The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-08-17
INDIAN LAWMAKERS
PROGRESS OF INHABITANTS OF
 THE INDIAN TERRITORY.
Make-Up of the Tribal Legislature Waning Influence of the Full Bloods Over the Half-Breed
 Members

John NJ. oskison in New York Evening
 Post.
 Be 1t known, in the beginning. that the modern Indian is a creature or law, parliamentarian by instinct, loving the forms and tactics of debate. He is a pol Itician loquacious. shrewd. genial; be- tween the tearing off of a generous cor ner of a plug of tobacco and the hrst alarming flood of juice. ne VIII size up" a colleague in a surprisingly. accur- ate way. More often than not, he IS big. broad-framed man, whose digestion Is proof even against contraoand Whls- key and much nicotine; otherwise ne IS likely to be very small, nervous. and too impatient to win against the slow and sure manipulation of the big men.
 The full-blood Indians are rare In the Indian Territory-statisttcall they are about as one to eight of the whole citi- zen population. lntermarriage, begun wears ago. has blanched the Indians face and complicated his nature. Years ago, at an election for chief, two men sat at a table to write down the name or the man the voter thought ought to be gwen the position Today, the whole elaborate machinery of nomination, electioneer1ng. nolI working, secret ballot, and, It IS frequently charged. bribery, IS set gong to elect a Mayor of Tahlequah 50, the Indian politician is scarcely other than a snnhurned white man. though he still talks periodically of the rights of hls neople and the injustice of the whites; and Arkansas is furnishing the greater part of his code.
 In 1S3s. when the eastern band of Cher okees removed to the present Indian Ter ritorv and joined the whole tribe in formal union these names, among enany were affixed to the articles of agreement: John Ross, Loo'ley frlce'
 Chief of Eastern
 Rand Major Pullum. Ta- -We-Stah. Young Elders. John Benge. Deer Track
 Going Snake. Young Puppy.
 John | Looney Turtle Fields.
 Acting Chief, west ~
 Band July.
 Charles Gourd. The Easie'
 Ah-Sto-La-Ta. The Crying BuHalo.
 Following Bushyhead, the last three chiefs of the Cherokees have been liar ris. Waves and Burlington, and the char acteristic old names have disappeared from the roster of the tribal council. The modern Indian has come to scorn his old clan name, and shows much skill in trans forming 1t to agree with the white man nomenclature Nearly everybody in cer- tain Cherokee community, wherein the prominent families were the Boots, the Buzzards, the Battling Gourds, and the Long Tails, knew Jimmie Horsefly, for Jimmie grew up among them, keen-eyeu and ambitious.
 In the course of years, Jimmie Horse fly made the acquaintance of an infiuen- tial member of the tribal council, and was appointed 10 tHe pOelliol VI litei preter in the legislative body. For one term he was still Jimmie Horsefiy, and his neighbors were properly proud or his advancement. But at the end or the second session of council, the proud in terpr cter came back to his neighbors. pro claiming himself James H. Fly-and his new derby hat awed the wondering nelgh- bors into an uneasy silence
 The one long fight of the Indian legls- lators in all of the tribes has been 10
 of white into their countries. Holding to their rights guaranteed in frequent old treaties, the full bloods have fought the growth or white influence long after they saw that their fight was hopeless. Force of habit and sympathy and the urging of the dwindling full-blood settlements have urged them on to fight until, one by one they have been replaced by the modern mi mixed-blood, ready and willing to com promise wi. the intruders. The experi- enced, shrewd old editor of Territory newspaper. writing from Tahlequah the seat of the Cherokee Government, in 1896. said
 Conservatism or the Full-Bloods.
 ''The full-blood element in this coun- try are getting farther and farther away in their sentiments and wishes and desires from the balance of the citizens of this nation This observation is made regret fully, but it is certainly true. In the Senate the full -bloods are represented by
  are making the grandest fight of their lives for the natives for their kind of people-making it honestly and as none but an Indian could see 1t. It is no longer d question that what is good for the white man and the mixed blood Is bad for the full-blood. Their interests can never be in common; 1t is impossible; their courses are not parallel. The full-bloOd Chero- kee's dream is to continue an Indian na- ton for all time to come, and they will never consent to anything else. They want the whites all removed from the country, and who could blame them?
 "A few days ago, in discussing the dire full effect of doing away with white per mitted labor Senator Rogers "a mixed blood and progressive ranchman) said that his farm would grow up in weeds and grass If he were not allowed to hire white men. A full-blocd Senator an swered, That Is just what We want The full-blood idea is to turn all of the land out for future generations. except a very small tract for each family The real Indians in the Cherokee Nation are not monopolists in any sense ot the word.