Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-03-24

An interesting country the Indiar
 Territory, and until comparatively re
 gently land practically unknown tt
 the people of the United States. thoug. i situate almost in the very middle O ! the United States. It was not unti
 after 1894, in which year the nationa
 congress authorized a survey of thu
 lands of the territory, that we had trut
 topography of this large region. It wal , thought to be an open, fiat country; i 1 proved a region about one-fourth O which was mountainous, nearly two thirds woodland
 i An interesting people has reignet
 supreme in the territory-this nation
 within a nation-the Five Civilized
 Tribes, who came thither- under ar agreement with our government guar. anteeing their tribal authority. They entered this fertile land of exile in ths
 middle '30s, and in the period interven.
 ing between then and now have COZ ducted their own affairs. Subject tc
 the requirement. that they must keeE
 within the limits of the constitution of the United States, and must recognize
 the United States governments para
 mount authority, they have been su-
 preme in their own domain" But now
 all this is ended. On the 4th of March.
 1906, the last tribal organization of the
 Five Civilized Tribes was dissolved, f"and their numbers diffused in the
 mass of the country's citizenship, the
 hpal chapter in the Indians annals az
 distinct race .. written"
 In the Atlantic" of the month that
 saw the final dissolution Of the Five
 Tribes, appeared an eloquent paper Ey
 Charles Harvey on 'The Red Mans
 Last Roll Call," paper that told us not only of the Indians of the Indian
 Territory but also of the great Rroces- sion of red men peopling this land. of their character, of their heroes. The reader was made to see m flash the vanishing life of the American race. the red men possessing the land when the whites came, the aborigines thai proved themselves far mode formida-
 ble warriors than any other of the in ferior races even encountered by the empire builders of Spain, France, Eng land, Holland or America" One ranges far as one reads; there is De Soto's encounter with the warlike Chickasaws and Cherokees in the Mississippi val ley; Champlain and the powerful con- federation of the Iroquois; Tecumseh, the Shawnee, fighting with the British against Old Tippecanoe; the Apache Rough Riders in New Mexico and Ari- zona. And the author of The Red Mans Last Roll Call" speaks of the In- dians' victories of peace. Tn peace, too, the American Indian gained vic tories which ought to be as renowned as those he gained in war. Hiawatha, the Onondaga, and Dagonseda, the Mo- hawk, evolved confederation for the Iroquois under which the affairs com mon to the Mohawks, Cayugas. Onei- das, Onondagas and Senecas were reg ulated, and this went into operation over three centuries before Washing ton, Hamilton, Madison and the!y asso- ciates met in Philadelphia to devise the federal scheme under which we live. The League Of the Iroquois. as Jefferson wisely intimated. ooulc have given valuable points to the Phil adelphia convention of 17s7."
 But let us return 10 the Indian Ter ritory and the Indian of to-day. It was Jefferson that suggested the transfer of the Indians to the west of the Missis- sippi, and it was under Jackson the Indian Territory was created. the Five Civilized Tribes began foregathering there. Early in his service as presI- dent, Jefferson announced: '1 am my self alive to the obtaining lands from the Indians by all honest and peaceable means, and I believe the honest ani peaceable means adopted by us will o5- tain them as fast as the expansion of our settlements, with due regard tol compaetness, will require" After the purchase of Louisiana, Jefferson pro- posed the move to the west. In ls3O. President Jackson ordered the removal of the Indians from their homes eas. of the Mississippi; in 1892. the Indian was set apart tor the Five Civilized Tribes; by 1s4s the last ones, the siminoles. were established there
 Other Indians moved into these lands. The census of 1900 reported a Modoc reservation of 140 souls. an ot- tava reservation of 2,205, Peoria res srvation of 227, Quapau reservation of | 154. Seneca reservation of 2ss. shaw nee reservation of 7s, wyzndotte res sryatio. of 2ss. The Five CivilizeI Tribes occupy almost the whole of the 
 That is to say, they and the white men do. for of the fndias TerritOry's ] population of about 400.OQ9 the whites number over 30o.O0S: ss.o0o are clzssei as Indians. and of these only 25.D00 ar. full bIoods; there are over Io.009 of l various shades of mfxt1re.- 1890 whites vho. by reason of intsrmsrrizzE have been adopted into the tribes. anI ls.oso Of negro or mixsd negro bIooi- |