The Vinita daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1902-1913, 1910-08-17


spUnse to request from Commissioner
of Indian Affairs, Valentine, the spe-
cial congressional committee today for
warded to Beverly, statement cover
ing the amount of the attorneys fees
paid by the Indians. The statement is
said to be for the use of Taft, and
covers a period of twenty years. 1t
shows the money paid out of the con-
tingent fees total over three million
dollars. The largest fee was $7S9, ,OO0
paid by the Chfckasaws. In some in
stances the fee paid was as high as
twenty-five per cent.
The Indians have so much legal bus
mess they have to employ lawyers by
the half dozen. according to Douglas
H. Johnson, governor of the Chicka-
saw tribe of Indians, who testified to-
day before the congressional commit
tee.
Johnson, who was called as one of
the chief witnesses in the investiga.
tion of the McMurray contracts, testi-
fled that he was unable to state what
service some OF the lawyers were paid
for.
Here are some of the expenditures.
which according to Johnson, we're
made by the Indians for legal services.
Most of the lawyers being employed
simultaneously. They paid the Nc
Murray law firm $4,000 a year with
81, 200 expenses. They paid the Nc
Murray firm another $1,000 a year at
the same time on another contract.
They paid McMurray s750,OOO, as a
special fee In the citizenship case, with
an expense account of 100000. They
paid four other attorneys an aggre-
gate OF $4,000 year.
It was his belief, Johnson testified,
that without the employment of so
many attorneys, the Indians would
have lost millions of dollars. This was
intended to show the reasonableness
of the ten per cent fee asked for Nc
Murray in the present contracts.
Johnson testified that in the sale of
the Indian property in Mississippi it
had cost the government six million
dollars to sell two million dollars
worth of land In reply to questions
put to him in the previous examina-
tions in which he was asked to ex-
plain how he came to deposit SIS 900
to his personal account, after McMur-
ray had been paid s75O,OO0, as fee,
Johnson declared he never possessed
$780, 900.
Douglas H. Johnson, a Chickasaw
Indian, chief Of eighty thousand men,
bers of his tribe answered, 4 dont
remember" before the special congress
sional investigating committee Tues
day when questioned how he was able
to deposit $4,000 to his personal
credit few days after ]. F. McMur-
ray received s75O,OOO in attorney fees.
johnson testified that he always ap
proved what are known as the present
McMurray contracts, which provides
for the sale of s30.O0O,O0O worth of
land belonging to the Indians, and
which would allow McMurray ten per
cent. or 100000 in fees. He also
urged other Indians to sign them.
He testified that he is particular
friend of MeMurray. He testified in
what are known as the citizenship"
cases several years ago. that he ap-
proved of the contract by which Nc.
Murray got salary Of $4,000 year
and $1,000 year as expenses.
A short time afterwards he approv-
ed another contract on which McMur-
ray attained, for doing the same work, |
a contingent fee Of $4,000. The lat |
ter fee was to have been $1,000, 900 but |
it was cut down by the government.
Why was it you were willing to
give McMurray s75o.o0O for doing that
for which you already paid a salary?n
asked Representative Miller Of Min
nesota.
Because we thought he had earned |
it, replied Johnson. sHe kept of |
the rolls 1900 claimants to our prop
erty and thus saved $1,000 for each
person kept of. or a total of $4,000
600 I would have been willing to |
have paid him fifty per cent, or sS-