The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-08-12
Heads of Indian Families Say That All Signed Up
ALL TRUSTED IN M'MURRAY
Great Wealth of Choctaw and Cbicka- saw Indians Is Shown By the In- vestfgatfon ms They Average
 SJOOO Per Capita

McAlester, Okla, August 11.-It ws' vestigation in the Gore bribery charges
 today that baby Indians as well al adult ones had "signed" the McMurra, contracts providing for the sale o1
 $so, 900, ,00O worth of land on a 10 pei cent "attorneys fee" basis. The names of the little papooses were signed by the parents or guar dians, witness testified. It was incl dentally developed that race suicide is far from threatening among the In dians.
 J. M. Perkins, Choctaw, testified that he had nine children, all of whom had "signed' the contract. We considered that McMurray knew better than our congressman and sen ators how to go about selling the lands" said Perkins. We believed that by signing the contracts we would realize quicker our claims; that's why I and the children signed up." Dr. J. H. Miller, a Choctaw by in termarriage, testified that he and his eight children had signed the con tracts.
 The present great wealth of the OK
 lahoma Indians was brought out in the testimony.
 Although the Choctaw and Chickesav tribes of Indians are fighting for theil individual shares of the land now held for them by the government, they are at present accounted among the rich est people in the world. It was saic that their per capita interest in the claim against the government Is $500t besides which the yare already rich ir lands.
 Indian witnesses took the stand and told of measuring their lands by the thousand acres.
 One Indian testified that his family owned 1900 acres of which 1000 acres are under cultivation with cotton. corr and potatoes. The land is rented out he said, giving him one-quarter of tho cotton crop and one-third of the corr crop without labor to him | Ormsby McHarg, an attorney for tn, | Choctaw tribe, testified that Some asper
 sions" had been cast upon him because
 he had been employed as the Indian coun sel in Washington while he lived in New York He said he received a salary of $l2,0OO a year.
 Acting under orders of the Secretary of the Interior McHarg said he had in- vestigated the Indian land situation in Oklahoma. "T found the situation as con fusing as ingenious men could make it. testified the witness. T was instructed by the department of Indians to blaze away and clear the confusion. am now engaged in formulating a plan"
 If the McMurray contracts were ap- proved. Mir McHarg said he would re- sign at once. as he would regard it as duplication of service. He said the Choctaw tribe had already paid out $3O, 0O0a year for attorneys.
 Dr. E. N. Wright, delegate for the Choctaws at Washington, denied charges made against him Congressman Carter, who testified that Richard Ada ms of Washington had said Wright was 'n- terested'' in the McMurray contracts.
 Hearing VIII Be Resumed
 Sulphur, Okla, August 1.-The con- gressional Investigating committee ar rived here today, where the rehearings on the Gore Indian charges and McMur- ray Indian contracts will be resumed to- morrow.
 R. S. Person of Washington, clerk of the House committee on Indian affairs, and former auditor of the department of the Interior. was taken Ill with typhofd fever and was left in hospital at Mc- Alester.
 Mr. Person Is well known among off cials at Washington and Sulphur, in what is known as the Chickasaw nation.