The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1899-08-29
WASHINGTON LETTER.
An Interesting News Budget From the
Nations Capital.

Washington, ID. c., Aug. 28.-The
annual reports of the agents Of the
government in the Indian Territory
are now being received by the Sec
retary of the Interior. Special Agent
Wright's report was received last
Saturday, but owing to the custom
it's contents are being carefully
guarded until Secretary Hitchcock
has had an opportunity to examine
it and decide what is proper to give
out to the general public and what
should be prepetuated as depart
| ment secret. The report is an elab-
crate one, containing so typewriter
pages and deals in detail with the
work going on in the Territory.
| Reports have also been received
from Chairman Sterrett, of the town
site board in the Choctaw nation,
and from Mr.. Johnson, chairman of
the Chickasaw townsite board. Mr..
| Sterrett estimates that the expenses
of continuing the work of the board
in the Choctaw nation during the
next year will be s14, 800. The cost of
maintaining the board in the Chick
asaw nation, according to Mr.. John
sons figures, will be thousand dol
lars more than the estimated cost of
the board in the Choctaw nation, or
SIS, 500. These recommendations are
now being considered at the Indian
Office and will be forwarded to the
Secretary of the Interior with the
recommendation that Congress be
asked to appropriate the amounts in
the annual appropriation bill next
year. The money now available, ap-
propriated by the last session of
Congress, will be exhausted by the
first of November, and it is the in {.
tention of the Secretary of the In
terror to ask for an emergency ap-
preparation as soon as Congress con-
venes to pay the salaries of the town
site board officers and employees
from November 1, next, to June 80,
1900. In the me- antime, until the ap-
propriations are made, the townsite
boards must get along without their
salaries, depending upon Congress
to pay them.
Complaints continue TO pour in
upon the department against the ar
bitrary decisions of the Dawes COM
mission in the preparation of the
frih hol iG oh hnf he
commission is exercising the most
autocratic authority, rejecting the
applications of citizens who were
born on the reservations and who
have never left them, upon the tiimsy
excuse that they had not filed their
applications within the specified
time. The member of the commit
tee on Indian affairs of the Senate,
is not surprised at the rejection of
hundreds of applications for citizen
ship by the commission. He says
that when Mr.. McKennon. one of the
members of the commission, was be-
fore the Senate committee last winter
he announced that there we're 5000
people on the Chickasaw rolls alone
that should not be there and that
before he got through with the work
their names would be dropped. The
impression made upon the committee
at that time was that at least one
member of the Dawes commission
was exceedingly hostile to the Indi-
ans and intended to cut down the
rolls to a minimum number.
1t is also charged that one of the
reasons why Mr.. McKennon was so
opposed to the Secretary of the In
terror passing finally upon these rolls
was the fact that he realized that
many of the citizens who had been
dropped would be reinstated, and it
was to prevent the reversal of the
decision of the commission that he
was most interested in. 81 am in
formed that the provisions in the in
structions of the Dawes commission
prohibiting the presence of counsel
for the applicants at the hearings, :"
was inserted at the request of Mr..
McKennon, who made a personal ap-
peal to the Secretary of the Interior
and the commissioner of Indian af-
fairs. Since this rule has been in
operation many complaints have
been received, charges being made
that the nations are allowed counsel
who are present at the examination
of the applicants and who are able
to confuse the ignorant Indians by
adroit questions. SO strong is the
complaint against this feature of the
instructions sent the Dawes commits
sion that the secretary is seriously
considering a charge which will en-
able applicants to be represented at
the hearings by counsel.