The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1898-10-30

patent, and which shall be inalien-
able for n years from date or pat
ent. Selections for honesteads for
minors to be made as prC 5ided here
in in case of allotments; aid the re-
mainder OF the lands allotted to said
members shall be alIenRbIe for q
price to be actually paid, and to in
clude no former indebtedness or OBJ
ligation-one fourth Of said remain
der in one year. one-fourth in three
years and the balances of said alien
able lands in i've years from the
date OF the patent. That all con-
tracts looking to the sale or encum-
brance in any way of the land of the
allottee, except the sales hereinbe-
fore provided, shall be null and void.
No allottee shall lease his allotment
or any portion thereof for a longer
period than FIVE years, and then
without the privilege OF renewal"
THE SALES RESTRICTED.
That is to say, each Chickasaw
and Choctaw Indian, allowing the
quota to be 500 acres, will have 100
acres he can not sell for 21 years,
s5 acres he can sell in one year, S5
acres in three years and ITO acres
in five years from the date of. his
patent.
The Greek Indiane have made q
treaty on which they will vote No
vember /. which iG 10 believed they
viii ratify. That treaty provides
that each Indian shall have $50 acres
of land which he can dispose of as
he sees flt tafter he secures his patent.
There are no restrictions at all on
the sale of their lands by the Greeks
after the title has been conveyed by
the tribe to the individual.
The Cherokees have made no
treaty yet, though it is believed they
will do SO before long, as they can
secure more satisfactory terms nm
der a treaty than they now receive
under the Curtis bill.
THE SITUATION IN SHORT.
A general resume of the land situ-
alton III the Territory therefore
Shove:
First, there is no land to be OBJ
tanned now in any way.
Second, there never will be any
land open to free settlement.
Third, after the negotiations now
in progress between the United
States and the Five Tribes shall have
been finished and all the provisions
of the agreements made shall have
been carried into effect there will be
Indian lands for sale in all the ma
tions in the Territory.
Fourth, it will be in all probability
at least year before non citizen
can even rent of an Indian his allot-
ment. and possibly two years before
the first Indian lands can be bought
in the Territory by an outsider.
A glance at the treaties shows
great possibilities Of development
for the Indian Territory after the al
lotments are made. There will be
thousands of acres of good land for
sale at a reasonable price, for, while
the Indians are sarewd traders and
fully aware of the value of their
property, the very quantity of the
land will necessarily keep the price
asked within reason. Hundreds
of white farmers will enter the
Territory as soon as the lands
are on the market, ard the
fact that the land must be
bought will insure q very good
class of incoming settlers. Many
farmers from surrounding states
have already visited the territory
and looked the country over with a
view to settling here later on.
THE INDIAN TERRIToRY's FUTURE.
Roughly estimated, the white popu-
lation of the territory is now nearly
800 600; and there are about 75, 900
Indian citizens, not Cv0r 40, GOO of
whom are full-bloois. The Indians
are rapidly amalgamating with the
white and negro elements in their
tribes. 1t is a safe prediction to
make that if the Indian land wers
disposed of in seveialty, the Indians
made citizens of the United States
and the Indian territory given a reg
ular constitutional territorial form of
government that inside of five years
from such transformation the white
population would reach over a half
million and compare favorably in in
telligence and prosperity with any
community in the West of equal
size.
There are about 20 million acres of
land in ths Indian territory, of which
the Indians will probably haye the
right to sell 10 million acres when
the present treaties are completed