The herald., 1898-03-20
TO SELL THEIR LANDS.
Believe That Their Territory Will
Soon Be Invaded and That Con-
gress Will Abolish Their
Government
LED BY INDIAN AGENT WISDOM

The extraordinary spectacle of nearly
$4,000 full-blood Indians migrating from
Indian Territory to old Mexico, is to be
looked for about April. The commit
tees sent to Mexico last December
have just returned and made their re-
port. There were eight delegates, and
they all agree that the plan Of emigra-
tion is entirely feasible and declare that
it will certainly be carried out.
The Indians who are to emigrate will
come from the Choctaw, Chickasaw.
Creek, and Cherokee Nations of Indian
Territory. Their wealth exceeds $2,000.-
| 900, and their share of lands in Indian
Territory amounts to 4,S00.000 acres.
This land they expect to sell or lease
to a syndicate in Topeka, Kansas, and
with the proceeds purchase lands in
| southern portion of the Mexican coun-
try. The delegates. just returned. be-
lieve that they can get good land at
$3.50 per acre. They add that the cli-
mate there is much better suited than
that of Kansas to the Indian physique,
and that the soil is extremely fertile.
Fruits. especially, can be raised in
abundance with little trouble, and to
the prospectors it seems almost an
ideal land for men of their race.
Their chief reason. however, for
abandoning Indian Territory, is a con-
vction that the white man will soon
be permitted to invade it, and that
Congress is bent on abolishing their
Indian governments. In Mexico they
| 10 cfoI licb In of hai
and live in manner pleasing to them
selves and modelled after the habits Of
their forefathers.
All the Five Tribe Indians have been
living in their present Territory and
have had laws to suit themselves for
over half century; white men can OBJ
tain no right in Indian Territory except
by marrying Indian women; but this
gives an opportunity of which many
have availed themselves Indeed, they
have taken advantage Of it to such an
extent that two-thirds of the Indian
territory Indians are white Indians"
yet there still remain about $4,000 full
bloods, and these are the men who have
resolved to migrate. To white In
dams no invitation will be extended.
In the fullblood vernacular, they are
! "white-hearted and double-tongued."
The full bloods dwell with sad hearts
upon the undermining Of their institu-
tions, and 1t cannot be doubted that
they mean business. They have select
ed U. S. Indian Agent Wisdom to lead
them on to the promised land. Wisdom
has won great popularity among the
Five Tribe Indians. having been their
agent for about five years. They can
trust him, they say, even though his
heart Is white" Wisdom is an old con-
federate veteran. and bears the title
of colonel. He puts great faith in the
plan, and is dubbed "the Indian Moses
all over the Territory. Colonel Wisdom
says:
Il believe the emigration scheme will
be carried out. 1t Is merely an attempt
on the Indians part to carry into effect
the doctrine of isolation so long ap-
piled by the Federal government to the
Indians here. When they moved here
the United States agreed to protect
their rights as long as grass grew and
water ran. The treaties have been vio-
lated, whether rightly or wrongly, in
the interests Of civilization, I am un-
prepared to say; and there will soon
be nothing left for the Indian who
wants to preserve his tribal traditions"
Chief 8. H. Mayes, of the Cherokees,
does not favor the scheme; but he is
half breed, and half-breeds are exclud-
ed from the scheme anyhow.
Chief Isparbecker, full-blood, OF the
Creeks, does not disapprove of 1t, and
says that if he can do no better he Will
go. But "Spiechy," as he is called, now
has little plan of his own,-that OF
forming all the Indians into one state
and defying the United States courts to
prosecute him. No doubt he will fail
in this, as he is alone, and will event.
ually become powerful factor in the
new Indian country under the southern
sunny sky of old Mexico.
Copyright, 1898, by Bacheller Syndicate.
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