New-York tribune., 1901-07-25
INDIAN LAND ORA WINGS.
GOOD POINTS OF THE NEW METHOD
GREAT SUCCESS EXPECTED.
GBT TELEGRAPH TO THE rR1BuNE.l


Washington, July 24.-The officials OF the Interior
Department gratifed with the progress being
made in the registra ton of homeseekers on the
borders of the Kiowa. Comanche and Apache reser-
vations in the southwestern part of Oklahoma
Whlch VIII be formally opened to settlement on
August g. From Secretary Hitchcock down through
the entire grades of the department nothing but
praise is spoken of the manner in which delicate
and important work is being done the ground
oy Assistant Commissioner Richards of General
Land Oh1ce and the staff of thirty-hve experts he
took with him from Washington The department
o1cias point with special pride to the fact that not
a sensational or criminal act has vet been COM
mitted on the part of the hordes of homeseekers
that for weeks have thronged the borders Of the
new land, and they say that this OF itself fully
Justites the novel plan adopted for this opening.
When IL is known that in the new country soon to
De turned over to white settlement there are only
thirteen thousand homesteads of 16o acres each to
De allotted and that already considerably more
than hundred thousand people are on the scene.
each IN the hope of being OF the lucky thirteen
thousand the showing of good order and the preser-
Vauon OF law is regarded rejecting great credit
upon those who devised the scheme that is now
oe1ns applied 1t is believed the department that
before the registration books are closed at o'clock
frloay evening the total number of registrations
VIII be hundred and fifty thousand
Next Monday morning at o'clock the draw
ing Tor homesteads will begin So much mis-
representation of this feature of the allotment
mas round its way into the newspapers that the
interior Department officials want to get an ac-
curate description Of the matter before the public
before the remarkably interesting transaction is
closed In the first place they deny the assertion
OF numerous critics in the religious and semi-re-
hslous press OF the East that the government has
gone INTO tne lottery business in this matter II is
true that the ownership of the homesteads being
disposed or Is to be determined by drawing lots,
the essential feature the lottery is absent from
the transaction. by reason of the fact that those
VINO draw do not have TO pay for the privilege All
they 90 Is TO register the with the proper
on1cials on the ground and sign a sworn AFFIDAVIT
that they are making application for themselves
only, and that they will actually reside on and
cultivate the land allotted them for the time
prescribed by law. No applicant will be permitted
son can acquire title TO than one homestead
excitable crowds will not be permitted TO gather
around the booths during this process. This dan
more than 125 of the registered applicants shall be
a a.; any my one booth where the drawing is going on
Sy thls method me most impartial treatment Will
De accorded TO all applicants, every of the
viii have one drSw None IN tH of e cK1
thousand tho will get a title to his homestead from,
agent Of the Interior Department the regular gov
The lands TO be homesteaded were purchased
q eiingnt i Dy tne g9Vernment yer from the Indians Tor
nelng distributed pro rata among the four thou,
san sasnd Indians composing the tribes affected and
Gry ay for III, them Besides this liberal treatment
people per capita in the world, each Indian. in
Guiding males and females, adults and children.
has been permitted to retain $50 acres OF the
original reservation a homestead. These allot-
ments were made to the indians before the regis
tration of prospective white settlers begun.
There have also been reserved for the exclusive
use Of the Indians nearly 10000 OF grazing
lands Reservations for county court houses
also have been made in each OF the three counties
into which the country has been divided but
great care has been taken by the Interior Depart
ment that no speculation In town site booms can
be carried on. The entire transaction Is thus
hedged about with safeguards looking 10 the in
terests Of actual hOmeseekers and for the protec-
ton Of poor people against the rich and greedy
land grabbers. like those who have prohted most
from the opening OF Indian lands in the past. when
the old rush system prevailed. with its at
tendant brutality and crime.