The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-03-02
Indians and Their Court.

CoHIefE1nS tneir JuI1sOlC<iou upoa Int
United States courts. While this is all
that remains of the so-called Platt provis-
ION, the Indians are not satisfied, and are
now laying their wires to get the confer
rees to substitute the Choctaw treaty pro-
vision relating to the courts for the SEN
ate paragraph. The treay gives the fed
eral courts Jurisdiction over four kinds of
criminal offenses. including murder, arson
and rape but leaves the Indian courts
their jurisdiction to try civil and minor
cases arising among Indians. This is what
the Choctaws and their associates want in
corporated in the present bill, and they ara
talking freely about what the Indians VIII
rot do IL their courts are abolished. Il
will tend to excite much feeling against
making any treaties at all, they say. and
the result may be that the United States
will have to carry the whole matter into
court before the question Of allotment is
settled.
Friday in the senate. Senator Teller, re-
Gently returned from trip in the Indian
Territory, sad:
THE committee that WENT from this
body to the Indian Terdritorv ttok especial
pains to look into the condition of the In
dian judiciary, and think I state it mild
ly VIXEN 1 say that perhaps in no commu-
nifty in the world are there more ineffl-
Gent courts than there. 1 do not believe
should overstate 1t If I should say that
in no community in the world are there
courts so corrupt as those in that coun-
try. Numbers of citizens of that territory
came to us and presented cases of thier
individual experience in those courts. 1
recall a good many Of them, but recall
one in particular, which 1 think 1 may
mention.
"A reputable man in the Territory came
and told us that he had a contest as TO
his right to the possession of certain lands.
He went into court as the plaintiff. After
he had got into court, the judge sent him
note saying that If he would pay him
$500 he would give him the decision. The
case was to be tried by a jury. The jury
was called and the foreman of the jury. not
intending that the judge should have much
advantage of him in the way of a finan.
cit transaction, sent note to the plain
tiff's counsel, telling him that for $40 he
would give him the verdict of the jury.
This citizen, thinking that that was not
the proper way to secure justice, declined
to make the arrangement. He found the
jury against him, and of course was de-
feated.
'Mr. President, / shall not attempt to
detail the condition there. Senators know
something about it. There is not any COM
munity in the United States in any such
condition, and no such condition has ever
elsewhere existed. The crime. the murder,
theft. and other things that are going on
there are beyond comparison with any
other community that has ever existed on
this continent / do not mean to bring an
accusation against all those people There
are great many people down there who
are good people, and they are Indians,
too; but they are not those who are stand
ing with the senator from Wisconsin to-
Gay. They are the men who want 10 see
the strong hand Of the government put
out
I'VE paid those people immense sums of
money. We paid 1t. to them upon the the
ory that every Indian there participated
with every other Indian: that all men
stood alike. There can be no complaint
Of the want of benevolence and generosity
on the part OF the United States, because
We paid them more than their lands were
worth. That should be divided among
them per capita. When our committee
We're there Indians would appeal TO u.s.
and say, IF any more money is to be paid
to US, do not let it be paid through the
nation; see that 1t IS paid through Uni
ted States officer, for that is the only way
that we shall ever get it,
"Mr. President, I could take an hour 10
detail the methods by which they swindle
the poor Indians. who live in the bush and
the brush, as they were detailed to us not
by the Indians themselves, not so much
by those who had suffered, for they were
too ignorant to do that; but many of them
who had stood by and looked on knew
there was no method of redress save
through the strong hand Of the United
States.
Whatever may be said about our treat
ment of the Indians. we have dealt with
the Indians in the Indian Territory most
and magnificently. We bought
them out in Mississippi and Georgia in
lsS 1879. or 1880; we commenced negotia-
tons with them. and paid them immense
sums of money. Considering at the time
the poverty Of the American reople. the
SIMS were immense. We moved them out
to that country and gave il to them 1 do
rot krcw how mich right we had to DO |
Il; 1 believe we took It away from one
tribe OF Indians, perhaps. to give Z 70 |
another; but we gave them that land 10 |
which they lad no claim, or we paid them |
immense sums CT money. and have been |
paying them immense sums OF money |
since.
"A few months ago We paid the residue |
II 1t; and for their title, which was dis |
puted by great many we paid immense /
'ums. We have treated them in such |
, way that no complaint ought TO be made: |
md now we say 10 them: 1--WE intend /
hat every Indian in that Territory shall |
lave the same right with every other In |
Han" We find. however, that one man |
n fb-na F1f-v e
las got hundred, another man has got |
ifty. and we say: You are not CARRYING
tut the purpose for which you were put |
Ipon this land: you are not giving 10 all |
he tribes the benefit OF this great fund"
We might say 10 them. You have stolen
most Of the money paid into the hands
u your rulers; you have not stolen the
and, but YOU have stolen the usufruct OF
L"
81 know they told me that one Indian
lad 10 farms rented out, while there were
'ienty Of Indians living along the streams
'ultivating an acre or two OF land. 7
ound one man there who. 1 was told. had
N income OF $1,000 year. He Il an In
Ian under the law. but he IS a white man |
n fact. He became an Indian under the |
aw by marrying an Indian woman |
white woman who had married an Indian. |
md thus became an Indian under the law.
nd when her first husband died. she mar
led this white man, and then he became |
n Indian. He had an income. we were
cid. from the town in which he had ss:-
led. OF s,n.o0s year. and yet he had not
drop OF Indian blood IN his v4irs. rcr
TAD his wife from whom ne had derived
ais great advantage That man IL ore
Z those who are taking about the great
riue OF removing people from tie pro-
ection OF Indian law. and putting them
Indsr The protection Of the laws os the
nised States
We passed on the railroad Through a
ommun.,y where the country WAS set
"a 1