Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1893-12-20
FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES
INDIANS WHO HAVE LEARNED
THE WHITE MANS LESSONS.
White Men Getting Head Rights" by
Marrying Indian Girls-The In
dian Form OF Government

ers-yery much longer than any ona
thirty years ago ever thought he would.
Their area has been pared down on ever
side, wherever an excuse could be madr
by loose or broad, strict or latitudinarian
construction of laws and treaties, aud
still the five Nations owns some 20,-
600, 900 acres Of land, or about so, ,00J
square miles.
And there are certainly not more than
65, 900 to hold it, including people OF
all colors. Just how many OF the Co.,
900 are full-blooded Indians it would bs
hard to say. The traveller along the
main roads get the impression that they
are not as one in ten, even in district
where they have majority.
Big coal-mining companies, big csttls
companies and big "citizeus" of the
Nations who have been able to fence in
large tracts practically own more than
half of it. And most of these "citi.
zens" are white, or nearly so, for all the
Nations, the Cherokees especially, have
been absorbing white blood ever sipc:
they were discovered. OF late years
hundreds or thousands of enterprisins
have plarried Indian girls TO get "head
rights" in some Nation and chance at
the land. In the Chicksaw Nation these
people are known by the fiat title oil
"squaw men," but the other Nations,
more civilized. call them ''adopted citi.
zens." These and the descendents oi
men like these make up the majority OF
the citizens of the five Nations.
But among the Cherokees there is Q
far more honorable white ancestry.
White missionaries settled in the tribe
early in the Eighteenth Century, and
white children taken In war were adop-
ted. When the Revolutionary War closed
the best class OF the Tories in the Caro-
linas gathered up their movsbles, crossed
the mountains and located among the
Cherokees In upper Georgia. Hence tho
prevalence OF Scotch names in that tribe,
One reads Of Indian Legislatures, and
when he reaches Tahleqush or Atoka it
gives him "quite a turn to see a man
as white as Tom Reed welding tn /
Speakers gavel. John Ross was By ia /,
the most noted Cherokee Of his time.
He was as white as Abraham Lincoln,
The present Speaker of the Cherokee !
House is w. d. Clark, a white man with
no trace of Indian blood, dark-eyed,
chin -whiskered, nervous and business,
like, with a look in his face that says ht
would just as lief fight as not. He
pushes the council along in great style.
All the five Governments are republi-
can in form, but native titles are re-
tanned. Thus, the head of the nation il
called Principal Chief, his vice Is Second
Chief and the Legislature consists of a
House of Kings and a House of War
riors. In the legislative records of the
Cherokees one often sees the names Of
Black Fox, Pathkiller, Turtle at Home
Young Wolf, Bark Flute, Big Rafting
Gourd and Softshell Turtle. Among
the other Nations it is much the same,
though English names are rapidly in.
creasing.
Next to the Cherokees in tribal i'm
portance are the Choctaws, aud tleD
present chief Is Wilson n. Jones, of the
Ok-la.fa-lay-a clan. He was born il
Mississippi, where there were mani
Choctaws of that clan, but his fathe
came to the Territory when the presen
chef was but two years old. Chief Jone
live. eighteen miles from Caddo. H..
receives a salary of $1,000 a year, but
doesn't need it, for he is q very rich
man. Although quite light-colored he
is very much of a Choctaw, for he speaks
scarcely any English. He made his for.
tune in trade and cattle raising.
The two political parties in the Choc,
taw Nation are known to each other a;
Eagles" and "Buzzaris," and the
former, the progressive, are now in
power. Although the land in the Choc-
taw country is good enough to make
whites eager for it, the great object,
especially with the railroads and speculs.
tors, is coal. There seems to be fine coal
everywhere in the Choctaw country. 1t
has been mined there in greater or less
quantities for twenty five years. The
present output is something over l, 900,
900 tons annually. The Choctaw mining
laws allow citizen who discovers a coal
deposit to lay claim to it and to the land
for one mile about it. This claim must
be recorded with the County Clerk.
The Nation demands a royalty of hall
a cent per bushel on all coal mined, and
the owner of the land gets another roy
atty, so there is much strife about titles,
and an awful amount of perjury.
The word "owner" is used for con.
venience, as 1t is no easy thing to get
any kind of title. By the laws of all
the Nations any man can use whatever
land he fences in, provided he leaves q
certain amount OF vacant land between
him and the next occupant. But thi,
last prosiso is so generally disregaried
that there is great confusion.
The Choctaw pasture laws allow the
fencing by each citizen of one square
mile of land, requiring that roadway be
left between all pastures. The citizen:
frequently interpret the law to mean one
square mile of land for each member of
family, and the result is found in some
almost endless pastures. In fact, these
land laws receive about as much atten-
ton as Indian laws generally. A Choc-
taw when he wants pasture land takes
what he pleases. Many of the cilizen
iandholders lease their claims to nom
resident farmers at fifteen cents an acre,
and these non-citizens raise fine crops of
cotton and corn. As there are but IA
3s7 Choctaws, and they have 16, ,450
square miles, they could run along in this
careless fashion for quite while if white
men would let them.
White men are not in the habit OF let.
! ting good thing alone. There are al
ready some thousands of coal miners in
the Nation, and the Choctaw Govern.
Inent receives in royalties on coal about
sllO, 600 per year. The Nation has
many other sources of official income
and is rich without taxation. There is
fee of S1OO charged for any white man
who marries a Choctaw girl, but the
practice now is for the couple to elope
to Texas, marry there, return and claim
"head rights. New York Advertiser.