The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-02-25
READY FOR A BATTLE.
Occupants Live in Shaeks Fully
Stocked With Arms.
Leader of Indian Squaws De-
clares They Will Fight.

s'There is only one way, as far as
know, to dispossess the Conley sisters
of the old Wyandotte burying grounds
in Kansas City, Kan.," said Judge
West, assistant United States district
attorney, this morning. THAT is to
send squad of soldiers down there,
tear the little shack they have erected
n pieces and put the women off the
property. I made this recommendation
two wears ago and have not heard any
thing from it since. / don't know that
If will be done and as long as nothing
is asked of me I am not going TO make
any further recommendations along
that line
.sThe court has ruled that the women
have no title to the land. That was my
case 1 won it and I'm done unless L
have to do something more The Wo-
men have simply squatted on a piece
of government land and can be eJecteo
the same as if they were whites ana
had squatted on an Indian reservation
Since the court decided on January
81, against the women they have again
taken up their residence on the ground
in the little shack erected two years ago
but which is equipped like junior
Harper's Ferry. Guns galore and am
munition enough to last during long
siege is there. The promise to shoot
anyone who interferes has been repeated.
This threat two years ago had the ct
feet of keeping away both trespassers
and officers. 1t seems to De having
the same effect at this time.
When the bill was passed in congress
which ordered the old burying ground
sold it was provided that the bodles
inferred there should be removed to the
Ouindaro cemetery. When the commits
sion appointed to look after this work
took the matter up with the Quindaro
cemetery management they were told
they could inter the Indians in the
Quindaro grounds if they wanted to
buy lots at the rate Of $75 each. Moth
ing was done in regard to removing the
bodies In case the Conley woman is
elected from the burying ground which
she refuses to leave what viii be done
with the bodies? Will the government
pay SIS per lot to bury them in the
evidently decided that the government
did not think that much of a dead In
dian.
There are some noted men buried
in the old Wyandotte grounds, men
whose names and lives are linked with
early Kansas City, Kansas, history.
What is to be done with their remains :?
These are questions which no one has
yet tried to answer
The ground which has been in dis
pute and which is still held by LYDIA
Conley and others is part of the
Wyandotte land which was decided to
the government in the fifties with the
understanding that it should be divid-
ed and returned to the Indians as al
lotments. This was never done, most
of the members of the tribe going to
Oklahoma A provision in the treaty
exempted the old burying grounds and
said they should remain intact. A few
years ago, however, a bill was passed
by congress which provided for the
selling of the land composing the old
burviney ground TO satisfy the claims
which arose out of an old ferry right.
Then the Conley woman, claiming that
she would fight to the last to insure a
quiet resting place for the bones of her
ancestors, began her warfare. And
the end is not yet.