White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1931-09-17

and clanked in the composing room OF
the Wigwam. 1t was the first OF Its
kind in the Oklahoma country.
Sabra was proud Of the linotype ma
chine. for it had been her five years at
the head of the Wigwam that had
made it possible. 1t was she who
had gone out after job printing con-
tracts; who had educated the local
merchants to the value Of advertis-
ing. Certainly Yancey, prancing and
prating, had never given a thought to
these substantial foundations on which
the entire business success OF the
paper rested. They now got out with
ease the daily Wigwam for the Usage
townspeople and the weekly for coun-
ty subscribers.
Five years had gone by-six years
since Yancey's return. Yet, strangely
enough, Sabra never had feeling of
security. She never forgot what he
had said about Wichita. almost five
years in one place. That's the longest
stretch I've ever done, honey" Five
years. And this was well into the
sixth. He had plunged head first into
the statehood fight, into the Indian
territory situation. The anti-Indian
faction was bitterly opposed to the
plan for combining the Oklahoma ter
r'tory and the Indian territory under
the single state of Oklahoma. Their
slogan was "The White Mans State
for the White Man."
"Who brought the Indian here to
the Oklahoma country in the first
placer" shouted Yancey in the edi-
torial columns Of the Wigwam. "White
men. They bounded them from Mis-
souri, to Arkansas, from Arkansas to
southern Kansas, then to northern
Kansas to northern Oklahoma, to
southern Oklahoma. You white men
sold them the piece Of arid and barren
land on which they now live in squalor
and misery. 1t isn't fit for a white
man to live on, or the Indians wouldn't
be living on it now. Deprived Of their
tribal laws, deprived of their tribal
rites, herded together in stockades
like wild animals, robbed, cheated,
kicked, bounded from place to place,
give them the protection Of the coun-
try that has taken their country away
from them. Give them at least the
right to become citizens Of the state
of Oklahoma"
He was obsessed by it. He travelled
to Washington in the hope of lobby
ing for it. Roosevelt was character
istically cordial to his old campaign
comrade. Washington ladies were cap
| tivated by the fowery speeches Of
this romantic, this story-book swag-
gerer out Of the Southwest.
1t was rumored on good authority
that he was to be appointed the next
| governor of the Oklahoma territory.
"Oh, Yancey," Sabra said, "do be
| careful. Governor Of the territory It
would mean so much. 1t would help
Gin in the future. Donna, too. Their
father governor" She thought, per
haps all that I've gone through in the
!, last ten years will be worth it, now.
Perhaps it was this. He'll settle
down. Mamma can't say
now and all the Venables and
the vians and the Goforths and the
Greenwoods. :" She had had to
endure their pity, even from dis
lance, all these years.
The rumor took on substance. My
husband, Yancey Cravat, governor Of
the territory of Oklahoma. And then,
when statehood came, as it must in
the next few years. perhaps governor
Of the state of Oklahoma. Why not +!
At which point Yancey blasted any
possibility Of his appointment to the
governorship by hul1ing red-hot edi-
torial into the columns of the Wig
wan. The gist Of it was that the
hundreds of thousands of Indians now
living on reservations throughout the
United States should be allowed to
live where they pleased, at liberty.
The whites of the Oklahoma territory
and the Indian territory, with an In
dian population Of about one hundred
and twenty thousand of various tribes
-Poncas, Cherokees, Chickasaws
Creeks, Osages, Kiowas, Comanches
Kaws, Choctaws, Seminoles, and q
score of others-read, emitted roar
Of rage, and brandishing the paper
ran screaming into the streets, ours
ing the name of Yancey Cravat.
Much that he wrote was true, per.
haps. Yet the plight of the Indian
was not as pitiable as Yancey painted
it. He cast over them the glamor OF
his own romantic nature. The truth
was that they themselves cared little
except few Of their tribal leaders
more intelligent than the rest. They
hunted little, fished, slept, visited
from tribe to tribe, the Poncas visit
ing the Osages, the Osages the Pom
cas-, gossiping, eating, holding pow
vows.
Sabra picked up the proof sheet Of
the editorial, still damp from the press
and walked into Yancey's office. Hel
face was white, set.
you're going to run this, Yancey?