Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1891-02-14
sO0NERS WARNED.
The Same Law and Regulators wm Gov.
srn the New Additions to Oklahouns
That Operated With the First
Opening to Settlement,
AIle,ments to Individual Indians Must be
First Made-Tken There Are Other
Lands Which Will be Ready
to Come In Together.

WAsH1SGroS. D. c., February 11.-Tha
boomers who are reported to be invading the
Sac and Fox and Iowa reservations might az
well save themselves considerable trouble
and expense by remaining out until the lands
are formally open to settlement The inte-
rior department will apply the same regula-
tons in the case of these lands as it did when
| Oklahoma was opened. It will be reEnem-
bered that prior to the 22d of April, 1889, the
Date of the opening of Oklahoma, many
boomers invaded that territory and they
were promptly removed by aid OF the troops.
A few who evaded discovery have passed into
official history as ''sooners," and the deci-
SioDs Of the department have been uniyer-
sally against them.
The act under which Oklahoma was created
and the land opened to settlement prohibited
persons who had entered in advance of the
prescribed tune from acquiring title, and
that rule has been strictly adhered to by the
department.. The same act authorized the
purchase and settlement of the Sac and Fox
and Iowa lands, and the act which. passed
February Z merely ratified the treaty by
which they were secured. Prohibition against
the "sooners" applies to the boomers who
are now invading these reservations.
The secretary of the interior held that un
proclamation no settlements even by squat
ter sovereignty can be effected, and those
persons who enter upon the lands prior to
the date fixed in the proclamation which may
be issued will forfeit their rights as entry
men; meanwhile they will nOt be permitted
to remain on the land.
Reports from Guthrie indicate that the
boomers, or "sooners,' as they might be
more properly termed, are invading the two
reservations in anticipation of early opening
TO settlement. Unless they remove them
selves, however, the aid of the military will
be invoked and all intru6ers will be elected.
1t might interest the persons to know that
the allotments to the Indians must be made
before the lands can be opened. THIS will
take some time, the limit fixed by the treaty
being four months. This would place the
date of opening as far away as the 10th or
18th OF June, and it is not IMPROBABLE that
the land may not be thrown open to settle
ment until early autumn. 1t is expected that
the Pottawatomie and Cheyenne and Arapa-
hoe reservations will also be in readiness to
be thrown open to settlement by that time.
The bills to ratify these two treaties have
been consolidated and are embodied in an
omnibus measure which includes the treaties
with the Sisseton and Wahpeton Indians, of
North Dakota, and the COuer de Alene In
dams, of Oregon, as well. The indications
are that this omnibus bill will be passed to-
wards the close of the present session, in
which event the area of land to be thrown
open to settlement in Oklahoma territory
will be greatly increased, including, as it
would, all of the reservations east of Okla
homa proper except the Kickapoo land and
nearly all of the land west of Oklahoma as
now constituted.