The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1906-11-28
SENATORS
LEARNED
RESUME OF INFORMATION GAIN.
ED IN RECENT VISIT.
The Principle Subjects Are Disposi-
ton Of Segregated Coal Lands,
Removal Of Restrictions, OIL and
Gas Conditions, Lease System.

dian Territory so confusing ard so /
contradictory that it decided that it
would be worth $4,000 to find out the |
exact conditions here, the deficiencies !
i'm the congressional and departmental |
laws in force and the beg: ncans of
remedying them. To that CnG five
United States senators were selected
to travel through Indian Territory and |
ea,her i'm their own wa. all the in
formation that they could and make a
report and recommendation to con
gress. What their recommendations
may be no one would be willing to
forecast, but in a general way it Is
known what information they have
received while here, because they
have visited six of the larger cities
in the territory and all their hearings
have been public.
In sentence the senators found
Indian Territory place of unexpected
resources handicapped by unusual
governmental limitations.
There were three principal subjects
that occupied the attention of the
ommittee-disposition of the segre-
gated coal lands of the Choctaw ma
tion; removal of restrictions from In
dian lands; condition of the oil and
gas fields and the system of leasing
IN vogue. Aside from these three
brar ches the senator's gathered a
greet deal of lntercstitg information
cn multitude OF subjects.
They found that the full-bloods who
cannot speak the English language
are almost to a man opposed to the
removal of restrictions on lands, in
fact opposed to any step of progress,
and want an unconditional observance
of the treaties of the thirties. They
want the secretary of interior to con
tinue to exercise a sort of supervision
over them, not because they are in
sympathy with his policies, but be-
man less. and beljs~s thaC ;Le secre-
taly of interior Is all that stards be-
tween them and total absorption by
the white man. Also that the edu-
Gated full-blood wants exactly the op,
pCsite and is in full sympathy with
the white man on these matters. On
the part of the whites, who outnum,
Der the Indians eight to one, a uni
versal demand for the removal of re
strictions from all Indian lands eX
cept the full bloods there being a diff
ference of opinion on what should be
done with their land some favorinf
removal on the surplus and some OF
both surplus and homestead, and ;
few who believe the full blood shoulC
be protected longer, but a genera
agreement that n business qualifica
tion rather than a blood qualification
would be more satisfactory and prac
tical.
I'm thirty minutes of direct inside In
formation as to Just how he bough
and leased lands from Indians an,
negroes, c. NJ. Bradley convinced tn
senators that tn present system o
handling lands is not a safeguard {
the allottec, nor does 1t encourage 4
him a spirit of independence or iudl
ment, or self-relance but the pres
ent laws have made graft easy an
profitable.
The accredited representatives {
the national councils of the Chocta,
and Chickasaw nations, which ow
the coal lands, informed the commi
tee what the nations would like to d
with these lands They want to Sc
them for cash, to the government {
some other responsible party, unde
guarantee, get the money and have
distributed Immediately to the indiyi,
ual members of the nations so thu
they may improve their allotment
The Indians are land poor, most
them, and they want the ready cas-
TO live on and make homes. 1t is ais
apparent that the Indians place
high value on the coal lands, so HE
perhaps, as to preclude the possib
ity Of the government or state fro
taking the lands over. There W,
also presented the fact that twen
towns have builded on these cot
lands and there Is no way of gettir
title even in the townsites The su
face of the coal lands was found
be nearly all fairly good agricultur
land capable of supporting a den
farming population Independent of Il
coal deposits The white people
the coal belt demanded of them
separation of the surface land fro
tho mineral danpsite and tbat tho O.,