The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-10-14
MUST CANCEL
 LAND LEASES Haskell Makes Demand
 On Roosevelt INJUSTICE TO 0SAGE INDIANS Oklahoma Governor Intimates Cor
 ruption Is at Work . In Letter to President He shows That .citisens of his state Were
 swindIed Out of Large
INJUSTICE TO oSAGE INDIANS

Kansas City, Mo. Oct. l3.-When Governor Charles N. Haskell arrived here today from Guthrie. he gave the Associated Press a signed statement addressed to President Roosevelt con tributinR another chapter in the con troversy arising over the leasing or 6S0,o00 acres of Osage Indian OH lands.
 q shalL' says the Governor in the course of his statement, insist on the cancellation of this lease Tn the interest of these citizens of our state, or that Congress take action to de- clare this improvident and unjust lease void. and secure for the osage nation the just and reasonable compensation that other owners are receiving"
 The letter follows:
 ITO Honorable Theodore Roosevelt
 President, Washington, D. c.
 'Sir:--I have just received letter from Frank Pierce, acting secretary, interior department. dated october 8. stating that my letter to you, asking for an explanation as to the oil lease on the Osage land had been referred to his department.
 He attaches an explanation which is not at all satisfactory. It contains practically nothing in conflict with my complaint. l agree that in 1878 the 
 lease to E. B. Foster on the entire Osage nation for ten years at ten per cent royalty.
 "At that time the nearest known oil production was about 700 miles from the Osage nation, so that the Foster lease in 1896 was a rank wild cat proposition and of course the usual pioneer royalty Of ten per cent was allowed. But during the ten years the field was developed and found to be unusually rich, and ten years at this low royalty was an ample reward to those who developed it.
 The History Of Oil.
 By 1905 Foster had transferred his lease to the Indian Territory I1lumi- hating oil Company. a we'll known sub landlord of the company.
 @'The development showed that oil covered 680,000 acres. being the east part of the Osage nation, also extend- ing north Into Kansas, east into In- dian Territory and Nsouth into Okla homa and the whole erea is known as the richest oil country in existence at this date. The remainder of the Osage nation was barren.
 Congress gave you the power to fix the consideration that the Osage people should receive as their part of the oil value at the expiration of the ten year lease. It was well known
 
 leasers were paying for small tracts in the Osage nation and adjoining lands in the Cherokee nation as the Cheroxe ca leases passed through the interior de- partment and their approval and the royalties and bonuses received by the Iand owners were a matter of record ana approved in the interior depart nent records. It is scarcely possible mat with these records before you. vou Tailed to notice then ten dollars ner acre cash bonus and one- sixth royalty was much below the average comnen- sation to the land owners. Indeed in many instances cash bonuses of from nIty to even one hundred dollars per acre were received by the land ovne,..
 A few cases found in the interior department records are as follows:
 Ihe Lannon family, seven hundred acres Cherokee nation, immedtately Joining the Osage nation. t.t.-t pa1tment lease in 1903. cash bonus s4O- O0o. royalty, one-eighth.
 We have eight or ten similar 1asso. where general public information ahows cash bonuses substantially as large as the above and royalties running at one sixth but your subordinate officers in charge of the Indian office at Musko1ca on orders from the interior department. this morning, refused to permit ex- animation of the records
 "congress no sooner gave vou the authority to fix the amount of compen sation than the Osages filed a written request with you for an opportunity to be heard and produce evidence show ing that cash bonus of $7,O0O. 900 and one sixth royalty, wiuld be indeed a moderate compensation to them.
 No Hearing for Indians,
 You neglected to give the Osages any opportunity whatever to be heard. The fact that six hundred and eighty thousand acres of rich oil land was at