The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1904-05-03
GOOD FIELD
FOR LAWYERS
Indian Territory Land Deals
Require Great Care.
GUARANTEE OF TITLE
Buyers Will Pay a Little More
to Make Certain.

Guthrie. o. T.. May 2.-From Muskogee
came the information that since the ap-
proval OF the Indian appropriation bill.
little more than a week ago, more than
10000 acres of land have been sold in
the Creek nation. and fully so per cent
of the purchases have been made by in
vetment companies and land men spec
! ulators" in the ordinary sense OF the
term. The indications are that. in the
Cherokee nation, the freedmen win dis
pose of their land as fast as they receive
their allotments. and most of this, too,
viii go to the spectators.
The fact that few individual purchases
are being made is due to two reasons. In
the first place. the land companies had
their agents in the field long before the
restrictions were removed. and were thus
prepared to gobble up the choicest farms,
and. in the second instance, the man who
| has only enough money TO provide him
self with a farm for his own use is not
willing to stake everything on the un-
certain titles.
Every provision that congress has made
relative to the disposal of Indian Terri
tory real estate has contained just enough
ambiguity TO cause the individual to hes
itate, while, trusting to probable favor
able action of the coudts. the speculator
is given just faith enough TO plunge to
the full lengh of his resources. In its
zeal to protect the Indian from the
CRATER, congress has thus played every
card into the hands of the big land COM
panies
But the individual purchaser need have
no cause for complaint that he will be
compelled to buy from the corporations.
In fact. under the> circumstances. it will
be much better for him. OF course he
will have to pay more for his farm, but
he Will get a warranty deed from the land
company which will assure him clear
title, and. while there are certain to be
many contested allotments. il will be the
corporations. and not the second purchas
ers, who will suffer The first purchaser
can buy only the ailottee's title, but the
second will demand guaranty. Many of
the companies are already selling, and in
each case a clear title is being guaran-
teed OF course, should the firm become
insolvent, even the second assignee would
not be protected, but most of the COM
panies are on good financial footing.
Most notable among the acts which con-
gress left ambiguous are the clause in the
Indian bill removing the restriction of all
not of Indian blood. and the supplement
agreements with some of the nations pur-
porting TO provide for the distribution of
lands of those citizens who died after the
allotted.
And, aside from the ambiguous laws.
there are certain conditions which con-
gress could not have avoided. and which
at the same time are sure to prove Il
source of great annoyance, and cause
endless litigation One instance is where
heirs trace their ancestry to an Indian
who was married more than once Tn
der the Arkansas statutes. all OF the
children in these eases inherit alike In
Indian Territory there were no laws
against bigamy, and it has been demon
strated that in numerous cases one man
had several wives who never knew of the
existence of each other. So the children
of one of these wives might ALLEVIATE
their inheritance. and truthfuliy swear
were the sole surviving heirs. while a
dozen descendants could spring UP from
some other part of the territory with
positive proof that they also were heirs
OF the same parent. This is not a mat
ter of mere speculation. but an incident
of actual almost daily, occurrence.
However. none of these things is
standing in the path Of the speculator.
In fact. the mere existence Of uncertain
~ seems to entice him on. Land men
openly admit that they so into the bust
ness here much as they would invest IN
stocks in Wall street And they rush in
eagerly: there are na lanquid buyers here
OF course. the corporations viii come
out at the big end Of the horn finally /
even though the courts should find ad /
versely to their interests Not a very /
great per cent Of the freedmen could /
prove definitely that they were also ~ I
Indian descent. and the same would +
probably be the case in the other q8es- I
tionabie acts. This Is the way the com /
panies reason. BY buying large quaint /
ties. they VIII have enough Of the gen /
uine goods 10 kS~p on top. even though j
they lost some Of their purchases
GLL til4r tGlA+4tt - btFthi ~ tfiF sA+eitt '+f
wants a single farm. II he has only g 20
he wants To be certain of his title. ard
would therefore. prefer to ray solvent
corporation little more than the original f
price just for the guaranty.
Another thing congress has done IS 10
provide a coed field FOR lawyers. No
thoughtful man IS willing 10 invest q cent
in Indian Territory real estate until he
has consulted good counsel. and very
often. theu. he fails ~ get an expression
OF opinion The courts. too. viii have
some very knotty problems The Indian
Territory cases viii have 70 - decided
without reference 70 precedent There iz
70 precedent Real estate surrounded by
similar complications has existed n 70
other section q fbe country. Dor car
there ever he another instance q the
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