The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1906-01-30
NEGRO AND INDIAN
UNIQUE CONDITIONS EXISTING
IN INDIAN TERRITORY
The Aboriginal Race Receding Into
the Background-Efforts to En-
force Race Laws Una
vailinu.

force Race Laws Una
vailing.
Oklahoma City lies in the middle of
vast and windy prairie. Fifty or
hundred miles cast and south one
strikes into a rolling country, with
low ranges of hills covered by timber
and concealing beneath their broken
and scraggy surfaces vast areas of
coal. This is the Indian Territory,
the last refuge of the tribes that once
held all the country between the Ap-
palachians and the Atlantic ocean in
their possessions, says Booker T.
Washington in tne New York Post.
The whole situation out here is puz-
zling. 1t should be remembered that,
| when the five civilized nations-the
Seminoles, the Choctaws,. the Creeks,
the Chickasaws, and the Cherokees--
were banished to the Territory in 1888,
/ they brought with them a considerable
infusion Of white blood, and with this
inheritance of blood they came into
the possession of a legacy of Scotch
Irish names that are still preserved.
One of the most noted and numerous
clans in the Territory is that of the
McIntoshes.
Though there has been considerable
mixture of the differeLS strains, the
| Indian, negro and the white man,
each Of the different tribes has main
tanned different attitude in regard to
the negro, as far as concerns inter
marriage and social equality. For in
! stance, the negroes have been favored
by the Seminoles and Creeks against
the whites. On the other hand, / am
informed, the Cherokees. Chickasaws,
and the Choctaws have favored the
whites to the prejudice to the negroes.
Thus ethnic and social considerations
of the most complicated sort have en-
tered into and modified the situation
and made It unique and interesting.
4 further circumstance that has ten
ded particularly to- render the rela-
tions of the races unstable is the fact
that every Indian" (and that includes
also the freedmen-those who were
| formerly slaves of the Indians, and
adopted citiZens) is entitled in the al
lotmen of land now taking place OF
from 100 to 800 acres OF land. This
holds good for every man, woman and
child who is Citizen" that is mem
ber of the nation. This fact has ten
ded 10 break down the barrier of racial
prejudice. Squaws have become SO
| sought after as that in the
Chickasaw nation, where every mem
ber of the nation is expected to get
800 acres of land. the marriage license
has been fixed at $1,000.
The Indian has receded. He avoids
the towns and the railways just as
naturally as the white man and the
negro move toward them. There are
towns in the Indian Territory built by
the negroes where an effort has been
made to exclude the white man by
law. There are white towns in the
Indian. Territory where they have at
tempted to exclude the negro by law.
In both cases the laws have been de-
clared invalid. But there are, accord
ing to all reports, no Indian towns
and there is no law that excludes the
Indian. There is no need for such a
law. They go back of their own ac-
cord. When you see an occasional
specimen in the town he appears like
a stranger.
according to the census of 1900 there
were in the Indian Territory 52.5lO
Indians and $3.50 negroes, and BOP $50
whites. Though the negroes were then
and are still perhaps in a considerable
minority in the Territory they were
everywhere seen working in the mines
laboring in the street, engaged in
traffic in small way. In South Nc
Alester one of the large railway con-
tractors, E. e. McDaniels, is a me-
gro.
| Popular opinion seems TO be that the
negroes have so far predominated that
the natives have become negToized.
Negroes constitute about one-fifth of
the population, and pay one-fourth of
the taxes. Negroes have two banks
the Creek Citizens bank, with a cap
ital OF $50, 900, and the Gold Bond bonK
with a capital of $4,000. Mr.. Wash
ingtOR, during his visit stayed with A.
s. U. Sango, president of the Creek
Citizens bank. Mr.. Sango is a native
citizen. His ancestors came with the
Indians from Alabama.
All the property for 40 miles along
the line OF railway below Muskogee is
in the possession of the negroes.
] Maltese Goats.