Daily Arizona silver belt., 1908-11-01

GUTHRIE, Okla, October 3l.-Gov- ernor c. N. Haskell of Oklahoma has written to President Roosevelt, de- manding justice for the Osage Indians, whom the governor charges have been defrauded out of fifteen or twenty million dollars in bonuses and royal ties on their lands by the president s refusal to cancel, at the request of the governor, the leases of the Stand ard Oil company upon these lands.
 The governor 8 letter to the president is as follows:
 Hon. Theodore Roosevelt, President,
 Washington, D. c.
 "Sir: In September l called your attention to complaint at the renewal of the oil leases on six hundred and eighty thousand acres of Osage Indian Tribal lands. You ignored the matter.
 "On October fifth, having further pressure for investigation, of the un- just character of that lease. and having ascertained from that the Osages, being our citizens, it was my duty beyond question to demand of you as the chief guardian of these particular lands, an explanation as to what good reason if any, there might have been for the renewal of the lease, at conditions fixed by you. I. on that date, made the for. nal demand of you in writing.
 "October ninth, the acting secretary of the interior. writing as he stated, on account of your having referred my letter to him, his explanation was that you had nothing to do with the lease, except fixing the compensation that the land owners were to receive. l was not satisfied with the answer because that was the very thing we objected to, namely, the grossly inadequate eompen- sation to the land owners, which was the real complaint.
 "On October twelfth, I answered you, referring to the interior department 's explanation, and stating to you:
 "(a) That you had refused to give the Osages an opportunity to produce evidence before you to show the amount of compensation justly due to them as the land owners;
 "(b) That tho oil field, of which their lands were part, was an estab- lished, rich, producing field, where roy. alties and bonuses to land owners were established by long practices and pre- cedents.
 "(c) That among the lowest aver. ages the Osages were at that time en- titled to at least seven million dollars cash bonus and one-sixth royalty.
 "(0 That the Indian Territory IT.. luminating Oil company, sub of the Standard Oil company, as the assignee of the original Foster lease, was by subletting this same Osage property to operating companies, receiveing much more as a bonus than the Osages would receive as the owners of tho land on q one-eighth basis.
 "(e) That against the original judg- ment of the department of the inter for and upon the request of Messrs Guffey, Barnsdale, Senator Depew and other we'll known agents of the Stan dard Oil company, you had granted an extension of the lease on this six hun dred and eighty thousand acres of land at the grossly inadequate compensation of one-eighth royalty and not one cent of cash bonus.
 Pursuing my duties to the Osage Indians, as citizens of our state, re- quested that you cancel that lease to the end that the Osnge Indians might have an opportunity to receive by con- petitive bids or otherwise, an income from the oil values of their lands, which they could readily obtain, equal to the average obtained by the adjoin- ing land owners 10 the north, east and the south of the lands.
 "I am today in receipt of the fol lowing letter from your secretary of state:
 '"'C. N. Haskell, Governor of Oklaho.
 ma.
 ''Sir: Your letter of October l2, 1908, to the president of tho United States and signed by you as governor of Oklahoma, has been referred to the department of state, which is charged with the conduct of correspondence be. tween the president and the chief ex- of the several states.