Arizona republican., 1899-11-15
PLEA OF DELAWARES.
"A Controversy Before Three
Branches OF Government.
The Descendants Of the Lenni Lea
apes want pay for the Land
watch EheY Bought bat WhiCh
They We're DGsp lied of.

Washington, Nov. A. Especially
a controversy of great interest is pend
ing before the three branches of the
Recommendations the executive in the
interior department, the judicial in the
court OF claims, and the legislative in
congress. On the one side are the
Cherokees. the wealthiest Of the civil
lied Indian tribes, and on the other
the Delawares. the Impoverished REM
nant of the once powerful Lenni La-
nape the head of the great Algonquin
confederation, and the direct descend
ants of those who. more than two
hundred years ago. at the spot where
Philadelphia now stands. made With
William Penn what has Been character
lied as the only treaty that was never
sworn to and never broken. The Della
wares We're slowly crowded westward
by the ever encroaching whites until
finally they reached the distant plains
of Kansas, where they hoped to re-
main free and unmolested for all time.
But it was not to be. The swelling tide
of immigration to that fertile region.
which accompanied and followed the
civil war. compelled them again, ike
the Wandering Jew, to move on.
In 1867 the Delawares entered into
an agreement with the Cherokees
whereby the former were to acquire
157, 600 acres of land in the Cherokee
country, for which they paid the Cher
okees at the rate of one dollar an acre
At the same time the Delawares, by
the payment Of an additional and large
sum of money, secured the right of cit
izenship in the Cherokee Nation. The
Delawares selected their lands, settled
on and improved them, and still live
there.
It is probable there never would have
been any trouble as to these lands but
for the discovery thereon of oil, gas,
coal and other valuable minerals When
this was known the Cherokee authori-
ties granted what they call mineral
leases to certain Cnerokees and white
men who had married Cherokee wives,
and these in turn sub-let the leases 10
certain white men who could not OBJ
tain them in any other way. These
so-called' mineral leases cover the
homes and improvements Of the Della
wares, who were not only to be ignored
as to the minerals underlying their
lands, but We're TO be deprived of the
lands themselves and denied the rights
of citizenship in the Cherokee Nation.
which lands and rights they had bought
and paid for with their own money.
Naturally the Delawares resist what
they deem the crowning outrage that
threatens them. IN explanation Of their
cause and defense of their rights their
representative in Washington, Mr.
Richard c. Adams, himself a Delaware,
just an Indian" as he describes him
self, has written and published what
he modestly styles a booklet" wherein
he sets forth the facts of the case.
There does not seem to be the slightest
doubt of the equity and justice OF the
contention of the Delawares. They
simply want what they paid for, what
the Cherokees contracted to give them,
what the United States government
guaranteed they should have, and what
they were in peaceable and undisputed
/ possession of for a quarter of a cen
tury, down to the hour of the discov-
cry that their lands contained valuable
mineral deposits. This discovery would
/ have been hailed as good fortune if the
owners of the lands had been white
men, but, as Mr.. Adams says, being
! Delawares, this seems to be their
misfortune, since they are Indians"