The Greeneville daily sun. (Greeneville, Tenn.) 1918-1920, 1919-11-18
Indian Tribe May
Regain Lost Domain


dairy dispute, involving oil lands worth
5000, 900, may ultimately be set
tied in such way mat neither of
the contesting states-TeXas and Ok
lahoma--will get the territory.
And the land may revert to its
true and original owners, the Wichita
Indians.
At least that will be the decision
if supreme court justices follow the
suggestion Of Joseph P. Thoburn, sec
retary of the Oklahoma Historical So
ciety.
The trouble started several years
ago when Texas judge fined and
jailed Tom FISHERMAN, an Oklahoma
state senator and oil operator, for
persisting in drilling on the land af-
ter the court had issued an injunc.
tion prohibiting it. The land is just
south of the present Red River, which
has shifted its course a mile and
half north of the original channel in
the last century.
Oklahoma authorities appointed a
receiver to take charge of the lands,
which, by the moandcring of the
shifty little stream, had become ap-
parently Texas property. Texas
brought suit to prevent Oklahoma TAX
ing over the land, and finally, after
armed strike was threatened. the case
was taken to the United States Su-
preme Court, where it is now pending.
But, according to Thoburn, neither
Texas nor Oklahoma mas any claim
on the land 1t rightfully belongs to
the Wichita Indians. he says, because
they first inhabited the rand and since
being driven from it have not been
paid for it by either Oklahoma, Texas
or the federal government. There
fore, Thoburn asserts the Indians
still hold clear title to the country
"The ancestors of tae Wichita In
dians have lived on both sides of Red
River for a thousand years." said
Thoburn, For five hundred years
they have occupied that part Of the
country along Red .;iver where it
traverses the Burkburnet oil fields.
"The right Of the Wichita Indians
to these lands has never been extin-
guished by purchase, exchange or
otherwise, though state and Federal
. governments have seemingly proceed
ed on the theory that there was no
such right. From the time of it's
foundation, the federal government
always paid due regard, at least in
form, to the extinguishment of title
lands which were claimed by the sew
eral Indian tribes under aboriginal
occupancy, The one exception to this
seems to be the case of the Wichita
! Indians.
"In 1918. certain chiefs and war
]'iors Of the Quapay tribe. in council
at st. Louis with United States com
missions, entered into a treaty by the
terms Of which they ceded all of the
lands in Oklahoma and Texas between
the Arkansas and Canadian rivers on
the north and Red river on the south
to the government. The fact that the
Quapaws lived in Arkansas had never
exercised any ownership over lands
within two hundred miles of the re-
gion occupied by the Wichitas did not
seem to have entered the considera-
ton at all Yet, with tnfs as a basis
the government granted these lands
to the Choctaws two years later. More
than thirty years elapsed before the
Wichitas knew their country had been
sold.
"Later the Chickasaws purchased
an interest in the lands granted the
Choctaws. Some of the land was la
ter leased to the government for the
purnose Of locating tribes Of the great
plains. Two bands of the Wichitas
! lived south of the Red river, in Texas.
"In 1858 the main village or set
tlement of the Wichita tribe YVES To-
Gated near Rush Springs, In the au-
tumn a band of Comanches came to
i feat on the farm products which the
Wichtas had raised While the Com
anches were encamped there a force
!, of United States cavalry attacked
: them and many were killed in the
/, battle that followed. The Comanches
= accused the Wichitas of betraying
!, them. To escape diIe consequences
!, the Wichitas abandoned their fields
, and ungathered crops and fled to
i, Fort Arbuckle for protection.
/, "Aftor the Civil War they went
north into Kansas and settled tenn