Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-06-11
AN INTERESTING TRIP
MIR. L, B. CALFEE TALKS OF VISIT
TO THE WEST.

Mr.. L. B. Calfee of Washington. a mem
Der of the party sent GU. last fall by the
Interior Department to pay the Choctaw
and Chickasaw tribes, in the Indian terri
tory. their portion of the town site funds.
as directed by Congress. returned to Wash
ington day SO ago.
The government party was In charge ot
Mr.. George a. Wise of Wyoming and dis
tributed nearly million dollars among the
Indians. Under the law each Indian over
the age of eighteen years received $40.
The party was under the protection of sew
eral United States Indian policemen and
interpreters, of whom the noted Capt. All
McCay Of the territory guard, and John NJ.
Harrison. who knows every Indian by sight,
were the principals
In speaking of the trip Mr.. Calfee said:
I'VE had an interesting experience among
the Indians. We went from town to town.
where we met the Indians, who came by
droves, the sqaws bringing their papooses
with them. We distributed Uncle Sam 8
| funds to them by system of conSecutively
numbered tickets, which proved to be
great success. not cent was lost. The
Indians were delighted. and were we in
obse rving the various and novel character
iStfcS of these people. To the Indian SQuawS
with their papooses at times the wait in
| line was rather tedious, our chief had
promulgated order to obviate that irk-
| SoHe feature Oh lNe distribution, mat All
Indian squawS and their papooses should
be preferred beneficiarieS of the distI .bu-
| tion, hence first In line; but those women
| soon Illustrated their shrewdness by pass
| ing little papoose down the lin TO those
who did not have one, so as to come under
| line humane order.
The Indians brought along with them
| from their homes many of their household
pets. such as dogs. cats and chickens. ana
when they would get their money and de-
part. such scramble and jabbering in
the roundup was amusing.
The ChoctaWs and ChickasaNs are an
| interesting people, kind and Loyal in their
friendship, though improviJent race.
with no knowledge of the value of money.
The public schools have done much for
them on those reservations: In fact, 1t is
plain to be seen that the government has
been the chief factor in their civilization.
Their greatest curse seems to be the graft
err and contraband whisky. which has
crept into their civilization Some whisky
was stolen in while We were there, and sold
concealed in horse collars, but the United
States detective system out there is fine and
the source of supply was soon CD off.
I'VE met many interesting and romantic
characters in that frontier section. among
whom was our chief Indian policeman.
Captain ALT. McCay, man of twenty-five
years experience In chasing train robbers.
murderers, horse thieves-a typical western
officer who makes life miserable for those
who despise the laws of Uncle Sam.
Picking up rifle one evening. as We
all sat around on the grass, 70 smoke after
our evening meal, he began a story.
How well do 1 remember when I first
saw Winchester rifle. 1 had been over Oh
Fourteen Mile creek, in the Cherokee nation
way back in the 70s, looking up some cat
tie thieves, when l fell up with party of
four hoursemen and one of them, who SEEM
ed TO be the leader bantered me for horse
trade. / was riding big bay, in fine con-
dition, and he had a gray horse that was a
wiry fellow. in rather poor condition, being
ridden down. l told him that he would
have 10 boot me about so, and when he
offered a sum slightly less than that
l told him to remove his saddle. After eX-
changing horses, and noticing that | adj
mired the shooting iron he was carrying,
which was one of the old Henry rifles. Win
chester pattern. and showing me how Il
worked. he handed it over TO me, remark
ing: 1T is yours: L am tired of carrying
IT. He a stout, heavy-bear1ed man
with a keen eye, and after leaving the
party / could not get his features out of
my mind. Later in the day, however. l rode
up to house, hitched my horse and vent
In, and after a while told the man VINO lived
there about the trade had made He knew
my horse WELL and said that he had
a man riding it that same day, and asked
If I knew who II was. Telling him that \
did not know the man, he said THAT man
was Jesse James and the other members
of his bunch two of the Eoungers and
Frank James" / kept the horse, Gray
Eagle which Jesse had traded me- and
after getting it in good condition, put it IN
a number of races and he was d winner
every time / started him. f"