The evening times., 1900-03-21
Red MEN FILE 4 CLAIM
The Demands of the Absentee
Shawnee Indians.
They Aliege That the Government
Deprived Them of Their Homes
without Remuneration Fought
for the Independence of TeNas-Al-
ways Friendly Toward the Whites.

| NJ. J. Buetiey an Indian agent. has beer
in this city for several weeks endeavorine
to effect a settlement of the claims of the
| Absentee Shawnee Indians. He has made
! favorable progress in the work and an at.
| torney is now busily engaged in preparing
necessary documents to present to the
proper officials substantiating the claims
made by the tribe. Before Mr.. Buetley
left the city yesterday for his home he
! Shawnees:
THE Shawnee Indians were granted land
in the present State of Missouri. by the
Spanish Government after having been
driven from their Eastern homes by the
encroachments of the white settlers. About
the year 1884. the Government made a
treaty with a portion of the tribe by which
they bought from the Indians this reesrva-
tion, giving them in lieu thereof small
er reservation in the present State of Kan
sas. At that time. the tribe numbered
l ,200. OF this number 200 were dissatis-
fed with the treaty and went to the then
Province of Texas, while only 500 went 10
the reservation in Kansas. Those who
went 10 Texas were known from that day
as the Absentee Shawnee Indians.
They fought with Texas in their war
for independence and served with the
Texas troops in the gathering together of
and suppreSsing the wild tribes of that To-
cality. They were given by the Govern
ment of Texas for their services. a reser-
walton forty miles square. where they re-
mained and accumulated considerable
property in horses and cattle until about
the year 1858, when they were told by
President Sam Houston, of the Texas Re-
public. that there would soon be a war
and that they had better leave the State
and % 10 the Indian Territory.
They did so, taking with them such
of their property as could be readily NOV
ed. They settled in a part of the Semi
mole purchase in Indian Territory, built
log houses, and prospered until 1862, when
James Lane went TO them with a force of
Union troops and told them TO move to
the State OF Kansas within the Federal
lines, and to leave behind them their
cattle and other property; that they
would be amply paid for its value by the
Government
They went near the present site of
Wichita. Kans.. and furnished to the
Fourteenth Kansas Cavalry one company
OF men and horses. These men enlisted
for three years or during the war. and
served until its close Their property
left behind was used by the troops or lost
and destroyed. At the close of the war
they returned to the locality of their
former home in Indian Territory and
again built good hewed log houses plant
ed orchards, and became prosperous farm
ers.
But in a few years another tribe of In
dians was TO be located upon this partiCu-
lar tract Of land occupied by them. and
soldiers were sent 10 remove these Shaw
nees, which they did burning their
houses and fences behind them. In 1872
commission was appointed to estimate
and make report of the value of the prop
erty of the Absentee Shawnees lost and
destroyed during the civil war. This re-
port shows property aggregating S467 GOO
OF which the Big Jim Band were the own
ers Of some S2JO.0OO. They never have
received any payment for this property.
and have received no annuities from the
Government or pay of any kind since they
left Missouri in 1884. They have never
been in arms against the whites. and
have frequently fought with the whites
in their various troubles.
These Indians are now penniless. Their
surplus land has been sold and whites are
settled all around and among them. They
have always been farmers, are willing to
work. and only ask that they be given
the material and the opportunity. There
are ~ Families of them and about 300
members, and no Indians need aid more"
The claim of the Absentee Shawnees is
now being briefed in complete form by
Richard c. Adams, who is empowered 10
act as attorney 10 the tribe. and the brief
Will il is said. be presented before the
Interior Department and the Senate and
House Committees on Indian Affairs at
an earlK dafa