
age Of Joy and sorrow, as it might be, t
many an Indian woman.-Anna Lauren
Dawes in Harpers Magazine.