The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1900-03-21
our p[0lI WASHINGTON HTItl
THE TERRITORY DELEGATION IS
PRoPA0ATiNd INFORMATION.
The Secretary Of the Interior Jealous OF
RiIs-Autocratic Authority Resents
the Efforts Of the Dawes
Commission 10 curtali Ie.
Special to the Ardmoreite.

Washington, ID. O., March 19.-
Indian Territory affairs are now re-
ceiv.ng q severe overhauling by
subcommittee of the senate. So
many complaints have reached the
senate committee on Indian affairs
of late of the dilatory policy of gov
ernment officials in the Territory
that the situation has become almost
unbearRble and the Indian committee
through a sub committee proposes
to purge these charges to the very
bottom, And they are receiving
valuable assistance from the dele
gates appointed by the South Me-
Alester convention. For the past
week the subcommittee having
charge of the matter has been Civ
ing daily hearings on various meas
ures now pending before the senate.
and as result much valuable infor-
nation has been brought out which
will surely defeat many dilatory
schemes devised by attorneys and
schemers to perpetuate the chaotic
condition in the Territory.
The principal bill which has been
under consideration by the sub-com-
mittee is the one introduced by SEN
ator Platt providing for the reopen
ing of the Chickasaw freedmen cases,
authorizing Mississippi Choctaws to
bring suit in the court of claims
against the Choctaw nation to es-
tablish their rights, to adjudicate
claims of white persons who have
intermarried into the various nations
in the Territory, compelling the
proper owners of land in the Terri
tory. who have made selections upon
which there is located postoffice,
or one or more buildings, to pay the
appraised value of same which is to
be made by the Dawes commission
before they can acquire title to their
property, and for many other pur-
poses. The passage of such bill at
the present time would result in the
prolongation of litigation which
would not be terminated for many
years and which would perpetuate
the present condition until the suits
were finally disposed of By the su-
preme court. This was forcibly
brought to the attention of the sub
committee the other day by delegates
from the South McAlester conven-
ton when the pro vision relating to
) the adjudication of the rights of
white persons who have married into
the various nations was under con-
sideration. 1t was pointed out that
these same cases had already been
disposed of by the Dawes commission
and the local courts; that an appeal
had been taken from the United
States courts in the Indian Territory
to the supreme court of the United
States and that that court had held
that the United States courts in In
dian Territory, under the Curtis law,
were the courts of the last resort,
and also sustained the constitution
ality of the Curtis act. To reopen
these cases, it was claimed by the
delegates, would be to simply go
through a mock trial with the only
purpose in view of delaying the open
ing of the country. The arguments
were so clear and concise that it was
evident that the committee was prac-
tically unit against the provisions
of the bill. Hearings on this bill will
be continued from day to day until
concluded, and then other measures
of similar nature will be taken up
and disposed of.
/ asked United States Marshal Leo
Bennett, who is one of the delegates
appointed by the South McAlester
convention, what progress the dele
CATION was making in it's efforts to
secure remedial legislation for the
Territory; he replied:
II believe that before we get
through we will convince the men,
bers OF the committees on Indian af-
fairs of the house and senate that
congress should immediately enact
some legislation which will assist the
people of the Territory in bringing
order out of the chaotic conditions
existing
How can this be done?" l asked.
"By strengthening the administra-
tive agencies in the Territory and by
putting Goals of fire on the backs of
the present officials so that they will
be made to attend strictly to the af-
fairs there. The work of the Dawes
commission is deplorably delayed
and under existing conditions it will
not be completed within the lifetime
of the average citizen of the Terri
tory. The townsiting is being delay
ed to such an extent that it will be
years before the work is completed.
In the town of Muskogee, for in
stance, judging from the present
manner in which the work is being
conducted, it will take ten years to
complete the work Iof appraisement
and assessment. There is INC busi-
ness firm in the world which would
tolerate for an instant the dilatory
tactics pursued. If any private or
corporate concern in the west should