Evening star., 1895-05-14
LANDS FOR SETTLERS
The Kickapoo Indian Reservation to
Be Opened.
4 MAGNIFICENT PARK WITH RICH SOIL
The Government Bought It for 80
Cents an Acre.
WORTH MANY TIMES THAT
| MAGNIFICENT PARK WITH RICH SOIL
WORTH MANY TIMES THAT

Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
ARKANSAS CITY, Kan, May IL, 1895.
Washington dispatches announcing that
President Cleveland will issue his procla-
nation opening the Kickapoo Indian reser-
walton to settlement within the next thirty
days has caused a general movement sll
along the southern line Of Kansas among
those who desire portion of this rich and
fertile land The announcement also that
the Wichita, Kiowa, Comanche and Apache
reservations will not be opened to settle
ment this year serves to increase The de-
sire among home hunters to get a slice of
the Kickapoos' land. There are only 100000
acres in the Kickapoo reservation. If the
white settlers could occupy every acre and
their holdings divided into SO-acre tracts,
only $500 men could secure homes there.
Twice this number will be found within
radius of ten miles Of Arkansas City who
will make the race for homesteads. This
is only one point ou: of dozen where the
boomers are beginning to gather for the
great race.
1t is not strange that the boomers covet
the Kickapoo land. The entire reservation
is simply a magnificent park. Along its
western border, which sants to the south
east runs the South Canadian river, on
the eastern bank of which, in the Kickapoo
country, is a succession of rich bottom
lands, with soil black and rich as Illi-
nois prairie loan. The central and eastern
portions of the country are high prairie
land interspersed with timber. Among the
woods 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 brouSe until they fairly
roll in fat. The Indians raise corn and
peanuts. and are content to get along with
just enough to live on. Unlike the oSages
and other tribes, they have 20 thouSnt OF
the morrow. Laying up something FOR a
rainy day" is a maxim unknown in KICK
apoo land.
There will be a great rush for this little
strip of land when the President issues his
proclamation. Already hundreds of boom
ers are camped around the borders CT the
reservation ready for the race. Many
have picked out their claims, and unless
the government stations standing army
around the little strip Of land "sooncrs" by
the score will slip in and squat upon all the
most desirable tracts. and when the great
army of home hunters get there they will
find only disappointment, as did hundreds
VINO made the race into the Cherokee strip.
Purchasing thc Lands.
In the summer of 1891 the so-called
Cherokee commission. composed of David
H. jerome, Warren G. Sayer and Alfred
NJ. Wilson, went to them to purchase their
lands. The Kickapoos absolutely refused
TO deal with them, and a lawyer by the
name of John 7. Hill, who is said to be re-
lated to the Creek nation by marriage, was
employed by the commission to act as at
torney for the Indians. The result of the
dealings, which occupied about two weeks,
was a treaty purporting to be signed by the
leading Indians of the tribe by their mark
and certified to by the interpreter, Joseph
Whipple, a mixed-blood, who avowed that
he truly translated the contents of the
treaty in council assembled and that they
ra titled, and of their own volition, signed 1t.
The treaty states in substance and effect
that the Indians are to receive eighty acres
of land each, regardless of age or sex, and
.i.at tribe Is TO receive, as a tribe, $64.-
$50. This places valuation of about 32
cents an acre on body of land more valu-
able, for agricultural purposes. than any
land SO far opened for settlement in the
Indian territory. 1t appears that J. T.
Hill, who acted as the attorney for the
Indians at the suggestion of the commits
sion, advised the Indians to sell for
thrty-two cents an acre land that Is
worth five times as much as that in
the Cherokee strip, which was sold to the
United States for about 81 80 an acre. For
this service. which was more valuable to
the government than to the Indians, Hill
got al agreement from the Indians to pay
him about S5,g9. and he managed it so
that the congressional bill ratifying the
treaty withhoIds this sum from the amount
due the Indians for their lands.
Trying to RepuIiatc the Treaty.
Immediately after the meaning of the
treaty became known the Kickapoos sent
two of their number to Washington to pro-
test to the Great Father, in.whom. by the
way, they have very little faith. This
committee consisted Of Ockinokisa, a
shrewd Kickapoo, who speaks little En-
slish, and Wershihoon the secretary and
judge of the tribe Wershihoon is a smart
Kickapoo, but he does not understand En-
gIish and is no match for the white man.
AS the story runs. Ockinokjsa was in
structed in council of the kickapoos to
renounce the treaty and to tell the Great
Father that the Indians had been deceived
in the translation of the treaty, and that
they did not want to sell their lands.
Wershihoon was sent along to corroborate
this statement, as the special representa-
tive OF Wa-pa-ma-sha. the blind chief of
the KiclapooS.
When these two envoys got to Washing
ton, Ockinokisa. who had been fixed" by
interested persons before he left home, rep
resented himself as being chief of the tribe,
and told the Great Father that the treaty
vas all right, and. through his interpreta-
ton. made Wershihoon say the same thing.
These facts leaked out through Agent Pat
rick, at the Sac and Fox agency, who
noticed that mail from Washington was
addressed to Ockinokisa, instead Of Wa
pa-ma-sha, the blind chief. This greatly
anSered the Indians. and a big pow-wow
was held, which was attended by 3o4 men,
bers of the tribe. nearly every one in 1t.
The treachery of the two representatives
was discussed and roundly denounced. A
subscription Of $62 was raised to defray the
expenses Of another representative to
Washington. and accordingly a young buck
was delegated to make the Journey He
got as far as Kansas City. There he filled
up OF bad liquor. and squandered the
money. and was forced to beg sufficient
funds to get back to the reservation.
The Governments Terrible Children.
The Kickapoos were once warlike tribe,
but they are rapidly degenerating. They
are the only full-blood, undiluted tribe in
the territory. They have been great an
noyance to the government. About fifty
years ago they were removed from their
reservation in Missouri to the present site
of old Kickapoo. near Leavenworth, Kan.
From there they decamped into New
Mexico. and from that rendezvous they
raided Texas and Mexico, and it was only
after the Mexican government had de-
mandpd of ba ifed hot bax