Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1909-07-27
AFTER SEYENTY-FlVE YEARS.
Long Fight for an Indian Claim Which Fl
naIIV Proved Successful.

A S., 900, 900 melon that has
,een ripening for nearly Is years
s at last being sliced by the gov
eminent for distribution among
;he Cherokee Indians.
1t has been a standing claim OF
the Indians against Uncle Sam
since 1885. In that year tie gov
eminent owed the Cherokees, for
land purchased, the sum of ST.
100, 900, which lay in the treasury
to their credit with interest at 5
per cent.
Then one fine day an error was
made in the auditing department
of the treasury and it appeared,
according to the ooks, that the
Cherokees had nothing to their
credit. Their head men took up
the matter, hlred lawyers and for
rs long years labored to establish
their claim. They tried the ex-
ecutive officials and beseiged Con-
gress but without making an i'm
preston worth a cent, to say
nothing of the millions they we're
after. They were told that the
books showed they had nothing
coming and, government records
being infallible, there a no
ground for argument. So it was,
year after year, as the Indians
made their pilgrimages to Wash
ington.
About ten years ago the aspect
of things changed somewhat when
Robert l.. Owen, an attorney of
Muskogee, l. t., was given charge
Of the claim, He vas a member
Of the Cherokee nation through
his mothers side, while his father
was Robert L, Owen, a Virg inian
and president of the Tennessee
railroad. Attorney Owen was
highly educated, he had wit and
Judgment besides, and lie pro-
ceeded to make things move. The
first thing to do was get permits
sion from Congress to proceed
against the government in the
Court of Claims and prove that
the rustiug dollars of the all
cient Cherokee fund really
lay in tho vaults of the treasury.
He got it, afterwards repeated the
achievement, two hearings in the
Court of Claims being necessary
in his work. Anybody feeling
that it is not much of a job to get
that much action out of the great
est legislative body III the world
has never undertaken any little
old task like moving the Rocky
Mountains.
Ovens final contest was to
move the case into the United
States Supreme Court and he sue,
ceeded in that in 1906 as he had
IN all that went before. The re-
cord he submitted to the court
consisted of 200 printed pages.
He argued the case against the
skilled lawyers in the government
service and he won a judgement
that the original fund, sweIled by
the accumulated interest to 3d..
900 0 belonged to the living
Cherokees.
The court awarded him q fee of
100000, which approximates the
record for stipends for legal SER
vices even IN the Supreme court.
The decision placed upon the
government officials the stipend.
Gus task of ascertain,ng who was
entitled to the money, of seeing
to it that none having rights were
overlooked and the imposters did
not get a place at the counter. A
person having one sixty-fourth
part of Cherokee blood was q legal
member of the Cherokee nation
and the search through involved
family ties threaten to be almost
endless. The list Of those emit
tied to a share in the fund has
now been completed, however,
and contains 81, ZOO names. It
was made up from an army of
$4,000 applicants.
The man who won the big fight
and was rewarded with the prince
ly fee now represents Oklahoma
in the United States Senate
Washington dispatch