The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-10-14
CHEROKEE CAPITAL
Tahlequah, Where the Tribe Has
Had It's Seat for Over Forty
Years.

Tribal Organization Is Still Main
tanned, Tho Doomed Under
Allotment Law.
Correspondence of The Journal.
Tahlequah, Indian Territory, Oct
13.-This is the capital of the Chero-
kee tribe OF Indians. In its general
appearance it is like a county-seat
where the chiefs Of the tribe meet, is,
the typical square red brick town hall,
located In the middle of fenced
square, and surrounded by beautiful
linden trees. It was built over forty
years ago. and the trees were then set
forty miles from the nearest railroad.
Only within the last four years has a
branch road been extended to it. In
their retreat from the white man the
Indians located their capitals among
the hills and in remote parts of the
territory. But they finally have been
overtaken, and the preliminaries to-
their final extinction are in progress.
Neither his own civilization, nor
that which encroaches upon him, has
wiped out the Cherokee INDIANS in
sttnct of tribal preservation. Even
now there is the remnant of full
bloods, a few thousand, back in the
| hills, living in cabins, nursing their
ancestral traditions and language, and
| resentful of the governments efforts
to make them citizens and individuals
| in the great republic. In the world
| of civilization they have not been Of
| it. Having their schools, churches,
houses, barns. farms, machinery and
the rest, they have lived to themselves,
married among themselves, spoken
their own tongue and nursed the fire..
| side traditions Of their fathers.
There may be 5000 of these full
| bloods. Some ssy more, some less.
They decline to come to the land Of
flee and be allotted their share of the
subdivided lands. They take pride in
their long, straight, black hair, and
threaten to send them to Jail, where
their hair will be cut. They are all
bound together in secret organizations,
of which the principal one is the. "Ka-
| too-wah," having passwords, signals
Of distress, and weird ritual Of their
own. The Ka-too-wah> Is particularly
iopposed to the allotment Of the tribal
lands, and it Is said its members have
sworn to kill any Of their number who
respond to the summons Of the Dawes
commission to come in and be al
lotted. One murder, that of a man
named Christiancy, who, was shot in
the night, is generally credited to the
Ka-too-wah. He was full-blood,
who had disregarded the injunction Of
the order and had come in to get his
allotment. - n 49,
The governments representatives
are not worrying over the attitude Of
the full-blood Cherokees. There are
about $1,000 other members of the
tribe, and the work of allotting the
| Ia nd n thoca 10 onino and will
continue for three or four years at the
present rate, before it will be neces-
sary to do business with the recalci-
trants. Less than third of the al
| lotments have been made. Outsiders
will have no chance to buy Cherokee
allotment, so this tribe still, lives in
peace and security. 81. ...@.
= The average Cherokee Indian can
scarcely be distinguished from the or
j binary white person. This tribe has
not internarried with their liberated
negro slaves, as did the Creeks, but
the mixture with whites has been lib
eral so that all but the saving rem
nant in the hills have but small per-
centage. Of Indian blood. Marriage
secures adoption into the tribe, and
| any person with the faintest trace Of
Cherokee blood is regarded as a
Cherokee. q
The whites who married into the
tribe soon got the lions share of the
land, BY fencing, leasing or dicker-
ing they have gradually crowded back
the more indolent full-blood, and
many of these people, with just a
trace of the Indian blood, are very
rich, operating large tracts of land,
raising cotton, corn and other crops
and dealing in cattle, lumber and
stone. III -
It Is rather strange that the mem
bers of the tribe who would profit
most by the allotment, are the ones
who are opposing It. The full-blood
to-day has scarcely any land, while
the hustling stranger who has mar
rted into the tribe, has vast tracts. BY
the division and distribution in prog
ress, all will get the same amount,
ing reduced and the full-blood getting
as much as any. But the white man
is willing to take his chances in a free
for-all race with the Indian, knowing
that 1t will not be long before he has
all his old land back, and probably
blood. The latter, however, feels that
the subdivision Of the land is the
death knell Of the tribe, and, in com
parison with this. he counts the value
of the few acres coming to him as
nothing. s.
l
claim to be civilized. Here in Table
quah are two schools which would dc
: ample credit to Boston, Massachu-
setts-and these schools were founded
, and built by the tribe fourteen years
before the civil war broke out The
boys seminary Is In the building put
up at that time, while t1lt for the
girls Is in a fine large brick building
erected in 1887 to replace the original
destroyed by fire., In the male semi
nary are $50 boys, ranging in age from
to 49, while in the girls school are
20S girls of similar ages. All are
members g of the Cherokee tribe
and a brighter looking, trim
mer, more intelligent appearing lot Of
youngsters will not be found in a
thousand mile journey. The curricu-
lurn provides primary studies and a
high-school course, including some
Latin and Greek, The schools have
always been supported by money voted
by the tribal council from funds be-
longing to the tribe. The federal gov
eminent has lately stepped in and un-