Holbrook argus., 1904-03-19
FIVE NATIONS ARE ABUSED
INDIANS DISCOURAGED BY PUBLIC
 STEALS
President Sends 10 Congress scathing Report of Bonaparte and Woodruff on Their Investigation of Frauds in Indian Territory

on their investigation of the alleged abuses and irregularities in the public service of the Indian territory under the control of the interior department was submitted to congress by the president.
 The report stigmatized conditions in the territory as involving "immNd- fate danger of ruin to the genuine Indian population and profound dis credit to the United States, exciting reasonable discomfort on the part of all classes of the population and de- manding prompt and drastic remedies on the part of congress"
 The action of federal officials ln the territory is severely criticised.
 The report is accompanied by q letter from Secretary Hitchcock to the president concurring as to the refel ences to the federal officials and ask ing for a conference with the presi- dent regarding them at the earliest practical moment, and saying he will later consider the proposed sweeping changes in the organization and ad- ministrative methods which require much new legislation and possibly the negotiation of supplemental agree ments with the Indians.
 Secretary Hitchcock adds that the baseless impression reported to have obtained in the Indian territory as to the practice and procedure in the de- partment relative to appeal is not surprising in view of the "atmosphere of suspicion and calumny which per vades the territory.
 The report says: "Conditions pre- vailing in the Indian Territory at the present time are altogether abnormal. Multitudes of corporations have sprung up there and the purposes and methods of a large proportion of these corporations are such as to make it obviously improper for federal officers in the territory and especially for members of the commission to hold their stock"
 Speaking of the present situation in the territory, the report says that the real Indians, who remained Indians, constituting scarcely one twentieth of the whole number of the inha abitants. are rapidly decreasing in numbers; not dying from disease or vice, but be- cause the future holds out no prospect for them.
 The report notes the profound dis content among the white people of the territory and the very general want of confidence in public business and the frequency with which one authority is reversed by another.
 The report expresses the opinion that it was an error of policy so to frame the statutes providing for an allotment in severalty among the Five Tribes as to permit any Indian ito obtain more land than he could oc- cupy personally with profit, and to fail adequately to recognize the dis tance between a real Indian and a white or black man having the rights of an Indian.
 It is recommended that the Indian territory be divided as soon as practi- cable into districts which may here after become counties of future state, and that every such district have an officer to supervise Indian leases, perform probate and notarial duties and to serve as committing magis trate and judge of petty cases, etc., in order to relieve the ,dockets of the United States courts.
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