The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-10-15
FREE aoMEsTEADs IN THE OUTLET

To the Editor OF the Eagle.
Now that the president has refused to
direct the payment of the three and a
half millions which the last congress
attempted to donate to the Choctaws
and Chickasaws for an imaginary inter-
est which they were supposed to have in
lands west of the Ninety -eighth meridian,
home seekers on the Cherokee outlet can
| feel encouraged in their campaign for
free homesteads. The payment of this
amount to these Indians would be equiv
alent to plundering of the treasury of SO
many millions, as the Choctaws and
Chicasaws by Article of the treaty of
June %, 1866, in consideration of $780,
900, leased this land to the government
to settle Indians on, and by Article of
the treaty of April %, 1866, in considera-
ton of $500, 600 more, coded it outright
This refusal of the president to approve
the payment of the three and half
millions to these Indians, for their right
to land long since coded to the United
States, is step in the right direction, as
it indicates that he is opposed to further
=
millions to Indians for imaginary rights.
The proposed payment of seven mill
ions to the Cherokees for their right to
the outlet would be a similar attempt to
loot the treasury, with the additional
crime of seeking to force the burden of
repayment from the poor people of the
southwest. Against such crimes cannot
the toilers and homeseekers of this cOun-
l. 20 h.
In face of the decisions of the courts.
and the opinions of the best law officers
of the government that the Cherokees
had no title to the outlet, the report
comes that the commission will attempt
further negotions with them at Tahleouah
in November, and the absurd claim is
put forth that congress in authorizing
the commission to negotiate with the
Cherokee5 has invested them with title
Such a claim is not worth considering as
titles to real estate are not created by
inference. The jurisdiction of the gov
eminent over this track has been COM
plete since its abandonment as an outlet
by the Cherokees in 1855 and the open |
ing of it to settlement is a home ques- |
ton to thousands in the southwest today. |
Three fourths of the homeseekers there !
will be Union soldiers, or the sons of |
such with growing families, and in de-
free homesteads for landless
millions we are only asking for the |
honest carrying out of the land policy Of |
our government for the past thirty years, |
and of laws that stand unrepealed, and |
which no political party dare5 to openly |
attack.
We believe this question of free home
steads in the outlet bears directly on our
rights as American citizens under laws |
already standing on the statute book of |
the nation. We want homes there under
the homestead laws, with title at the
rates homestead settlers on the public
domain elsewhere have been given. We
want leave to build houses and barns,
leave to plant orchards and vineyards,
liberty for us, for our wives and children
to sit under our own vines and fruit
trees and to enjoy the fruits of our own
labor, instead of contributing it to swell
the fortunes of the Cherokses already
rich in lands, moneys ana cattle.
j. P. J.