The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1898-10-12
TAMs BIxBY TALKS.
penies the wild Rumors Told AbOut the
Dawes Commission = There % no
Squaw Men = EnrolIn. .ent. Etc.

sion, is a newspaper man, Delng
editor of the Republican at Red
wing, MINI. He, therefore, knows
that a newspaper man appreciates
an opportunity to get facts In re-
gard to any public matter that is
good for publication.
Asked about the item which was
sent out from Wichita, Kan, to
the Northern papers in regard to
the enrolment of the Indians by
the commission, and the statement
made in that report that twenty
thousand 'squaw men" had been
dispossessed in the Indian Terri
tory, and that their fifty thousand
children were also to be summary
elected by an armed force, Mr..
Bixby laughed, good humoredly.
THAT item," said he, origin
ated in the fertile brain of the cor
respondent at Wichita. There IS
absolutely no truth in it. 1t seems
to have travelled over the East,
however, and the department at
Washington telegraphed us to
know on what such a statement
could have been based. and the re-
ply was that there was nothing on
which it could have been based, by
the widest stretch of fancy or the
imagination.
THE report calls intermarried
citizens of the Indian Territory
squaw men," There is no such
a person existing as a squaw man.
The white men who have married
Indian women are intermarried ci-
tizens, and if one of them has been
dispossessed, where he was gen.
timely married to an Indian woman,
| do not know when it was, or what
the circumstances were, to say moth
ing Of twenty thousand. Every
white man, or intermal1'ied citizen,
who is married to an Indian wO-
man, or a woman who is entitled
to citizenship, has been enrolled by
our commission, with the exception
of few isolated eases, where citi-
zenship was denied by the Indian
commissioners. These cases were
not refused enrolment, but they
were not enrolled at the time, and
a day was set for the hearing of
the evidence in such cases. We
have the day set in November,
when wa will meet in Ardmore to
hear such evidence, and, further
than that, we have summoned the
witnesses required by the claimant,
and will hear all the evidence, and
if the claimants are entitled to ci-
tizenship, that is, if they can prove
their claims to citizenship, they
will be enrolled. There are very
few cases Of this sort, however,
for all who have had no claim, have
dropped their cases, and there are
very few who have resided in the
Chickasaw nation but who have
been enrolled. Where they were
rejected it was on complaint urged
by the Chickasaw commissioners
who have been with us.
All this talk about the Chicka-
saws and ChOctaws being in trouble
because some thinking themselves
Chickasaws have been enrolled as
Choctaws, and vice versa, is bosh.
The treaties of the Chickasaws and
Choctaws make the special provis-
ion that a Chickasaw may take his
allotment in the Choctaw nation
or the Chickasaw nation, and vice
versa For instance, if a citizen
of the Chickasaw nation who be-
lieves himself to be a Chickasaw is
enrolled as a Choctaw under the
law, he does not have to quit his
claim and improvements in the
Chickasaw nation, but can take his
allotment there, the same as if he
had been enrolled Chickasaw ci-
tizen-that is a treaty provision.
The fact that all citizenship is
traced by the mother is not Dawes
commission ruling, but is an In
dian law, which we had to adopt.
This was the way they have deter
mined citizenship for many years,
and we adopted it. There is an
other thing, where one man has
now under his control more land
than he will be entitled to, he can
sell the improvements to the allot-
tee. A citizen who will buy the
improvements and settle on the
land, has the best claim to those
lands for allotment,
| 1t has been charged, too, by
some of the Territory and outside
papers that the Dawes commission
has refused to enroll citizens who
c,..1 =. a a.. H. 1onc m