The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1903-06-24
FRAUD IN ALLOTMENT
Of indian LANDS.
President Appoints a Newspaper
Correspondent to Go TO Ter
ritory and Investigate.
GRAVE CHARGES ARE MADE.
Officials of Departments of Justice
and the Interior Said to Be
Involved in Extensive
irregularities
REPUBLIC SPECIAL.

| REPUBLIC SPECIAL.
| Washington. June 23.-It was learned this
morning that another Government scandal
| as serious in its way as the recently dis
| covered Post Office frauds is about to he
exposed. These are alleged gigantic frauds
| in Indian Territory land allotments and in
the enrolment of tribesmen for individual
allotments in preparation for the dissolU-
| ton of tribal relations.
For some time, rumors have been in circu-
lation which limited at extremely serious
conditions in the administration of affairs
in the Indian Territory. both under the
jurisdiction Of the Department OF Justice
and Of the Department of the Interior.
Recently. the reports of these alleged con-
ditions became so tangible that President
Roosevelt to-day commissioned Francis L.
Ieupp, a newspaper correspondent of Wash
ington. who is a close personal friend of
the President, to visit the Indian Territory
and particularly the Comanche. Apache and
kiowa Indian reservations in the West and
make complete confidential report on con-
ditions there under the administration of the
officers Of the Departments of Justice and
the Interior. Mr.. Leupp will depart from
Washington TO execute his mission within
a few days.
The Department of Justice recently re-
called to Washington Pliny Soph. formerly
OF Kansas, and now a Federal attorney in
the Indian Territory. 1t is confidently be-
the conferences which Mr. Soph has had
with the Department of Justice will be fol-
lowed by some interesting developments.
BIG SCANDAL THREATENED.
The remarkable thing about the situation
is that Inspectors have often visited the
Indian Territory. and officers of the Depart
ment of Justice and the Interior believed
they were in the closest possible touch with
affairs in the Indian Territory
1t has been found impossible. however. to
Ignore the fact that discoveries have
seemed to indicate conditions of widespread
corruption. and Secretary of the Inferior
Hitchcock and the other officers of the
Government under whose jurisdiction the
Indian Territory is governed, intend to so
II II entails as comprehensive an investiga-
ton as is now being made in the case Of
the postal service scandals.
II Is said that recent designations were
IN connection with these scandals and il
was further learned from an authoritative
source that other designations would have
been forthcoming IL there had been a
authorities. Secretary Hitchcock has re-
Gently returned from the Indian Territory
and Oklahoma.
position to know that If the bottom is ever
reached in the Indian Territory and Indian
reservation scandals. the facts brought
forth will rival in Importance. if not in gen
eral interest the present disclosures in the
postal service. 1t is known that both At
torney General Knox and Secretary of the
Interior Hitchcock are unit in insisting
that the alleged irregularities and criminal
operations shall be unearthed and the guilty
persons punished.
No estimate can be had OF the number of
acres of land that have been .rregularly
allotted. in the process employed. but it Is
said to be enormous.