Indian chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1882-1902, 1896-03-05

you: "Give us martial law if yoI
can't give us anything else." Mer
sickle over treaty obligations. ,
Sir, | ask you, is not the blood o
the citizens, is not the protection
of our women, of higher import
ance than treaty obligations, which
have but the binding force of stat
utes? am sick of this sent;men.
tality. 1t would have done thirty
or forty years ago.
l agree with you that a treaty
like a statute, must be maintained
when rights of property have been
vested under it. | do not want
you TO violate it. | do not want a
cents worth of property of the In
dians. | want it distributed ac.
cording to the provisions of the
treaties, but | do want a govern
ment there which will protect all
the people in their property rights
and in their lives. II you will ex-
anime these treaties YOU will fed
that in every one of them this gov
erhment reserves the right and
power to protect life and property
III the territory. We have put
courts out there with three federal
judges in their respective districts,
yet the conditions have grown
worse. The courts have been as
efficient as they could be with
their limited number of deputies:
they have done all they could; but
their dockets are overburdened.
The dockets of the courts at Paris
and FIT. Smith are groaning under
the burdens resting upon them.
And, Mr.. Chairman, you may put
federal court in every township
in that country, yet if you leave
these conflicting interests stand
ing you will not protect human
life.
If you want man to love a gov
eminent he must have some inter-
est in it. There you have 250,000
people without the right to vote,
without a sense Of allegiance to the
government under which they live,
and that government has no power
over them. Those are the con-
ditions existing there, and in the
name of the blood of 800 men in
that country, murdered in the
past year, | appeal to you as the
law making power of this govern
ment to extend its strong arm over
that part of the country | have
liven upon that border all my life.
| have gone to school with these
Indian boys. have courted, if
you please, the Indian girls.
Laughter. know these people.
Many of them | regard highly.
They are good people, as a rule,
but, like average human nature,
when they get the reins of govern
ment in their own hands they are
grasping and disposed to use 1T for
their own profit
In addition to this | might say
that | know many of the white
people in that territory, and out
of the $50, 900 large majority are
good, honest law-abldiDg people,
many of whom were unfortunate
and whose homes We're sold under
Kansas or Louisiana or
Texas or other state, who were in
vited into the Indian Territory
by these lease laws and have
leased these farms and are living
upon them These men are en-.
titled TO protection. The idea of
he United States, broad and great,
he proudest government on earth
the idea of such a government
sitting here with a territory within
is borders as large as Indiana
the national fagl Five
title tottering, lean, crippled gov
4rnments claiming to be sovereign,
higher than our flag.
| beg you to take hold of this
question with courage. Do justice
o every Indian. | say this con-
,ress ought TO put its hands upon
he threats OF these men who have
lbs rbed the lands of that terri
ory, and should distribute them
ustly among the Indians as the
reaties provide. [Applause. !
When men come to you arguing
hat existing conditions ought to be
maintained, ask them. How much
and have you?" or GLOW much
and have the men who sent you
ere?" That Is what is the troub-
e-the unjust and unequal distri-
ution of the land.
am glad, sir, that on this ques
on, nonpartisan as it is, we may
lok higher than partizanship
his is a question that appeals to
S all, to our integrity, to our pride
I'd self-respect as members of a !
reat nation. We cannot shut our {
We to the existing conditions. 1t {
the cry CT the Armenian at our {
oors. Delegates from some of :
lese territories may deny those !
iihiiipllSJ Hul EVERY COuliul>SlDl
Z have sent out TO that country |
the fact. | have read '
apers coming from the people a
lere. Sir. | have a detailed list t
eleven murders which occurred +.
/ the Cherokee nation during last |
hristmas week; yet they were not I
lough to attract public attention. {
little territory, not much larger c
ian an ordinary county, has '
even murders committed in one a
eek, and it scarcely attracts the /
Dtice of the press. t
My friends, | feel profoundly in t
irnest about this matter. | teel a
lat upon the action of this con- t
.ess rest the lives of these people. t
lie hopes of their children. the /
ersonal safety OF their women. t
'e cannot shut our eyes to the I
cts as they present themselves n
is too late 10 discuss how they b