The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1908-06-19
WILL DEFY TAX COLLECTORS,
APPEAL TO SUPREME COURT
WILL GUST ALL FREEDMEN
to Do With Giving Them Land and
That Their Holdings is Really
the Property Of the indians.

Muskogee, Okla, June ls.-Crazy
Snake, leader of the rlake Indians of
the five tribes. with a number of his
followers. appeared here Monday and
secured an audience with Jesse VIII
son, Assistant Secretary of IA, In
terror. The propositions laid before
the department official by this willy
old Indian and his followers were
rather startling, and ones that have
not yet been raised
In the first place. Crazy Snake,
speaking always through an inter
peter, wanted to know by what right
the white man was coming among
them and listing their property for
taxation with or without the Indians
consent He stated that no Indian
treaty had provided for that, and that
the Indians had never consented to
1t, furthermore, the treaties to
which the Indians had agreed ex.
pressly stipulated that their property
should never be taxed. The delega-
tion wanted some Congressman TO
take their cause before congress at
the next session and get law passed
that will forever exempt the land and
property of the full-blood Indians from
taxation. They stated that II tnis
We're not done, they would stand on
their present rights. as they construe
them under the treaties, defy the tax
collectors and take their cause to The
supreme court of the United States. !
The Snakes also raised the question
OF legality of title to every foe, Of
land now held in the FIVE tribes by
negroes, who are known on the rolls
as freedmen. They claim that in the
first place the freedmen have never
acquired the land with the consent
of the Indians, the later acquiring It
by treaty, but that the government
without the consent of the Indians. !
simply told the negroes they were en-
titled to share with the Indians, and |,
gave the allotments TO the negroes. |
Therefore they want the title TO
every allotment made TO a freedman |
set aside, and the land restored to the |
tribe from which il has been taken. /
There was a delegation of freedmen |
on hand, they having gotten wind of .
the position of Crazy Snake. Prac- /.
tically every freedman has sold the |
land allotted to him. except the nome. /
stead, and they are now only wait, |
ing for July p to arrive when they /
will sell their homesteads. II this |
proposition is raised and the depart |
ment takes recognition, then all of
the freedmen land that has been |
bought by white men will have the .
title brought into question.
Crazy Snake has among his tribes
men Chtto Harjo. His name in Eng. |
lish is Wilson Jones. He is one OF .
the shrewdest Indians that ever lived.
He has been in Washington seven
months and the stories he has told /
his followers OF the announcement
OF the government to restore the
Indians TO their original status
brought funds to keep him there all |
the time. He has just returned, and
when he found the assistant secre.
tary of the interior here, he fastened .
to bring some of his most faithful
followers before him.
Crazy Snake has an entirely new
story now. He claims that while he
was in Washington he enlisted the .
sympathy of several foreign govern.
ments and they will take up the
cause of the Snakes, and unless the |
government will restore TO them the L
land as 1t was when the original i
treaty was made giving II to them
free from all Interference "os long as
water runs and grass grows" then
the foreign governments will step in
and demand that Uncle Sam carry
out the treaty agreements with the
Indians. His people, some OF them at
least, believe this story.
The Indians psent a long time with
Mr. Wilson. They were given an at.
tentive audience and went away az
parently pleased with what they had
accomplished.