The Saint Paul globe., 1898-01-17
WASHINGTON BUREAU ST. PAUL GLOBE,
CORC0RAH Bull DING.

Special to the Globe.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 16.-An effort
will be made this session, by a lobby
which is working here in the interest
of lot of Montana cattlemen, to cut
the Northern Cheyenne Indians out of
good share Of what they have been
taught to regard as their property
rights. 1t will probably take the form
Of an amendment to the annual Indian
appropriation BILL providing for the re-
turn to the Northern Cheyenne reser-
vation> Of all the Indians of that tribe
who are living outside of its boun-
daries, and opening to settlement the
land now occupied by them.
All this looks fair enough on it's face.
but, as usual, there is story behind
1t. When the Cheyennes who had been
confined as prisoners of war at Fort
Keogh, Mont, were moved down and
settled upon their present reservation,
the latter was set apart by an execu-
tive order distinctly for their use. The
Indians were assured by Gen. Miles
who spoke in good faith and whose
words have been confidently cherished
that the government gave them this
home to be theirs and their children
forever more. On that understanding
they took possession of the reservation,
tract of irregular shape, it's north
ern boundary being perhaps twenty
seven miles long and its southern boun-
dary fourteen miles, while north and
south Its longest diameter Is about
twenty-five miles. Through this runs
the Rosebud river, with its myriad of
little tributaries.
To the east of the reservation is a
tract of about equal size which joins
the reservation so as to form a rec
tangle roughly thirty-eight by twenty
two miles In size This tract is water
ed by the Tongue river, which, like the
Rosebud. is fed by lot of washes,
and the whole rectangle encloses about
the best bit of grass land in all Mon
tana. The land office withdrew from
settlement the tract watered by the
Tongue river, and the Indians have
spread out over it, with the permission
of the government, and established
their little homes there.
These Indians are herderS, not farm
ers in the narrower sense. The white
frontiersmen in the neighborhood are
herderS also. Their cattle are continual
ly trespassing on the Indians pasture
land, and they raise tremendous noise
whenever an Indian helps himself,
frontier fashion, to a stray COW or steer
or pony which he finds in his own do
main; yet, if any Of the Indians live
stock happens to stray over on to a
white mans land, the chances are
quite as small of the owner ever get
ting it back.
Within the area of the reservation,
at the time it was set apart for the
Indians, a number of white men had
already taken up land and made i'm
proVements. They were not disturbed,
and some ten of them hold patents from
the government which appear to be en-
tirely valid. Other whites have moved
in since, and also have established
themselves on the Tongue river tract,
but have no rights there which the
government is bound to consider. 1t
is the squatter element on the Tongue
river tract, and some of the cattlemen
south of it's border, who are clamoring
to have all the Indians crowded into
the reservation proper They want the
outside land for themselves. They
would like to have the Cheyennes NOV
ed out of the state altogether, or out
of their present reservation and into
the adjoining reservation belonging to