The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1908-04-10
THE NEGRO AND INDIAN
Unique Conditions Existing in
the Indian Territory.
MARRIAGE LICENSE $1,000.

tne bdckgTound-Sourcc OF MuCn
OF the Negro and White Blood
Efforts to Enforce Race Lawn
Unavaling!,
Oklahoma City lies In the middle OF
vast and windy prairie. Fifty or q
hundred miles east and south one
strikes into rolling country, with
low ranges of hills covered by timber
and concealing beneath their broken
and scraggy surfaces vast areas OF
coal. This Is the Indian Territory.
the last refuge of the tribes that once
held all the country between the APP
palachians. and the Atlantic ocean In
their possessions, says Booker T.
Washington in the New York Post.
The whole situation out here is puz-
zling. 1t should be remembered that.
when the five civilized nations--the
Seminoles, the Choctaws, the Creeks,
| the Chickasaws, and the Cherokees---
were banished to the Territory in 1898,
they brought with them a considerable
infusion of white blood. and with this
inheritance of blood they came into
| the possession of legacy of Scotch
| Irish names that are still preserved.
One Of the most noted and numerous
clans in the Territory is that of the
| McIntoshes.
Though there has been considerable
| mixture of the different strains, the
\ Indian, negro and the white man,
each of the different tribes has main
tanned different attitude in regard to
the negro, as far as concerns inter-
marriage and social equality. For in
stance. the negroes have been favored
by the Seminoles and Creeks against
| the whites. On the other hand, am
Informed, the Cherokees, Chickasaws
| and the Choctaws have favored the
whites to the prejudice to the negroes
Thus ethnic and social considerations
of the most complicated sort have en-
| tered into and modified the situation
and made It unique and interesting.
| A further circumstance that has ten
( ded particularly to render the rela-
| tions of the races unstable Is the fact
that every Indian" (and that includes
also the reedmen--those who were
formerly slayes of, the Indians. and
adopted citizens) Is entitled in the al
| lotmen of land now taking place >oi
from 16O to $50 acres, OF land. This
| holds good for every man, woman and
child who is citizen" that is mem
ber OF the nation. This fact has ten
ded to break down the barrier of racial
| prejudice. Squaws have become sc
sought after as wives that in the
Chlckasaw nation. where every mem
Der OF the nation is expected to get
$50 acres of land, the marriage license
has been fixed at $1,000.
| The Indian has receded. He avoids
| the towns and the railways just as
naturally as the white man and the
negro move toward them. There are
towns in the Indian Territory built by
the negroes where an effort has been
made to exclude the white man by
| law. There are white towns in the
| Indian Territory where they have at
tempted to exclude the negro by law
In both cases the laws have been de-
clared invalid. But there are, accord
ing to all reports, no Indian towns
and there is no law that excludes the
Indian. There is no need for such q
law. They go back Of their own ac-
| cord. When you see an occasional
specimen in the town he appears like
stranger.
According to the census of 1900 there
were in the Indian Territory 52,5lC
Indians and 36,S70 negroes, and 3O2, $50
whites. Though the negroes were then
and are still perhaps in a considerable
minority In the Territory, they were
| everywhere seen working In the mines
laboring In the street, engaged In
traffic In a small way. In South Nc
Alester one of the large railway con-
tractors, e. e. McDanlels, is a ne.
gro.
| Popular opinion seems to be that the
negroes have so far predominated that
the natives have become negroized
| Negroes constitute about one-fifth OF
the population, and pay one-fourth OF
the taxes. Negroes have two banks
the Creek Citizens bank, with a cap.
ital OF $50 900, and the Gold Bond bonH
with a capital of $4,000. Mr.. Wash.
ington, during his visit stayed with A
s. U. Sango, president of the Creek
Citizens bank. Mr. Sango is a native
citizen. His ancestors came with the
Indians from Alabama.
| All the property for 40 miles alone
| the line of RAILWAY below Muskogea a