USA > Oklahoma > A standard history of Oklahoma; an authentic narrative of its development from the date of the first European exploration down to the present time, including accounts of the Indian tribes, both civilized and wild, of the cattle range, of the land openings and the achievements of the most recent period, Vol. II > Part 3
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court judges, attorney-general and district attorneys. The judicial department was to consist of a Supreme Court, district courts and such inferior courts as might be provided by law. There were to be three Supreme Court judges, each of whom was to serve as judge of a district court also. The constitution was subject to amendment, for which due provision was made. The declaration of rights was very similar to that contained in most of the state constitutions.
The Okmulgee Constitution, as this instrument was popularly called, was submitted to and passed upon first by the Chickasaw people.14 A special session of their tribal legislature having been called shortly after the adjournment of the general council at Okmulgee, the question of accepting or rejecting the constitution was submitted to a vote and was almost unanimously rejected, professedly because it did not provide for equal representation on the part of all of the tribes. Possibly the Chickasaws may have been influenced by the recollection of always being politically in the minority while they were embodied in the citizenship of the Choctaw Nation, prior to 1856. At any rate, this reverse put a damper on the popular interest in the Okmulgee Constitution, though it continued to be a theme of discussion in the Indian Terri- tory for several years.
The inter-tribal council continued to meet annually at Okmulgee for several years. Most of the delegates in the council of 1870 were men who were prominent in their day. Only two of them are known to be now living-Capt. George W. Grayson, of the Creek Nation, who was the permanent secretary of the council, and Principal Chief John F. Brown, of the Seminole Nation. The council manifested great interest in the Indians of the wild tribes then living in the western part of the territory, to whom fraternal greetings were several times extended, being personally conveyed by delegated representatives. The sentiment of the people of the Indian Territory with regard to the issues then before them was fairly reflected by the following resolution which was adopted by the first meeting of the council, in 1870:
"Resolved by the General Council of the Indian Territory, that the committee on relations with the United States be instructed to report a memorial to the President of the same, setting forth our relations with the general government, as defined by treaty stipulations, and protesting against any legislation by Congress
14 Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1871, p. 571.
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impairing the obligations of any treaty provision, and especially against the creation of any government over the Indian Territory other than that of the general council; also against the sale or grant of any lands, directing or contingent upon the extinguish- ment of the Indian title, to any railroad company or corporation now chartered for the purpose of constructing a railroad from a point north to any point south, or from a point east to any point west, through the Indian Territory, or the construction of any railroads other than those authorized by existing treaties."
About a month before the close of the Forty-second Congress, the House Committee on Territories reported favorably a bill to provide for the organization of the Indian Territory as the Terri- tory of Oklahoma. Railroad land-grant influences were undoubt- edly behind this measure, as they had been the real agitators for previous efforts to the same end. Against this bill, delegations representing the Cherokee and Creek nations filed a vigorous pro- test.15 As long as there was a shadow of possibility of securing railroad land grants through the Indian Territory, just so long did the Indians have to maintain constant vigilance to prevent the depletion of their tribal domains through the medium of this species of legislative favoritism. The Osages were tricked into selling their Kansas lands to a railroad corporation for a song ; a bill was slipped through Congress legalizing the deal and, had it not been for the intervention of President Grant, it would have become effective.
J. H. Beadle, the Cincinnati newspaper correspondent who vis- ited the Indian Territory in the spring of 1872, was entertained at dinner at the home of a prominent mixed-blood Cherokee (Mr. Jeff Parks) near Vinita. In relating his experience upon that occa- sion, Mr. Beadle wrote as follows : 16
"I have only given, thus far, a few points gleaned from my conversation with the 'white Cherokees,' but our talk at dinner assumed a more personal and political turn. Mr. Parks had invited some of the older citizens to dine with us and, as at a Sunday dinner in the country districts in Ohio, politics came up for dis- cussion.
" 'What will you do with us?' was the gist of the first question. 'Will the Government give half our lands to the railroads and let the whites come in on us to try for the other half ?'
15 House Miscellaneous Document No. 110, Forty-second Con- gress, Third Session.
16 " The Undeveloped West," pp. 359-61.
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" 'The Government will not establish a territory here and throw it open to white settlers, unless the Indians are willing; but why are you not willing, if you can have a farm secured first to each citizen of the nation ?'
" 'Because our more ignorant people and full-bloods can't live with the Yankees settled all among them. Some tell us we can't hold our lands in common the way we do. Why can't we? If we can't, then let it be allotted, so much to each family, and the rest common pasturage. These full-blooded Cherokees are the most simple minded, honest people in the world. They don't know any- thing about trading or scheming with white folks. But you know it is the nature of white people to be grasping. Let them settle here and they would take all the advantage in trades, and the Indians could not live here.'
"The principal talker, an aged 'white Cherokee,' continued at some length and in good language to argue against the 'Bill to Establish the Territory of Oklahoma,' of which he produced a copy and read extracts. He related with increasing pathos the principal facts in the history of the Cherokees: their first general war with the whites, many years before the Revolution; their removal to the hill country of Georgia, Carolina and Alabama; their second move to Arkansas and a band to Texas; their expulsion from all other places and settlement here. As he progressed, a growing sadness showed on every face. He concluded and an oppressive silence settled upon the company, so profound that I could feel the reproach which seemed thus cast upon my nation. The melan- choly gravity, natural to the Cherokee countenance, seemed to deepen to the intensity of a fixed despair; young and old had the same solemn quiet, and even the rosy little girl bowed her head against the table, and her sweet, sad face seemed shadowed by the wrongs of three generations of her race.
"To a question about the wishes of the full-bloods, the speaker replied : 'Well, the full-bloods won't take any vigorous action. They are an indifferent sort of people. They just say, "Let it alone. If the United States is a mind to break all treaties and all agreements, and break us up and destroy us, they'll do it anyhow. General Jackson swore by his Maker that this land should be ours while the grass grew and the waters run, and if they're a mind to break that, why, they'll have to do it, that's all." That's the way the full-bloods talk about it, sir. They won't do anything at all about it; just wait for it as if it was a storm or a streak of lightning.'
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"From this and other conversation I found there were three distinct parties among the Cherokees :
"First, the Territorial party, in favor of Oklahoma and white immigration, after setting apart, in fee simple, a considerable farm to each Indian.
"Second, the Ockmulkee Constitution party, in favor of section- izing the land, giving each Indian his farm and the two railroads their grant, keeping all the rest in common as it is now, and uniting all the tribes under one government of their own (the Ockmulkee Constitution) with American citizenship and local courts; but no territorial arrangement and no white settlement.
"Third, the party in favor of the present condition.
"On further examination I found that the first party was very small among all the tribes-or rather, nations-and that the members of it were regarded as traitors to their race; that the third party had, as yet, a large majority of the whole people, but that the Ockmulkee Constitution promised most for the Indians and had the support of their most able men."
After spending several days at Vinita, Beadle made a brief trip into Kansas, where he had occasion to note the sentiment with regard to the opening of the Indian country to settlement. He continued : 17
"So I took the Missouri, Kansas and Texas road northward for a brief trip into Southern Kansas. From Vinita it is about thirty miles to the Kansas border. The country along the way bears the same general character-gently rolling and moderately fertile prairies, with clear but somewhat sluggish streams, and occasionally clumps of rather inferior timber. As we near the edge of Kansas a sudden and surprising change occurs. From east to west appears an even line, with fence nearly all the way-on the south side an unbroken prairie, on the north farms, orchards, nice dwellings and every evidence of civilization. If, on Fourth Street, Cincinnati, the north side should remain as it is, and the south side utterly vanish, leaving an unbroken plain as far as the eye could reach, the change would scarcely be more striking. There is no gentle, almost imperceptible fading away from cultivation to wilderness ; it is a sudden jump from civilization to nature's wild- ness, a sight every hour presenting powerful arguments in favor of the white settlement policy for the 'Nation.' It is an argument the Kansans appreciate and, once over the border, I found the popu-
17 "The Undeveloped West," pp. 361-4.
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lar view of the Indian question wonderfully changed. There is no casuistry in the Kansas view. They take the high ground that the land was put there to be fenced, broke, cultivated and im- proved; and, if the Cherokees will not do it, 'why, - 'em, the Government ought to let them have it that will do it.'
"In my tour through Southern Kansas, I everywhere observed, as I neared the Indian border, the hostility to that people steadily increasing. In Allen and the counties north, it took the form merely of a mild and rational objection to the neighborhood of such a people. A little further south, a stern opposition to showing any more favor to the race; and along the border, an intense, almost fanatical hostility and an expressed desire to 'exterminate every red devil of 'em.' The borderer has no faith whatever in Grant's policy, or any other policy looking toward the civilization of the Indian. He is an enthusiastic believer in the theory of the 'doomed races.'
"Old Presbyterians who had lived upon the border here for ten or fifteen years, told me they had never seen a Christian Indian, had never had a reliable account of one; that they were convinced that the natives were a reprobate race, and there never was one soundly and truly converted. The testimony of other denomina- tions was about the same. The Kansas view continues: 'Why should the Indian be fed, housed and clothed at our expense, and, at the same time, be allowed to roam over an empire, keeping white men out of the best portion of the public domain? Why not make them citizens, with the same rights to take and hold a given picce of land as other citizens?' The answer, of course, is that, when that thing is done, the Indian's day is also done; he can never stand in competition with his white neighbor, and will pass away. The reply comes back: 'If the Indian cannot stand on his own personal merit, or with any native strength, then he has no right to stand at all; he must go sooner or later anyhow, and the cheapest and most merciful way is the best.' The neighborhood of the savage is an aggravation, and the virtuous Kansan is indignant because the occasional Indian will steal, and will not be chaste and temperate. The pivotal point of much of this talk is the Indian Territory, which the Kansan thinks is by far the richest and most desirable of all the sections yet within the disposition of the Gov- ernment.
"The people of Kansas have seen altogether too much of that region to rest in peace. They have traversed it in the purchase of stock; they have driven cattle through it from Texas; they have
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pursued thieves into it, and the universal testimony, given to me, is, 'the finest country, sir, God ever made.' On that country every young Kansan has his eye fixed. Young men living on the border already have their quarter-sections picked out in the Nation, ready to jump at a moment's notice, rush over and take possession. People easily believe what they wish, and hence the universal opinion in Southern Kansas is that the Indian Territory will be sectionized and thrown open to settlement in three years at the farthest. Should such action be taken by Congress, then all former excitements in our western settlement would be as nothing com- pared with the 'rush' which would take place. At least half a mil- lion people, from Kansas to Pennsylvania, are waiting for such a chance.
"Let Congress pass an enabling act for that Territory and, in three months, these roads leading south from Kansas City and Lawrence would double their business; in six months it would quadruple. Throw open the territory next January, and it will be ready for admission as a state by January, 1875. There is unoccupied land for 100,000 homesteads. Settle it with white men and the lands of Southern Kansas would nearly double in valuc. During the process of settlement, they would have a ready market at their doors for all kinds of provisions at high prices. A trouble- some border question would be settled, and several border towns would take a new lease of life from the consequent trade. All the public lines through Missouri and Arkansas would largely increase their business, and Texas and Louisiana would share in the bene- fits. It will be seen that many powerful interests would unite, even now, in furtherance of the scheme, so many that Congress would probably resist but feebly. All the delegations in the Senate and House from Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas would be enthusiastic in its favor, and other border states would join from natural sympathy. All these rail- road interests press strongly in the same direction. Thus the propo- sition would start in Congress, with a powerful party and, despite what eastern members may think of the inherent merits of the scheme, or of natural justice toward the Indian, I am led to think that the Kansans anticipate rightly, and that the territory will be open to settlement before 1875. These arguments are ever present to congressmen and lobbyists, while the protest of the Indians yearly sounds more feeble; and unless the Indian nations can be persuaded to adopt Ockmulkee, they may soon be compelled to accept Ocklahoma."
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When he was ready to leave the Indian Territory, Mr. Beadle summed up his conclusions concerning the proposed organization of the Indian Territory by Congressional enactment in part as follows : 18
"I have now traveled a month among the nations, some two hundred miles by rail and the same through the country afoot and on horseback. I have seen the Indians at home and on their farms, have attended their churches and visited their schools, have talked by their hearths and slept in their cabins, 'eaten their salt and warmed at their fires.' My general impression is one of the most agreeable disappointment. I have seen so much more of progress, of improvement and education, than I had been led to expect that, from a doubting indifference, I have attained to an earnest belief in their capacity and willingness for a perfect civilization. And if my conclusion should sometimes read like an argument for the Indians here rather than a simple statement of facts, I will not deny that my sympathies are powerfully enlisted for these people, and I would willingly do them a kindness if my humble pen could accomplish it in a portrayal of their case.
"Here are 60,000 red men who are neither hunters nor root diggers; they are agriculturists, herdsmen and mechanics. They long ago advanced from the savage to the barbarous state, when they first met the whites; since then they have advanced from the barbarous to the half-civilized and civilized and, in another generation, we may reasonably hope to see them civilized and enlightened. This territory contains the hope, the stay, the glory of our aboriginal race. If these cannot be civilized, the race is doomed. With more than ordinary interest, therefore, I have studied their condition. I am now returned where the prejudice is strong against them; I hear them cursed every hour of the day, and from my window, at this moment, can look out on an angry company of 'intruders,' just expelled by the military from the Osage lands in the Arkansas Valley. As briefly as possible, I pro- pose to sum up my general observations and the reason why these Indians are entitled to the continued protection of the Govern- ment.
"The present weakness of these people-at once their greatest drawback and the temptation to outsiders-as it seems to me, is their imperfect land tenure. The land is held in common by the whole tribe, but whatever area any citizen encloses with a lawful
18 "The Undeveloped West," pp. 419-20 and 426-30.
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fence is his while he occupies it. He may be said to own the im- provements but not the land. Nothing is absolutely a fixture. Anything may be removed at the owner's will; hence there is prac- tically no real estate, no conservative landed interest-the only true foundation for a progressive society and a stable civil struc- ture. The herder, hunter or explorer, from Kansas or Texas, rides through a beautiful tract and, when he asks who owns it, the only answer is, 'the Injuns-it's Injun land'; that is, in his estimation, nobody's land if he can by force or fraud get a foothold. If he were told that it was the property of John Johnnycake or William Beaverdam, or any other individual, with a patent title, on which he could sue and be sued, the case would be very different to him. A strong party, therefore, is rising up, agitating for this reform. "This is a distinctive feature of the Ockmulkee Constitution, which commands the support of the best men of the three nations, and looks to a union of all the tribes under one government. It should receive every legal encouragement from Congress. But the common people are suspicious of this move; to them, sectionizing looks like an entering wedge for some scheme for dividing up their lands among railroad corporations and white immigrants. And where shall we look for the real power which gives impetus to the movements lately inaugurated looking to a territorial government and the opening of this country to a general immigration. By the treaties of 1866, all the nations agreed to yield the right of way, with 300 feet along the track, to two railroads through the country. The roads which reached the border first were the Missouri, Kansas and Texas, running southward, and the Atlantic and Pacific, west- ward. Look at the charter of the first road and you will find one clause to the effect that the road is to receive every section desig- nated by odd numbers, for ten miles on each side of the track- total of sixty-four hundred acres per mile -- with these words condi- tional: 'Provided said lands become a part of the public lands of the United States.' The moment the Oklahoma Bill becomes a law they do become 'public lands,' and the railroad title attaches at once. To the Atlantic and Pacific road, with its Van Buren branch, the grant, with the same condition appended, is twenty sections to the mile. Besides these, two other roads are pressing their claims for contingent grants with fair hope of success. The present area of the Cherokee country, exclusive of lands ceded for 'other Indians to locate,' is about 4,500,000 acres. The Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad runs through this for eighty miles; the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad will run about the same distance. Consider- Vol. II-3
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ing, then, only the roads actually being built, this gives them at least 1,500,000 acres! The Oklahoma Bill, seventeenth section, says : 'The Secretary of the Interior shall cause the lands in the said territory to be surveyed, and from and after such survey the Indian title shall be deemed and held to be forever extinguished, and the lands to be public lands of the United States, subject to all the grants and pledges heretofore made by acts of Congress.'
"Is it difficult to see where the motive power and the 'sinews of war' come from? But the territorial bill specially provides that each Indian shall have 160 acres. Let us see, then, where the white settler would come in. There are at least sixteen thousand
CHOCTAW FEMALE SEMINARY, TUSKAHOMA
Cherokees entitled to 'head rights,' and two thousand more who can and will claim them by coming here. This takes up 2,880,000 acres. Besides, there are reserved school lands and some grants to mission stations. Add these up with the railroad grants, and you will find there is not quite enough land in the Cherokee country to fill the bill. To call it a bill in the interest of white immigrants is nonsense. In the Choctaw country there will be a small surplus- none in the Creek. Besides, in the Cherokee Nation, the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad runs right down the Grand and Arkansas valleys, through the very best land, but in the Choctaw Nation it crosses the fine valleys at right angles, leaving a little more surplus. Where, then, in the northern part, would the white settler come in? He could buy of the railroad at perhaps five dollars an acre. Shall the Government revoke a fee simple deed and cover itself with ignominy, not to benefit white immigrants, but to pile up mountainous fortunes for a few corporations ?
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"The first fee simple patent to the Cherokees bears the honored name of George Washington. Their patent for this country-for which they traded other lands sold by the Government for five times what it paid the Indians-was signed by Martin Van Buren and it cannot be that their successor of today will sanction such an act of gross injustice and bad faith, so contradictory to his own wise and humane Indian policy, which has given him not the least of his great claims to historic immortality.
"There are a score of reasons why a little more time should be given the Indians, and why we should not throw open this coun- try to settlement. In the first place, we have solemnly agreed not to do it, which is reason enough for any honorable man. Secondly, there is no present necessity for it. There are countless millions of acres lying idle in every state and territory north of it, untouched by the cultivator and even unoccupied by the herdsman. There is more unused land in Kansas today than in the Indian Territory. There is room in Nebraska for half a million farmers. There is a tract in Dakota, about the size of Indiana, yet unappropriated, with a climate suitable for northern people, and a most prolific soil. When these are filled. and our population really begins to feel crowded, it will be time enough to trouble the Indians; and long before that time these people will themselves vote to open the country, become like other borderers, and ask for immigration to help develop it. But, with Kansas on one side and Texas on the other, with as much or more good land, it appears to me as if thousands are half crazy to rush into the Indian country, just because it is forbidden. If these fellows who have been harassing the Osages, and running across the border here, and back, for the past two years, had put in the same labor almost anywhere in Nebraska, they would have each owned a fine farm by this time.
"In the third place, to sectionize the country and throw it open on the present plan, would do the white borderer little or no good. The railroads, of course, get the first grab; their land is already secured and, in the case of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas road, it would take the very heart of the country. Then, the Indians, according to their custom of living, would take all the fine timbered lands along the streams, and what would be left? Any prospective immigrant can figure for himself from the statistics given, and he will find less than one-fifth of the good land would remain to select from. A few men would sccure fine farms unquestionably, but for every such one, twenty would be disappointed. Several thou- sand young men in Kansas are fooling themselves badly about this
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