The morning news., 1894-09-21
THE EICEAPOO COUNTRY.
4 Reservation Much Coveted BIZ the
Whites.

Which Would Virtually Give the
Land to the Battle Barons, Should it
Become a CharaCteristi of
a Tribe Whose Sun is Nearly Set.
From the St Louis Republic.
Guthrie, Ok, Sept l3.-The provisions
of the McRae bill to sell the public lands
in the Eickapoo Reservation at public
auction, aud to the highest bidder, are re-
Earded here as being directly in the in
terest of the cattlemen. who desire to
secure possession of those rich agricult-
ural lands. The settlers who are waiting,
in the territory and in adjoining states,
10 enter the hickapOO country and secure
hOmesteads. propose to organize and send
to Washington a representative commit
tee TO defeat this bill, which they say
will be pressed for passage on the assem-
bling of Congress in December
When the bill was pending before the
last congress q powerful lobby of cattle
men was there working for its passage.
The representatives Of the several thou
sand settlers who are waiting To take
hOmeSteads in the kickapOO country will
lay before congress the facts that the Nc
Rae bill is in the interest of few cattle
outrage against the poor citizens who are
clamoring for homes in this, almost the
last, distribution of the public domain.
The people here feel that the PROPOSE
tion to sell these lands to a few wealthy Y
cattlemen, and thus deprive settlers of
hemesteads, is a violation of the spirit of
the law already passed by congress gov
erning the disposal of the public domain.
A MAGNIFICENT COUNTRY.
The greed of the rich cattlemen is not
to be wondered at. They know the value
OF the kickapOo country for cattle rails
ing and grazing purposes. The reserva-
tion, consisting of 100000 acres, is simply
a magnificent park. Along its western
border, which gently slauts to the south
west, runs the South Canadian river, on
the eastern bank of which, in the Kicka-
poo country, is a succession of rich bot
tom lands with soil as black and rich as
Illinois prairie loan. The central and
eastern portions of the reservation are
high prairie lands, interspersed with
timber. Among the wooded sections are
beautiful circular glades, in which the
tall, sweet blue stem grasses wave in the
wind. In these glades punches of Indian
ponies and cattle have browsed until
they fairly roll in fat
Along the eastern border, where it ad-
joins the Sac and Fox country, there is
very little timber, but the land Is rich,
and Will make as tine farming country as
can be found in all this territory. In the
northern part of the country is a region
covered with blackjack oak, which never
grows luXurianJly unless it has plenty of
sand. 1t is the continuation of the sand
ridge in the PottawGtomie country, upon
which can be grown almost any kind of
crop.
The Kickapoo Indian is constitutionally
lazy. In the Canadian bottoms they grow
little patches of corn. When they have
planted the corn they think they have
done their duty, and as a result they
scorn cultivation, and weeds and wild
sunhowers keep pace with the growth of
the corn The peanut industry is a prof
liable one III the Kickapoo country, but
the Indians do not make as much money
out of it as they could A corner is re-
served in every corntield for peanuts and
the farmers in the Pottawatomie country
grow this crop in abundance, which the
hickapoo Indians gather on shares.
QUEER TRIBE.
The Kickapoo5 are a queer tribe. Their
manners and customs, their houses and
home life differ from those of other In
dianS in this territory. The average
hickapoO residence is of one room, about
l5X20 feet square. The walls are about
eight feet high, and the roof is pitched at
an angle of - degrees.
The sticl1ler for fresh air could not OBJ
ject to the amount of ozone that gets into
the kickapCO houses. The walls are made
of willow sapHugs, and OF course one half
Of the space is cracks After the heavy
corner posts, made from hewn trees are
sunk in the ground, striugers are laid all
around and fastened to the top of the
posts with strips Of plant bark. The
walls are then made with willow saplings,
which are sunk in the ground and their
tops lashed to the stringers. The ridge
pole lies upon two notched trees, and
long, straight saplings, as large as a man 5
wrist, are laid closely from the ridge to
the stringers. Then big pieces of bark
and river rushes are laid on the roof and
carefully fastened down with strips OF
bark and hide
In the summer the bark and rushes are
taken from the sides of the building
which allows the free passage of air. In
the middle of the smooth, hard earthen
floor a shallow hole is scOoped for the fire
Around three sides of the room is wide
table ABOUT four feet from the ground and
about four feet wide. This is made of
small willow saplings, as big around as a
man finger, fastened to StringerS which
rest upon notched logs set in the ground.
IL is as sprlngy as mattress and serves
as a ped, as Storage-rOOm for saddles
and other property, as a table and as a
dog kennel. On it the brave KickapOo
eX-warriOr and his numerous following OF
squaws and dogs take their rest on piles
of rush mats.
When stern winter comes the Kicka-
poo hangs mats made of rushes along his
walls, which renders his lodge warm and
coy Winter in Kickapoo land is not
severe, but the occasional blizzard drives
the braves from their hunting grounds
into their rude but comfortable homes
where the chilling blasts are not felt.
KICKAPoo SUPERSTITION.
The roof of the Kickapoo's house is ex
tended to the roof of his arbor, or sum
merhouse, which always ad joins the
house at the east side, because the door
Of the kickapoo house always faces The
east. This custom grows out of super
stitiOn prevalent among these curious In
dams. They believe that good Indians
when they die go over the horizon
towards the happy hunting grounds in
the far west, but that the spirits of the
bad Indians remain in the land of their
birth, live at the bottom of lakes and riv-
ers in daytime and come up at night tC
hover over the prairie and stink through
the woods. They tell you that out of the
east comes life, and into the west COOS
death In color the east is represented
red, meaning life, strength and war, and
the west by black. For this reason the
kickapoo invariably builds the door OF
his house to face the east