The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-08-23
Cores Colleague Had Agree
ments With Indians Calling
for Fifty Per Cent.
WOULD RECEIVE $4,000, 1000
If CLAIM WAS ALLOWED
Each Day in Probing Indian
Land Graft Brings New
Light.

SULPHUR, Okla, Aug. 22-The
name of Senator Robert l.. Owen of Ok
lahoma entered into the Indian land IN
vestigation today.
f. P Hill, an attorney for the Choc-
taw nation, testified before the special
congressional committee that is lnVcstl-
eating the Gore bribery charges that
Senator Owen is the rincipal i'll suit
in which are involved contracts with
the Indians calling for 90 per cent,
fee.
Mr. Owen however testified Attorney
Hill entered into the contracts with the
Indians some wears before be became
senator and is not now trying to secure
90 per cent, but has left II to the
United States court OF claims to de"
termine how much he should be paid
1t was also said that since his election
as senator, Mr.. Owen had shown no
activity III the matter except to TESTIFY
in behalf of his claim.
The value of the property which, 1t
was asserted, in Mr. Owen s suit, was
restored TO the Indians, is fixed by the
department of Justice at from So ,000,
600 10 $l4 900 900 AS attorney for the
Choctaws, Mr. Hill said he was resist
ing the suit.
Percentage Was Heavy.
ssIn 1896, - said Mr. Hill, "M Mr.. Owen
entered into an agreement with Charies
f. Winton TO attempt to secure Tor
Choctaw Indians living east OF the Mis-
siSSippi river, citizenship In what was
then Indian territory.
Winton went to Mississippi and got
MANY individual contracts, the total
number ultimately being 1900. In these
contracts the claimants agreed to give
TO Winton and Owen 30 per cent Of all
property which thew would become pos
sesSed of, if they were admitted to clti'
Zenship.
'FWinton, after obtaining many con
tracts, sled, and his rights reverted TO
Mr.. Owen After the Indians were ad.
mitted 10 citizenship, congress reIerred
Owen IS claim to the court of claims.
where it is now pending. Since he be-
came senator do not believe Mr.. Owen
has shown any activity IN his case ex-
cept TO testify as he was required.
Senator Owen based his claim, 1T was
said, on legal service he alleged he had
rendered at Washington and in Okla
homa prior to his election to the SEN
ate.
"Now.'' asked representative Camp.
bell of Kansas, ''suppose Senator Owen
should he allowed by the court of
claims all that his contracts call for.
How much would he get?'
s12,O00,000 or sl4 100000, according to
the value of the property
is he secured In any way?'
Has Legal Lien.
"Wel, the omnibus Indian bin
passed by congress in 1908, provides
that the Owen fee shall be lien on
the property of the Indians. p"
"What would be the effect on the
Indians if the fee provided for in the |
contracts were granted?"
'fIt would take all the property the |
Indians have. They would be penniless
If they had to pay the fee
Mr.. Owen was elected senator In |
1907 and lives at Muskogee, Okla.
Most of today's hearing was taken !
up with the cross examination of j. |
E. McMurray, holder Of the contracts |
by which he seeks to obtain 10 per |
cent attorney S fee on the sale of $780,
000,0 900 worth of Indian lands in this |
state.
Mr.. McMurray said that if the In
dians got all their property was worth
fee would be 10 per cent Of that. Ques-
toned as to his plans to dispose Of the
100000 acres of coal and asphalt land,
McMurray said the coal deposits held |
by the Indians in this state amounted |
practically to monopoly in the terri
tory west of the Mississippi, south of
the Missouri and east of the Rocky
mountains, and he believed the Indians
were entitled to the value of the coal
as monopoly.
He thought the land would bring a
higher price if sold to a corporation
rather than if it were split up and |
sold to many individuals But he said
he never had heard of a New York
syndicate that stood ready to pay $780,
100000 for the land as Senator Gore
had charged
~ he surface Of the lands, which ag-
ts more than 10 2.500.0O0 acres, the
thought, might be sold separ-
mall holders