Greenwood daily commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1919-1926, 1919-12-06
SEEK OIL AND
UNDER RED RIVER
Wichita Indians Now Set Up An
cient Title to River
Channel.
HlsIOaY INVOLVED IN SUIT
Question Engrosses Attention Of LAW
yers, Oil Men, Land Owners and
Federal and State officials-0ives
History Of Wichita Claim.

AUSIlu. 1cA."oOluOu HIS q S0S~
been filed in American courts in which
history has been involved to the ex-
tent that it is In the question Of the
of the channel OF the Red
river, beneath the bed Of which are
oil deposits.
This question has been engrossing
the attention of lawyers, oil men, land
owners and federal and state officials. i
The state of Texas claims ownership I
in the bed Of the river to the center
Of the channel, while the federal gov
eminent and the state of Oklahoma
oppose the claim of Texas under the |
terms Of the treaty Of Spain in 1919, |
by which the northern boundary Of the |
Spanish dOminfons in Texas was desig-
mated as the south bank Of tie Red
river.
The federal authorities hold that
the ownership Of the Red river bed
areas in dispute belong to the Indian
tribes which owned the adjacent res
ervations. and the state Of Oklahoma
maintains that, as meandering
stream, the bed of the Red river is
state property and should be leased
for the benefit of the state school fund.
Another Claimant.
Joseph B. Thoburn, secretary Of the
Oklahoma Historical society, has adj
vanced the suggestion that there is
still another claimant to the owner
ship Of the oil bearing area CT the
channel of the Red river, namely, the
Wichita Indians. Mr.. Thoburn in the
course OF an extended statement says:
solder than any of the claims OF
ownership which are now being
pressed for the possession of the Oil
bearing areas Of the channel of the
Red river-older than any claim OF
the State of Texas by rights derived
| from Mexico or Spain, and older than
, any claim of the State Of Oklahoma
or of the United States which may
have been derived from France
through the purchase of Louisiana
is the right of the aboriginal owners
of the land on both sides Of the river.
and these are the people Of the Wich-
tia tribe Of Indians.
"The ancestors of the Wichita IN
/ dams have lived in Oklahoma and adj
/ jacent states for a thousand years, and
/ for approximately five hundred years
past they have occupied the country
on both sides Of the Red river in that
part Of It's course where it traverses
the Burkburnett oil fields. In using
the word occupied in this connection,
do so advisedly, for these people
| hare always been sedentary in their
habits, living in fixed -illages and de-
pending largely upon the cultivation
Of the soil for their subsistence.
''The rights Of the Wichita Indians
to the ownership of these lands has
never been extinguished by purchase,
exchange or otherwise, though state
and federal governments have seem
r ingly proceeded on the theory that nc
such right ever existed. From the time
Of its foundation the federal govern.
ment has always paid due regard, al
least in form, to the extinguishment
Of title to lands which were claimed
: by the several Indian tribes under alb
{ original occupancy. The one exception
to this has been that Of the Wichits
Indians, who lived in the upper Rec
river country, between the Canadian
and Brazos rivers.
Indians Cede Land.
4 SIN 1918 certain chiefs and warriors
Of the Quapaw tribe of Indians, il
council at st. Louis with William
J. Clark and Auguste ChOuteau, as com
. = missioners representing the govern
: ment Of the United States, entered in
: TO treaty by the terms Of which they
coded all Of the lands in Oklahoma ant
Texas between the Arkansas and Can
+ adian rivers on the north and the Rel
river on the south to the government
q The fact that the Quapaw indians
lived in eastern Arkansas, that the.
seldom went as far west as the easter
!; boundary of Oklahoma and that the,
never by occupancy or otherwise exer
3 cised any form of ownership or juris
diction over any of the lands within
200 miles of the region where tn
d Wichitas were living, do not seem t.
have entered into the consideration
at all, if, indeed, the government com
o mfssioners had any knowledge of tn
existence of the Wichitas at that time
Yet, with this Quapaw transaction a
basis, the government of the Unite,
States executed a q ant Of these land
! to the people later. More than thirt
years later the Wichita people frs
learned that their country had bee
sold by the Quapaw and then grante
to the Choctaws.
IF the government of the Unite
States ever means to do the squar
and honorable thing by the Wichit
Indians it will never have bette
8 chance than it has at the present time
=. Their lands are gone-sold to strane
2 ers without recompense to them an
without their consent-but they sti
have, an equitable claim to the ownel
SI ship Of the Red River channel oil prop
critics, and simple justice demand
that they be given chance to es:af
lish It
: : =