The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1903-11-10
Forgery
Sentence Melted Out
to Ill-Doing In
dian Clerk


ton, and ex-deputy clerk of the fed
eral court at Tahlequah. chairman Of
the Republican club at Tahlequah. act
ing translator of the Cherokee Aivo-
cate and the acknowledged chief of
Cherokee boodlers, is again called be-
fore the United States court at this
place, this time to receive a sentence
from Judge Gill to a term in the pen-
itentiary on eleven counts of forgery
and uttering forged papers in connec-
ton with the gigantic warrant steal
that occurred in The Cherokee national
auditors office in 1898 and 1899. one
chapter of the dark and shady trans
actions of booileism in the Cherokee
nation will be practically closed.
Trpiett was not alone in this gi-
gantic steal, but his pals have so com
pletely burned the bridges behind them
that the officers Of the northern a,s-
trict have been unable to catch up
with them.
Nearly all OF these thefts and frauds
were perpere;ed during the last days
Of the Cherokee tribal government,
and, of course, they were protected by
the tribal cours instead Of being pun.
ished When congress passed the
Curtis bill. on June %, 1898, the doom
of boodleism was sealed in the Cher.
okee nation, and many OF the more
prominent boodlers saw the "hand-
writing on the wall" and quit being
boodlers, but some of them had ac-
quired such habit under the pro-
lection of the tribal courts that they
could not resist the temptation after
they became amenable o the laws Of
the United States. The ticket audit
ors office Afforded a fine field for
the operations of Cherokee boodlers;
no national certificates could be is
sued after the Curtis bill passed, on
June 2S, 1898, but when the boodlers
were armed with blanks. and many
certificates still in circulation they
did not hesitate TO issue certificates
and give them back dates. The boodl-
ers piled their graft for six years
prior to June 2s, 1898, and the report
of the investigating commission, com
posed of G. V. Rogers ana w. o. Bru-
ton, on The part of the Cherokee ma
tion, and j. w Zevely, on the port of
the federal government, shows that
these boodlers robbed the Cherokee
nation out Of s194,365.44 Triplett
continued his work of Doodle too
long, and got caught, and now is
bound for the penitentiary being now
in Jail awaiting sentence.
Making Way With Evidence.
To show how impossible it is to get
the Cherokee boodlers it may be
stated that when Pliny L. Soper
United States attorney for the north
ern district of the Indian territory
went to the executive office of the
Cherokee nation to get the records
in which the evidence in some of the
Triplett cases were contained, he wa.
informed that these records had beer
stolen; thus the boodlers had been tC
the executive office ahead Of the pros
ecutor The evidence against many
boodlers was thus stolen out Of th'
executive Office Of the Cherokee ma
ton.
On another occasion an attempt wa,
made to burn the capitol building a
Tahlequah in order that these records
Of boolle might be destroyed, bat tn
attempt was not carried out Oil ha'
been poured on the sal, way ant
matches applied, but for some reasol
the oil refused to ignite An exeou
tive secretary at one time peepe
through the transon Of the chiefs Of
fee and saw a boodler with a lamp q
the room altering the records; bu
the secretary has let the matter sill
his memory since then and does no
know who the boodler was
About the time Triplett was calle
before the federal court to enter
plea in his cases and while his friend
were intereeding for him with IN
federal authorities, a sensation wa
sprung at the Cherokee land onict
where II was made known that TriI
lett was engaged in padding the Chez
okee rolls and one Of the most cigar
tic frauds known to the history Of III
tve civilized tribes was diseoyere
and brought to light. Triplett ha
succeeded in adding the names {
nineteen fictitious persons to th
rolls now being made by the Dave
commission and had taken out rese
vations Of land for these supposed HI
man beings. In some instances tn