The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-10-01
Chieftain. was adopted amid rounds of
applause.
THE MEMORIAL.

uOEC tildu Il udll q CeHluTy Ol
tive local government. that we are, by
numerical strength, geographical situa-
tlon and area, natural resources and adj
vancement in the arts of civilization and
intelligence, aud in all the essential re-
quirements of good citizenship, capable
and worthy or exercising the high prerog-
atlve of fseif-government, AS obtained under
the Democratic institution of statehood.
aud that a great majority OF our people
pray for speedy relief from the unjust,
obstructive and anomalous conditions
which surround them, hereby most re-
spectfuliy and earnestly represent To the
people. congress and the president ot the
republic that it is cur desire and prayer
that the five petty sovereignties known as
the civilized tribes of the Indian Territory,
existing by right of treaty, be summarily
abolished; that the lands held by federal
patent in common by the Cherokees.
Creeks and others, be allotted in equal
prorata severaliy, with proper reservations
to bona flde citizens OF the aforesaid Indian
governments, and that the domain occu-
pied by them be made to form a part OF IA
commonwealth of the American Union,
for tbe following reasons, to-wIt:
There are.according to the report of the
United States agent for the five civilized
tribes for 1893 fully 10000 United States
citizens and about 70,0jO Indian citizens
resident in the Indian Territory, with an
annual increase since the opening of Okla
hcma in 1889 OF S per cent or the 10000
Indian citizens, according to the above
authority, one-fourth are full-bloods, the
dominant blood OF the remainder claiming
Indian decent being white, to say nothing
OF about 10000 intermarried whites and
negro freedmen who enjoy tribal rights
and are classed as citizens.
THE five civilized tribes eXpend annu-
ally $3.50, 900 in maintaining public schools.
and the value OF their school property Is,
by careful approximation taken from
the agents report, sS00G0O. The children
of the 10000 non-citiZen residents are
without educational facilities other than
those furnished at private expense, and
very many are denied any educational OPP
portunities at all, threatening large per
cent of the rising generation with shock
ing degree OF illiteracy. This class dis
crimlnatlon, as exercised against the
children of American citizens, Is discredit-
able TO our great government and future
menace to Republican institutions. Ed
ucation is the life blood of liberty
The expense of maintaining the gov
ernmeuts of the five nations, to whom
allegiance less than one-third of the resi-
dents OF the Indian territory can lay claim,
largely exceeds what would be the leglt-
mate expense of maintaining an equlta-
BILE and honest state government OF and
for the whole people, irrespective OF race
and class, over the whole OF Oklahoma and
the Indian Territory.
''These Indians to quote from the
agents report of 1892, are the worst taxed
people on the American continent The
average per capita tax paid by every man,
woman and child exceeds SO per annum.
This is an indisputable fact, that argues
strongly in favor of some change whereby
the poorer and the middle classes may be
protected against such imposition. The
full blood Indian, with an acre Of corn
and but one pony, pays the same tax to
support his government as does the inter
married white who farms thousands o.
acres and pastures tens of thousands of
cattle. The United States citizens Fay the
tribal government an enormous revenue
annually in personal taxes fo7 the privl-
lege of residence, and a tax on all mer-
chandiZe sold and business transacted IN
the country. This tax, we believe, would
OF itself defray the expense of a state gov
ernment in which all the people could par
ticipate, not to mention the burden of its
working and maintaining sembiance OF
municipal cleanliness. order and safety,
whice now falls upon private shoulders.
''Ihe abrogation of the tribal govern
ments and the allotment of the land with
inalienable safeguards are necessary to
the protection of the Indians property
anu W illdtCf Ieti "Clt
The real Indian, the governments ward,
is slight factor In the possession or
profit of the soil which is his racial birth
right. In this country are white land
lords, with tribal rights obtained through
who control from 10000 TO 40, 900
acres ana number their tenants by the
hundred. The tribal laws allow the cltl-
zens to hold all the land they can fence.
As a consequence those citizens of slight
or no Indian blood have fenced the full
blood off upon the discarded aud Worth
less lands. The intermarried white citl-
Zens of the ChickaSaw nation control
more farming land than is held by all the
fuIlblood Indians of the tribe. lu the
Cherokee nation one citizen or that Class
is said to have under fence more land than
is controlled by the entire full-b!ood popu-
lation of that nation. A great portion of
the eastern half of the territory is under
wire fence Tor the benefit of Texas cattle
syndicates and coal and timber cOpora-
tions monopolizo much OF the rest.
''Tne citizens of the tribal govern ments
are the prey of wolves within and without
the fold, who rob then. going ana coming
in securing and disbarsng their public
funds and annuities. For an instance the
late Choctaw claim, but about one-half OF
which ever reached the hands of the peo-
pie, is sufficient. That was but repeti-
tlon OF former experiences.
The politicians who control the ma
ton, aud are anxious 10 perpetuata the
same to thei1 pecuniary profit and for
the wreaking OF factioral vengeance, are
incapable of appreciating the principles
of free government, much less OF admins
tering 1t. The recent Locke insurrectlon
in the Choctaw nation, which resulted I'D
many political assassinations and required
federal intervention to prevent the execu-
ton Of partisan prisoners, is an instance
in point. These governments are mere
oligarchies for lf-aggrandizement and
publics poliation.
The Judiciary of the Indian Territory
Is piece of legal crazy-patch work. 1t
is worse. 1t is a judicial crime We have
Jurisdictions The Indians have the local
with their barbarous whippings
and executions by shooting: the In
dian agent is empowered TO enforce
certain of the federal statutes, with
police at his back; two foreign courts.
with power of life and death over our peo-
pie, sit at Fort Smith, Ark, aud Paris. |
Tex; our home federal court is little more
than big justice court, that smacns
strongly of the police court. We have so
much law that we can not tell where one
courts Jurisdiction leaves of and another's
begins We ask. in the name of justice, |
for the sake of judicial decency and econ.
omy, that We be given statehood, II for no
other reason than judicial home rule. Our
right Of trial by jury of
our peers chosen from the vlcinage Is ruth !
lessly violated; we are transported. III !
some instances, rs far as 500 miles, at an
enormous and a needless expense. To these {
foreign courts. to be tried away from home /
aud friends by jurors prejudiced against /
people and section. Men charged with the /
heinous crime of carrying whisky into the (
sacred precincts OF the Territory have sac
rificed their lives in foreign lails as the /
price OF a federal deputy marshafs mile /
age, without fair chance TO give bond, !
while the country is ovevrun with banded /