Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1901-02-14
INTERVIEWSBY WIRE
q Conversation With Oklahoma Man
Concerning Indian Lands.
AMOUNTS TO ABOUT 100000 ACRES
Indians Are Exercising Their Right
and Picking the Best Of lt-lowa De-
partment Commander Talks of Col.
Shaw-other Interviews.

Shaw-other Interviews.
E. F. Mitchell of Ell Reno, Okla
homa territory, concerning the Indian
lands in that country soon to be open
ed for settlement and the present out
look, says:
"The exact number of acres of land
there is in the country which is to be
opened is not known, but it is estimat-
ed at 100000 acres. There are 2,TS0
Indians in the Kiowa and Comanche
country, and 100 acres will be allotted
each of them for farming purposes,
and an additional 100 acres each for
grazing purposes. Thus of the 3,00O,-
900, 100000 will be allotted to the In
dians.
''1t is the duty of Colonel Nessler and
his assistants, to allot this land to
the Indians. They have scatteredlout
over the country and the work is now
In progress. The Rock Island Rail-
way Company took the contract to
make a survey and lay out the entire
country in sections and quarter sec.
tions. The work having been done,
all Nessler and his men have to do Is
to go with the Indians, and. when they
choose what they want, to indicate
that it has been taken.
"The Indians are following them in
large bodies, and they are exercising
Judgment in making their choices.
When they get thru the greater part
of the desirable land will be taken.
The Rock Island people put forty men
in the field week ago yesterday and
Nessler and his men are following
them up. When they get thru with
the survey, not only the land that the
Indians take, but all of it will be laid
Off in sections and quarters. The land
OF Oklahoma, the Cherokee strip and
the Cheyenne and Arapahoe country
also was laid off in sections before the
runs into it were made, but it was
not auartered, and from the failure to
nave 1t CHARTERED, resulted much trou-
| Bile and litigation. Two men and
some times more, got upon the same
quarter, and the result in good many
cases was contest. either with shot
! guns or at law. The ultimate conse.
quences We're about equally disastrous
to the contestants in either event"
The Indians will probably prefer
to herd by themselves. They will Sc
lect large bodies of land in which
their quarter sections will be contig-
uous to one another. The result will
be that white settlers will be spared
the pain of having Indian height IS,
unless they choose to locate in Z, is
of the country adjacent to those tax
en- by the Indians. He expects the
Indians to lease their grazing lands
to cattlemen. They will be able to
get about 20 cents per acre annually
for its use in this way
Il anticipate that many thousand
more would-be settlers will make the
run than there will be homsteads for.
Sixty thousand have already arrived
by prairie schooner and in other ways
and have lined up along the border,
/ altho he does not think the opening
will occur before June.
4 Thus, there are more people there
now than get claims, and the num-
Der is rapidly increasing. A few
days ago passed twenty-five wagons
headed that way in driving eighteen
mics. Besides the lands which are
being allotted to the Indians, sec.
tions g. 80, 13 and SO of each township
must be set aside for school pur-
poses; and then there are the WITCH
] ita mountains, which cSyer about
5000 acres. A bill for the opening
of the Wichita and Caddo country at
the same time is now before congress
and may be passed at this session.
But this will not greatly increase the
amount to be opened for settlement
for the same allotments would be
made to the Wichitas and Caddos as
are being made to the Kiowas and
4 Comanches. Many hundreds OF
i men who go there to secure homes
will regret that they did not stay
/ where they started from.
The opening of the Kiowa, Com
I, anche, Wichita and Caddo countries
would still leave within the bounds
of Oklahoma the Choctaw Creek
Seminole and Chickasaw Indians II
is regarded as probable that theil
Z country will be opened in the course
of very few years.
.Colonel Albert d. Shaw, whose
death occurred Monday, was one
of the most lovable men who
ever occupied the place OF
comander-in-chief of the Grand
Army of the Republic" says Colonel
nj. B. Davis, department commander
of Iowa. He was man of fine pres
ence, a great orator and great man
and yet he was most approachable.
never heard one word of criticism
against that man while he held the Of
fee, and that is something remarka
BILE, for when you put man in place
like that every one is ready to carp
and criticise, but Colonel Shaw escap
ed from all that sort of thing. He
was a thoroly capable man and filled
the great position with honor to him
self and to the order he represented
am sorry to hear he has passed into