The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1922-12-28
Former Lords Of Mountains and
Wales Now Reduced to
Small Reservation.
KNOWN FOR THEIR CULTURE
Oklahoma Lawyer Is Working to Pre-
vent Extinction of Tribe by Pool
ing Lands-Cherokees Prosper
Under His Direction.
Here's an interesting story
about the Cherokees. Do you
think they got a square deal?

New York.-The average American
picturesque myth, and forgets that he
is a human being with the same long
fngs, disappointments and heartbreaks
as the white a The intrusion of
the early American settlers seems so
much a thing of the past that we can
ter IA bitterness for the loss of their
campfres, their domestic hearths,
their valleys, mountains and streams.
Occasionally there arises among US
some one who wins the confidence Of
these tribal people.
Such a man is Eugene L. Graves, a
lawyer and the largest individual oil
and gas royalty owno in Oklahoma.
For Is years he has given his time and
energies to fighting the battles OF the
Cherokee Indians, once a strong ma
tion covering the rich plains of the
have been reduced to one small band,
living in an area less than two-thirds
that of Rhode Island.
Acts as Their Adviser.
Mr.. Graves is the authorized dele
gate and representative of the Night
hawk keetOowah in all its dealings
with the United States government
and outside private interests. He also
acts in the p%aternal capacity of ad-
wiser and as a sort of court of last
appeal in personal affairs.
The Nighthawk keetoowah society
is the %fraternal, political, Industrial,
agricultural and financial nucleus of
the 300 full-blooded Indians of the
Cherokee tribe, which has 10000
members in all. The others have in
termarried and adopted the ways of
the white man.
Graves, that the Cherokees are not
the blanket type of Indian, but a
highly gifted and extraordinarily civil
lied people, with intellectual, literary
and artistic attainments. 1t is be-
lieved that they have descended from
the Incas, and there is a. legend that
they represent five Of the ten lost
tribes of Israel. The Cherokee is our
finest specimen of humanity. During
my IS years among them | have yet
to discover that n of them has a
vicious habit. They are healthy
bodied and healthy minded-as trust
ing as children. They do not know
what 1t is to break their word.
. "In 1889 the United States created
the Cherokee commission for the pur-
pose of abolishing the tribal govern
ments and opening the territories to
white settlement. After Is years of
pleadings against this plan an agree
ment was made by which the govern
ment of the Cherokee nation came to
a final end on March 3, 1906.
I'm 1908 the United States gov-
eminent decided to divide the land
upon which the Cherokees were living
and allot to each Indian his share.
Many of the Cherokees, unfamiliar
with the white mans way Oh doing
business, forfeited their holdings by
n technical mistake or another.
They could not understand the system
OF taxation, and many farms were
confiscated. Some of the Indians. in
f1uenced by INSCRIPTIONS white set
tiers, sold their farms for a few sill
yer dollars"
Impressed by Brave Fight.
At that point Mr.. Graves stepped In.
allow did I become interested in
the Cherokees?" he replied in answer
to a question. "About eighteen years
ago 1 went down to Oklahoma to look
after some Of my holdings, and met
the famous full -blooded Cherokee,