Indian chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1882-1902, 1893-11-30
rHn REAL SITUATION.

prey ofoutside influences.
We live in the midst of, and are
part of a great republican govern
ment that is operated and exists
solely on the plan Of individual
rights to soil and personal prop.
erty. Our system may or may
not be the correct one; 1T is at vari-
ance with that with which we are
surrounded. The keynote to
American pride, and citizenship is
the recognized power of individual
liberty. If the United States had
attempted, after she had secured
her independence, to have main
tanned her government under a
communal system, she would have
gone down in anarchy and chaos
in ten years. The stability and
character of any government may
be measured by the number and
permanency of its homes. The
kind of homes that make strong
and invincible governments are
not built in common, but on indi-
vidual possessions. Abraham
pitched his tents toward the
valley Of the Jordan" because he
could call the land in that direction
his own, and Lot had gone with
his flocks and herds in another
direction. There is something in
the human makeup that Graves
ownership, and the title to the
home should be in the possession
OF those who occupy it. Again:
holding land in common encour-
ages and develops a disposition~in
many 10 monopolize. There are
people in this nation who are so
grasping and so eager to get all
the land they can that they have
actually lost sight of other peoples s
rights altogether. There are men
here who are occupying as much
land and getting as many priv.
iliges as a hundred citizens are
entitled to, and nothing short of a
decree of the higest court accessible
will ever induce them to let go and
disgorge, and recognize the rights
of others. Our system breeds,
and multiplies, and builds up just
such characters. If the rising
generation Of Cherokee citizens
our boys and girls-ever get homes
in land in which they are equally
interested they will have to go in
to the courts and contend for them
for the land is surely and rapidly
passing into the hands of few
people.
1t has been argued that allot-
ment is a white man scheme for
robbing the Indian and forcing up
on him a system of government to
which he is unused and of which
he is totally ignorant. To this we
reply: This nation is Anglo. Saxon
by a large majority. The most of
its blood is Anglo-Saxon. Its laws
are clean-cut, Anglo-Saxon Eng
lish. It's politics and its politi-
clans are Anglo. Saxon after the
strictest sect and we have a Talley.
rand in almost every neighbor-
hood. Therefore if it is a white
man scheme it has white men to
cope with; it would be diamond
cut diamond"
And yet again: We have in
truders here by the thousand,
people whom we do not recognize
as having rights, people whom we
know have no rights in the coun-
try, and we have just traded six
and one-half million acres of land
to the general government and the
chief stipulation is the removal of
a part of these intruders from the
country, that we may get posses
sion OF our home tract.
Why are these intruders here?
Why have these people come in
here and settled or squatted on
our land-land that we persuaded
ourselves we were holding in re-
serve for our children?
They are here because we have
induced them to come; induced
them by leaving our estate un-
divided; induced them by ad init.
ting some Of them to citizenship for
money; induced them by sending
our attorneys into the states TO
hunt them up and persuade them
to come in and claim rights here,
whether they had any or not. The
desire for acquiring something fol
nothing is very strong in the
human makeup. The bare pos
sibility of getting a slice Of the
Indians land has caused many q
man TO perjure himself, and spoil
his chances in this world and ir
the next. But just as long as there