The Penn's Grove record., 1893-12-15
| EVE CIVILIZED TRIBES
INDIANS WHO HAVE LEARNED
THE WHITE MANS LESSONS.
White Men Getting Head Rights" b,
Marrying Indian Girls-The In
Han Form OF GoYernment.

did any other Indian landhold
ers-very much longer than any one
thirty years ago ever thought he would.
Their area has been pared down on every
side, wherever an excuse could be mad
by loose or broad, strict or latitudinarian
construction OF laws and treaties, and
still the FIVE Nations owns some 90
900, 900 acres of land, or about 30,O0J
square miles.
And there are certainly not more than
65, 600 to hold it, including people oil
all %colors. Just how many Of the IS,
900 are full. blooded Indians it would bt
hard to say. The traveller along the
main roads get tho impression that they
are not as one in ten, even In q district
where they have q majority.
Big coal. mining companies, big cattle
| companies and big ''citizens" OF the
| Nations who have been able to fence 10
large tracts practically W more than
half of it. And most of these "citi.
zens" are white, or nearly so, for all the
Nations, the Cherokces especially, have
been absorbing white blood ever sire:
they were discovered. OF late years
hundreds or thousands of enterprising
Young lei from the adjacent States
have married Indian girls to get ''head
rights" in some Nation and a chance 81
the land. In the Chicksaw Nation these
people are known by the fat title Of
tssquaw men," but the other Nations,
more civilized, call them ~s'adopted citi.
zens." These and the d~escendents Of
men like these make up the majority oil
the citizens of the five Nations.
But among the Cherokees there is {
far more honorable white ancestry.
White missionaries settled in the tribe
early in the Eighteenth Century, and
Nhite children taken in war were adop-
led. When the Revolutionary War closed
the best class OF the Tories in the Caro-.
linas gathered up their movables, 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 TahlequAh or Atoka it
gives him stquite q turn to see a man
as white as Tom Reed welding ii
Speakers gavel. John Ross was by fa
the most noted Cherokee of his time.
He was as white as Abraham Lincoln.
The present Speaker of the Cherokee
House is w. ID. Clark, a white man with
no trace of Indian blood, dark.eyed,
chin. whiskered, nervous aud business
like, with a look in his face that says hd
would just as lief fight as not. Ha
pushes the council along in great style.
All the FIVE Governments are republic
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 oil
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 thei
present chief is Wilson N. Jones, Of the
Ok-la.fa-lay-a clan. He was born Ia
Mississippi, where there were man!
Choctaws Of that clan, but his fathei
came to the Territory when the present
chief was but two years old. Chief JoneI
lives eighteen miles from Caddo. II,
receives q salary Of $4,000 a year, bu|
doesn't need it, for he is a very rich
man. Although quite light-colored hs
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 al
eagles" aud "Buzzaris," and the
former, the progressive, are o 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 coaI
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 ], 1000,
900 tons annually. The Choctaw mining
laws allow a 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 bushei 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 ssowner" 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 a use whatever
land he fences in, provided he leaves q
certain amount OF vacant land between
him and the next occupant. But thii
last prosiso is SO generally disregaried
that there is great confusion.
The Choctaw pasture laws allow the
fencing by each citizen of one squar.
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 a
family, aud the result is found in some
almost endless pastures. In fact, these
land laws receive about as much atten-
tion as Indian laws generally. A Choc-
taw when he wants pasture land takes
what he pleases. Many of the citizen
landholders 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 H..
1877 Choctaws, and they have 16, $50
square miles, they could run along in this
careless fashion for quite a while il white
men would let them.
White men are not in the habit of let.
ting a good thing alone. There are al.
ready some thousands of coal miners Ia
the Nation, and the Choctaw Govern.
ment receives in royalties on coal about
$4,000 per year. The Nation has
many other sources OF official income
and is rich without taxation. There is
q fee Of 500 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.
A Ouee Pronosaf.