The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1900-02-20

ollfaEt4y ou1 Wttocee Io8aTu 70 law.
and afterwards adjudicatine the
rights Of the parties to the property
previously taken from them before
the very tribunal that has denounced
their contention as wrongful and
fraudulent, 10 unheard OF in the an
mails of Jurisprudence, and it seems
the mere statement of the proposi-
tion ought to condemn it in tha
minds of all just men.
notwithstanding this fact am OF
the opinion that the Platt bill a. il
now is will become a law unIessa
bitter and determined fight is n,ade
against it. 1.-THE non-citizen farmer
does not fully appreciate the situa.
ton and make such a fight in his
own behalf as he has never before
made, some fine morning be will be
met by q squad OF Indian police and
be given about fifteen minutes TO
determine whether he will accent
such proposition as his Indian land
lord sees fit to make or have himssn
and family picked up and bodily re-
moved from the premises and
! dumped in some out of the way place.
The particular members of the
committee on Indian affairs who are
best informed on these questions
and have taken the greatest interest
therein, have on hand a controversy
over their denomination that re-
quires, practically, all of their time
and attention and it will be more
easy to get through a measure Of
this kind at this time than it would
at any other.
Sections = and of this bill, in nv
judgment. are very necessary legis-
lstion. Section provides for the
protection OF non-citizens in towns
where town sites will not be set
apart, and section provides for
highways. Section relates exclus-
lively to Cherokee matters and sec.
ton 5 to Chickasaw and Choctaw
freedmen and section to Missis-
sippi Choctaws.
Sections 7 and relate to intermar-
? 1
Chickasaw and Choctaw nations. Ii
authorizes persons who have inter
married with citizens by blood, in
, any of these tribes, to bring suit in
ninety days after the passage of this
act, to adiudicate their rights to the
. lands and funds of the tribes. IL the
intermarried citizens do not institute
such suit the nation may. II neither
the nation nor intermarried citizens
, sue, the secretary of the interior is
. directed to cause suit to be brought,
, proper parties to be made and the
, issues as TO the rights of the inter-
, married citizen in and to the lands
and funds to be determined.
We were informed that this pro-
! vision of the bill was suggested by
!, some of the attorneys who repre-
! ssnted iutermarried citizens, urging
! that they be paid their pro rata share
: of certain funds heretofore paid only
: to Indians by blood.
The intermarried citizen should
a certainly feel grateful that a way is
!. given him, or rather forced upon
him, to have determined whether or
not, during all these years that he
has asserted his citizenship, he has
. been in the right or whether he has
been wrongfully appropriating the
proceeds of the lands of the Indians
by blood.
Mr.. McKeunon, for the commits
: sion, is located in Washington pre-
4 senting the views of the commission
4 on these questions. Messrs. Mans
/. field and Cornish were also in Wash
n ington while was there. Some very
n small matters here have grown to
be quite important. For instance,
!, a newspaper reported not long since
that a number of Indians had taken
a white man by the name of Rich
ardson away from his home and
swung him to limb until he agreed
n to surrender the land to the Indians.
. 1t seems that the Indian agent in
y vestigated the matter and reported
o. that RICHARDSON was an Indian and
NV . WAAeO man anu hndl SOAnC mnAto
/. men had swung him up until he had
A agreed not to interfere with their
n possessions. Which of the state
y ments are true / am unable to say,
+ but some of the persons interested
: in behalf of the Indians at Wash
ington see in this alleged false re-
port deeply laid scheme to preju-
dice the minds of the legislators at
A Washington against the Indians.
!. y. L. BLEDSOE.
Biyens q Williams have a genu