Indian chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1882-1902, 1895-06-13

The Council and not the Constitution
at Fault. ~


Cherokee nation, or, estimating
the citizen population of the ma.
ton at twenty.seven thousand,
there are thirty.seven acres Of
good land to the head. Four-tiiths
of the Cherokee country is what is
called barren country-rocky,
mountainous, dry, shallow, unpro-
ductive, worthless. Now, our
method or form of government is
such that any citizen Of the nation
is sure of a comfortable home, if
he wants it, and if the national
council doesn't let greedy citizens
deprive him of it by monopolizing
improvements. To say that any
man or woman does not want a
comfortable home to go to, would
be to insult human nature. OF
course every Cherokee citizen
vents one of his own, and so
he is as Independent as any
body else. Now every cit
izen is entitled to just so
much of that million acres rs it
will take to furnish him with that
blessing, and no more. That is to
say, the peculiar and superlative
merit of the constitution of the
Cherokee nation is this. Each
and every citizen is designed to
have secured to him, beyond per-
adventure, when he wants it and
as long as he wants it, enough OF
the common domain to make for
him, or her a home, where a reas.
enable amount of industry will
supply everything needed for his
subsistence and comfort-the bal
ance Of the country-if there
should be any balance-being
placed by the council under such
regulations as will secure TO every
owner in common his or her just
and fair proportion of whatever
benefit can be derived from that
balance under these regulations.
With an assurance given them
and our Cherokee government
gives it-c:tizens of the Cherokee
nation, one and all, are absolute
ly independent, so iar as it is pos
sible for human beings to be, and
care free and equal" as anybody
or people on earth in the sense that
Jefferson used those terms in the
Declaration of Independence.
1t is thus plain to us that the
Constitution or form Of govern
ment of the Cherokee nation is the
best in the world. In the Estates, "
one wealthy person is allowed TO
absorb to himself by purchase and
by taking advantage of the neces-
sites, the misfortunes, the igno-
rance or the errors of others,
enough land to make fifty others
free and happy and leaving them
none at all.
This sort of thing is called
holding land in severalty" and
is recommended to Cherokees by
their white friends" 1t is de-
scended from the time when kings
were supposed to own the earth
and to have in subjection to their
royal selves all the rest OF man.
kind, by "divine right"
When the colonies revolted
against the despotism of England
and George III, they could prate
very finely about all men being
free and equal. but the tyranny
which allowed one man to hold a
hundred thousand acres by title
derived from the king, while q
thousand might 60 without, who
had nothing to buy with, was as
hard to deal with then as that
other tyranny which it took SO
much blood and treasure to rem.
edy about seventy five years after
wards.
AS luck had it, the Cherokees
never had any backward steps IL
take; no such social disease to cure,
no such abuses TO rectify. When
they framed their government. on
the "free and equal" principle, they
were able to suit the deed to the
word, to preach and practice alike,
and they recognized and acted on
the plain and simple truth that
the earth was granted to mankind
by their Creator without respect OF
persons, to labor and live on, and
inasmnch as its cultivation was
absolutely necessary to comfortable
existence, the right to cultivate il
to that extent was an lnalienable
right, the same as the right to air
and to water.
Experience would have justified
the wisdom and the foresight oi
our forefathers of the constitution
hau it not been for the almost in
credible remission of the national
council for a number of years past.
Our ancestors expected when they
secured citizens in the right Ia
their Improvements, that certain
greedy ones would attempt to mo
nopolize improvements. For what
reason else did they empower the
the legislature to prevent or re,
strain such monopoly by law2 But
the national council has silently
looked on while greedy citizens
have fenced and improved a
hundred times more Of the com
mon land than they need, while
ten or a hundred citizens are pul
TO the risk of eventually having
no land at all to farm and improve,
if something is not done. What il
the matter with the council? Doei
it expect the greedy ones to re,
strain themselyes2 Alas, Alasl II