The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-12-27

| ShH hcaiSSiy pc oNcr catitHolcus PioSiu'
 cd. of course. the man making the sac
 rlfice Is absolutely impecuhious. or veal
 thy enough to follow up the singular
 advantages resulting from the alternate
 rim-stone-and-treacle policy of the
 government with regard to the Indians.
 A recently issued return shows that
 the per capita wealth In the United
 States is a little over s2o0. allowing for
 men. women and children. In the veal
 thiest known civilization in the world
 the per capita wealth is S263. wheras
 several Indian tribes are worth to-day
 $2,0s3 per head. this extraordinary un- earned wealth being distributed to the
 so-calied civilized" nations in the In-
 dian territory.
 The squaw man is not recognized
 either by the United States or by the
 Indian tribal government as an indi-
 vidual with ayote. Influence. or power.
 But, in spite of this disfranchisement,
 he acquires, by his marriage. all the
 rights of his wife; or if he does not fully
 acquire them he assumes them without
 question, One squaw man we'll known
 to the writer, was originally coal min-
 CT, working in, the mines in the Choc-
 taw nation. He married a girl of six
 teen, with both Choctaw and Cherokee
 blood In her veins. and boasted proudly that in consequence of this he was able to collect for his wife for both her tribes. Patting his breast In a very | contented manner, he remarked that he had enough of Uncle Sam's money there to fence in a good sized farm. Every dollar of the money, he explained, was to be expended forthwith for barb wire and fence posts, less a little he would
 have to reserve for labor. If he stays sober he will shortly have in possession large tract of land, capable of grow ing anything from cotton to corn or of pasturing several thousand head of cattle. His wife Is entitled to fence in this land. Strictly speaking. her hus- band has no right to lease this land out to cattle barons, but if he does so no one will interfere, and 1t will be very difficult to prove that the cattle grazing on the land do not belong to him, or, rather, to his wife. The young wife Is quite proud of her husband and holds herself high above her sister squaws who are welded to Indian bucks.
 The richest squaw man in the west left a long record behind him in the east. He holds, ostensibly as his wife's, many thousand head of cattle, which he pastures on government or Indian land free of charge. He also draws his wife's share of the pasture money due from outsiders whose cattle feed on the Indian ranges. Few of the squaw men disguise the fact that their unions with the Indians girls are more than mar riages for convenience. Most of them came into the territory with the express purpose of acquiring. .Aients by mar sfiage, and getting hold: of q portion of the government money by means of their wives. They find no difficulty. in finding sduaws willing to marry them. In a contest between an Indian and a white, man for the hand of an Indian maiden, the latter seems generally to be successfuL and it is quite evident that the lot of an Indian girl NSho marEaes a white man is fin many respects lar preferable to that of the girl who mar ries an Indian of her own or another tribe. It is well known that of late sev- eral, cattlemen have contracted mar riages with daughters of indian chiefs for the purpose ofacquiring rights nec- essary for the furtheraenlarGement of their business. ,ssszxf, I,r
 It wall hurt these squaW men finan- cially if the government allots each In- dian an amount of land and a sum of money. They will lose much of their pasture land, and will no longer collect the. grass money due their squaws. Many of the better class of Indians are beginning to appreciate this. The open ing of Oklahoma and the Cherokee strip for settlement has thoroughly con- vinced them that the present condition of affairs cannot long continue. They are overruled, however, by the majority of their tribes, which Is controlled by squaw men who have immense tracts of land under foot. These holdings would be forfeited. and the squaw men would 4 be held down to lawful grazing on a small tract instead of unlawful grazing on large tracts. To have large farm and have substantial cash price ada ed to 1t, would in itself be infinitely better to the Indian than a doubtful title to large tracts, and this would be realized but for the fact that those ] squaw men in possession of the greatest expanse of country succeed in convinc- ing all others that general policy of confiscation Is contemplated. and that if a treaty is made for statehood and al- lotment white people will be allowed to race into the'country and capture every particle of ground. ! Although the Oklahoma country was fairly acquired from the Indians by purchase and treaty the fact that it was offered Tor free settlement is quoted | against the government constantly. Few of the Indians take the trouble to | vote, The squawm control the majority of those who do vote and therefore are able to offset any outbreak of sentiment in favor of fair and final settlement of the trouble
 When the lands of the Cherokees, the Choctaws, the Creeks, and other civil- ized nations are opened for settlement, the condition of affairs will differ from what it was at the Oklahoma and