The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1907-07-18
INDIAN LAWS AND POLITICS.
Compulsory Educational System
Among Choctaws and Chickasays.


long to the same family of Indinas
and their governments in a largo
measure are run Jointly, although
they have separate legislatures. or
councils, and seperate chiefs. Every
member of the Chic-Chocs tribes.
man, woman and child is worth in
his own right In the neighborhood of
$4,000 This doesn't consist Of
property given to him. writes a Tish-
omingo correspondent of the Kansas
City Journal, It is property for which
he has just as valid title as that
held by any white man to his farm.
1t came to him by descent.
The only poor people in these two
nations are the white men. Thera
are no Indian almshouses. OF
course the Indians take good care
Of their sick and afflicted, but they
do not have to provide a poor farm
to keep INDECENT Indians. Their
only charges, aside from the afflicted.
who pay their way, are the INDECENT
whites. The Indians are very kind
to them, they give them employment
or look after them If they are unable
to work and are in want.
Ii was the pride of those two
tribes that they didn't have n men,
Der of school age unable to read and
write and figure. They would pick
out twcnty-four OF their b.lghtost
Young men and women each ~ar
and send them to Eastern unlyersi-
ties After finishing their educa-
tion those young men and women
would go back to their tribes and
help uplift the rest. Their entire
expenses while in the big colleges
of the East were borne by the tribal
governments. These two nations
also had compulsory school law
that has no equal. Everv able
bodied child over SIX years OF ago
had to go to school. There was no
way to evade the Law. II parent
needed the child to help with the
work the nation hired n poor white
man TO do the work so that the child
could stay in school and would pas
him out of the tribal treasury M
State in the Union ever developed fits
compulsory school laws to that hiCa
state of perfection, nor has one ever
sent its sons and daughters OF TO
college at public expense.
The Chickasaws and ChoctawS
used TO own slaves. They wero
Southern Indiana Indians and for
many generations lived in the slave
belt. But they were among the first
TO free their slaves, and after doing
that they did something that no
white eX-slave owner ever dreamed
Of doing, To each slave and his
wife and child these Indians gave
forty acres of land and then nut
them on their feet so that they could
sustain themselves. These freed
men still own their land, and many
of them have been able to accumu-
late enough to educate their chill
dren IN some OF the leading negro
colleges of the country
The Chickasaws and {. avs,
while they accord their freedmen
most generous treatment, never
mingle with them In a social way.
They draw the color line as ri6idly
as do the Southern whites Walk
into a courtroom and you will see
the Indians occupying seats on one
side of the aisle and the negroes on
the other. The Indians have very
rigid laws against intermarrylng
with negroes. 1t is absolutely pro-
hibited under severe penalty of one
hundred and fifty lashes on the back.
That number of lashes Is almost
equivalent to the death penalty.
When 1t comes to politics the In
dians are apt The campaigns are
always hot and furious. There is
more excitement among them over
the election of chief than there
is among the white people over the
election of a President Of the United
States. That is saying considerable
when 1t is taken into consideration
that ordinarily the Indian doesn't
enthuse very easily. When Chief
Johson OF the Chickasaws was can
didate for reelection his telephone
Dill alone amounted to nearly 81 900
On the last day of the campaign rival
AANAoAo Sut lhC WITeb lcdulUp u INV
chiefs house, and he had to hire
couriers to carry instructions on
election day.
The Indians are great on tele-
phones. The territory is a regular
network Of long distance wires.
Most of the Chickasaws and Choc-
taws have phone services right in
their houses, although they may be
twenty miles from a town. Chief
Johnson himself lives more than ten
miles from Tishomingo, the capital
ar the Chickasaw nation, yet he
Keeps In constant touch with tribal
matters by using his phone His
nome is built on the cottage style
and would do credit to any of the big
cities OF the East. 1t is surrounded
by big native forest trees and the
YARD Is a regular flower garden.
While Chief Johnson's SURROUNDINGS