Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-06-27

A11 Il y
danger to life or property. On June 6,
1880, Oklahoma was created terri
tory by act of congress. Other lands
have been added by opening of Indian
reservations or otherwise, until the
present settled area of the present ter
ritory is $4,000 square miles. The
growth, progress and advancement of
oklahoma in sixteen years has never
been equaled in the history of the
world and probably never will be
eclipsed. With the coming of state
hood, Oklahoma will absorb the raj
ance of the Indian Territory and it
| will be, from the day it is admitted,
one of the richest, most prosperous
and progressive states in the union.
| The rush for free homes which was
feature of the opening of Oklahoma
and which was supposed by many to
be great hardship, is spoken of today
as one of the best things that ever
happened to that territory. 1t elm
| mated the weak, the helpless and the
unproductiye person. 1t gave the prize
OF free home to the strong, the Wig
orous and the actual producer. 1t was
pre-eminently a case of the survival of
the f1ttest, where the strongest won.
| The result was that the lands of Ok
lahoma were Immediately possessed,
and occupied by a vigorous class of
actual farmers. who have made the
wilderness blossom as the rose and
who have been the chief factors in the
marvelously. rapid development of this
part of the country
The Indians.
| One Of the surprising revelations to
the visitor in Oklahoma and Indian
Territory is with reference to the In
dians. The percentage of Indian pop
ulation is so small in comparison to
the total population and the financial
and physical condition of the Indian
is SO different from the generally &C
copied idea prevailing through the
country, that these same ideas must
be entirely overhauled and revised
after visit to the two territories re-
ferred to. The United States census
of 1900 shows that there were in the
United States at that time total of
266,760 Indians. OF these, $500 re-
sided in the Indian Territory and H.
945 in Oklahoma Territory. For a num-
Der OF years 1t has been recognized
that the true solution of the Indian
problem must come through the allot-
ment of lands, citizenship, the dissolv-
ing of tribal relations and the cutting
off of government rations. In Okla
homa this work has been practically
completed and it is interesting to note
that those Indians whose lands have
been allotted are distinctly in advance
OF those still holding land in common.
In 1898, the Dawes commission was
created by congress to allot the land
In the Indian Territory to the Indians,
each man, woman and child to have an
equal share not in area but of value.
The task has been a very difficult one
but is now nearly completed. The
amount of land realized by each In
dian varied in the different tribes,
ranging from forty acres up to $50.
The Usage Indians, which in 1900 num-
bered l,79S are not only the richest
indians but they are per capita the
richest people in the world and the
governor of Oklahoma in report to
the secretary Of the inferior, made in
1900 declares that they are also the
LATEST people in the world Nowhere
it is said are children better cared for
than the papooses in Indian Territory
for each little Indian baby is worth at
least forty acres of good land. Many
Il; o1,I
ing graduates from the government
schools and many of them, especially
the half-breeds, live not only in COM
fort, but in the height of style, dress
ing as we'll as the best dressed whites
and driving fine equipages. 90, the
poor INDIAN is today the non-produc-
ing idle landlord class of the south
west. 1t is right that he should be
protected from his own shiftlessness
in not being permitted to sell his
homestead, but so far as possible 9th
er restrictions upon the sale to actual
settlers of Indian lands should be re-
moved
An Editorial Itinerary.
1t was jolly party of newspaper
men and their families that rendez-
voused at the Terminal hotel in st.
Louis on the 9Th of June. There were
some 500 in the party and in two spe-
cial trains of Pullman coaches, they
left the Union station at 1870 p. M,
for trip over the Missouri, Kansas &
Texas railway lines through Oklahoma
and the Indian Territory to San An
tonic, Texas. The party was in
charge of Passenger Agent Knowles
of the M. r. & T. line who spared no
effort that would add to the comfort
and pleasure of the editorial party.
The next afternoon the special trains
pulled into Guthrie, the capital city of
Oklahoma, where the annual conven-
ton of the National Editorial associa-
ton was held on June 7, and 9.
Guthrie, Oklahoma.
Guthrie welcomed the editors with
an open-hearted hospitality such as is
seldom met with and never forgotten.
Of n ~,