Indian chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1882-1902, 1898-07-21

our laws of real estate. Time lust
now will not permit us to dilate
upon this thought; let a single lit
tie illustration suffice, and we
pass:
The Cherokee land laws give
each settler reserve of one quar-
ter of mile around bis improve
ment; this provision of law was
approved by the Cherokees as
wise and good. But there was no
such thing as that known in the
Arkansas law. What, now, as TO
the result? The Curtis bill was
signed by the president on the
2Sth of June; this is the 10th of
July; and yet, even so soon, in
trusion has commenced its high
handed depreciation upon these
reserves, and the Cherokee citizen
is compelled, under the ban of the
Cherokee law, to sit mute and see
his ancient premises despoiled of
their most valuable appurtenances
and in many cases the chief source
of their value.
1t would seem that the men who
made this law had some apprecia-
ton of these results; and as a
means of paliating the evil. de-
vised the scheme of allotment.
"lt is true," they said, "a system
of land in common cannot be ad-
ministered according TO the doc.
trines of land in severalty; but we
will make the Cherokees conform
their system TO the new rules and
take their land in severalty."
Such, then, is the remedy for
this generation of evils born of
the Curtis law. But what of allot-
ment as remedial agent? Let
us see. 1t was conceived of in
the first place as remedy for the
nomadic habits OF the wild tribes
OF the western prairies; in its ori-
gin it seems to have had some |
good sense about it; for, to put il |
into force out there, consisted sim
ply OF catching up a wild man,
setting him down on a good hun
dred and sixty acre patch of land,
teaching him how to build house,
to till the soil, to make an honest |
living, be honorable and happy.
There was something benignly
practical in all this. But what of |
such a process when it comes to |
be applied to an organized and |
long settled community like the |
Cherokees? The people here are |
living in established homes. are |
industrious, economical and Just /
as much devoted to civilized inSfi- I
tutions As the inhabitants of any |
state in the union. Allotment
among the Cherokees implies the
breaking up of old established |
homes, the readjustment of boun-
dairy lines, the unsettling of socie-
ty, the general wrecking of proud |
and hopeful state OF public and |
private prosperity, a general re-
turn in worG, to those long-past |
elemental conditions of human |
comfort through which we have |
once toiled, and from which we
have so triumphantly emerged to |
fight the battles of pioneerism
over again; the stoutest sou! re-
coils from the contemplation of
such an ordeal.
And still more. These Ch ero.
kee laws are not to be enforced: |
practically, they are to be, for the
future, just as though they had |
never existed. The past, among |
the Cherokee people, is to be, for |
the future, regarded and treated |
by the courts of judicature as an |
era of absolute lawlessness. Our |
Cherokee laws regulating the re-
latlon of the sexes are not only |
repealed by this vandalic Curtis |
law, but they are swept away in
to annihilation for all the past, as
well as the future; and all this
without the least vestige of a saw
ing clause in the interest of past
conditions. This nefarious. tyr
annical, Curtis law dishonors the
the social life of our people; it in.
vades the domestic circle, abolishes |
the Institution of marriage, it !
stlgmatizes our happy homes as
mere places OF brutal cohabitation.
it bastardizes our children, and re-
duces all the noble fathers and
mothers of our country to the
moral condition OF pimps and
prostitutes.
No; there was a better way for
dealing with this territorial aues-
ton; better way, we say. 1t is
our intention to speak more fully