The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-11-15
SOME RICH INDIANS.
THE MEMBERS OF THE FIVE
TRIBES or INDI1N TERRYTORY
viii soon be the wealthiest Anori~
gipes on This Continent.

sines on This Continent.
Chaotic conditions existing in Indian
territory at present are without a par.
allel in history. Nearly ninety thou
sand Indians are without a country and
three hundred thousand White citizens
are not allowed to use their right OF
suffrage, But out of this state Of mat
tiers the United States government is
busily engaged In framing a policy for
the future guidance of a country that
bids fair to equal any part of the I'm
ion.
A commission made up of three mem
bers, with three hundred assistants, is
now engaged in taking the final roll Of
the Indians of the different tribes APP
praising their land and placing them on
their allotments. By January l, 1901,
this work will have been finished and
the Indians will be ready to take out
their naturalization papers as citizens
of the United States. To bring this to
a conclusion will have involved many
years of labor and an expenditure of a
million dollars.
$50 long as grass grows and water
runs" by the terms of this nations
promise, made in 1882, the Cherokees,
Creeks Seminoles Chickasaws and
Choctaws We're to have for their own
this tract of land known as indian ter
ritory. So the five tribes set up their
government, each holding to its own
tribal forms. There was not even an
Indian commissioner sent to keep his
more or less paternal guardianship
over them. But the whites came in,
intermarried with the SquaWs, cheated
the easy going and indolent full-bloods,
and gradually gained control of the
government. Then the United States
government stepped in to limit the
power of the whites and preserve the
rights Of the Indians Despite disabil-
tiles imposed upon them the whites
kept pouring in and, as their number
increased, they so vehemently demand
ed recognition that the government de-
cided on readjustment in the interests
of all concerned. The advances of the
commission first appointed to visit the
five tribes in 1893 were slow and halt
ing, though well planned. For three
years they could do nothing but ride
over the territory and meet the big
Indians, who promised to do much, but
who never did anything. Then they
sent out the report that the Indians
were harboring outlaws who commit
ted crimes in other states, that the full
bloods were being deceived as to the
real intentions of the United States to-
ward their government and that the
willy half-bloods, who at that time had
control of the affairs of the Indian
government, were using every means to
thwart the purposes of the commission
ers, all of which was true. Congress re-
piled to this appeal by delving into the
treaties with the Indians and there
finding a clause whereby it could de-
prive the Indian courts of their juris-
diction whenever 1t saw fit. Certainly
now was the opportune time, and the
act was forthwith passed The Indians
squirmed and the full-bloods threat
ened to rise. Some of the old full-blood
judges refused to quit their benches,
bit finally they learned it was of no
use to kick; the act would be carried
out Other drastic measures were sug-
gested by the commission, and the In
dams began to make overtures Little (
by little they were persuaded to the .
steps which have led to the abolish |
ment of the tribal rule. Though COM
fully that the change would |
accrue greatly to their individual adj
vantage, the Indians held tenaciously
to the traditions of the tribes and sur
them only when they saw that
the new movement was inevitable
When the division is made those who
~ va ha rI nj
against it will be probably the richest
savages in the world. The country
which will be parcelled out among
them is larger than the state of South
Carolina and of great beauty and va
riety. Most of the soil is very fertile.
I1he water supply is ample. A belt of
splendid oak forest, thirty miles in
width runs through the territory and
many other valuable woods are found
there. Rich pasture lands afford fat
grazing for thousands of sheep and cat
tie. Two million dollars worth of coal
was taken out of Indian territory last
year. 1t is estimated that the pro-
lucts of the soil for the year 1899
amounted to six million dollars. Be
sides these things petroleum in large
quantities is known to lie beneath the
oil, and valuable veins of lead and
zinc are indicated by rich outcroppings !
which have never been mined A fine
Innate and beautiful scenery make ;
his country one of the garden spots Of
he nation.
All this goes to about eighty-seven
thousand Indians, 1895, 036 acres be-
ng divided about equally among the
different tribes. There are Indians and {
reedmen negroes whose ancestors |
we're or who are themselves freed S
laves of Indians), who have head {
lights in the different nations as fol- |
ows: Cherokee freedmen, 4,00O Che
olees, 10000; Delawares having had
lights in Cherokee nation, LOCO; Creeks, t
1000; Creek freedmen. 5000; Choc- f
avs, 10000; Choctaw freedmen, 5000; /
1000; Chickasaw freed S
len, 5000; Seminoles, $1,000 The Che c
okees have invested or loaned to the i
United States s2,635000. The Creeks l
ave two million dollars thus loaned, I
he Chickasaws $1,30S000, the Choc- |
Avs $546 600 and the Seminoles $780,
10. 1t is estimated by Tams BiXby, {
hartman of the commission to the five s
'ibes, that each Cherokee citizen will il
et one hundred ana twenty acres OF 5