SAC (SAUK) AND FOX INDIANS.

The Sac (or Sauk) and Fox Indians were best known for their role in the Black Hawk War of 1832. As a penalty for defeat, they lost vast tracts of land in Iowa. By 1847 the tribes had been gathered and moved to their reservations in Kansas. In 1858 politicians joined forces to encourage railroad construction and to raid the remaining Indian lands. The Sac and Fox of Mississippi signed a treaty on October 1, 1859, by which they ceded in trust to the government about 300,000 acres and retained a diminished reserve of 153,600 acres. After the land had been distributed among the members of the tribe, the residue was to be opened to public sale. This was done in 1864.

The Sac and Fox of Missouri completed a treaty on March 6, 1861, at the Great Nemaha agency by which they took up the fifty sections of land which could be selected within or without the limits of their cession. They chose land belonging to the Iowas as well as public lands under the Manypenny agreement. Their reserves were reduced in 1876 by the sale of ten sections.

Manypenny, the Indian commissioner, was reluctant to made a second removal of Indian tribes, but in 1854 he was forced to make treaties reducing the acreage held by Indian tribes.

When Manypenny concluded his treaties in 1855, the Cherokee Neutral Tract and Strip, the lands of the Chippewas, Kansa (Kaw), New York Indians, Ottawas, Osages, Quapaws, Potawatomis, and Sac and Fox of Mississippi still accounted for 13,270,371 acres. These lands were still officially closed to settlers, but few respected this provision. Some of this land passed to railroads and speculators, while much of it was acquired by settlers.

[The Sac and Fox of Mississippi ceded the unsold portion of their diminished reserve on February 18, 1867. Only the Kickapoos, Sac and Fox of Missouri, and the Prairie Band of ot Potawatomis retain some of their land and keep their residence in Kansas.]

Railroad magnates were not always successful. A plan to obtain control of the Sac and Fox lands by representatives of the Burlington and Topeka Railroad failed. Eventually they passed in 1870 to the hands of five other capitalist groupsCthe largest bidder being John McManus of Reading, Pennsylvania, who obtained a tract of 142,929 acres, which he sold to Slyfort, McManus and Company, an iron-manufacturing concernCthe largest purchase ever made by an individual in Kansas.

Groups of speculators and representatives of the Union Pacific, Southern Branch (later the Missouri, Kansas and Texas), tried to get control of the Kaw Indian lands, but there was so much opposition from settlers that it proved to be impossible. Kersey Coates, representative of the Missouri River, Fort Scott and Gulf Railroad, also tried to get control of the Quapaw reserves, some Cherokee lands, and the remaining portions of the Ottawa and Miami grants for his company, but he was also unsuccessful.

The Cherokee had 1,234,000 acres of land comprising a large rectangular area known as the ANeutral Tract,@ and a narrow 2.5- by 276-mile Astrip@ along the southern border of the state. This area, together with the Osage reserves of 8,841,927 acres, were fought over by railroad promoters, speculators, and settlers. Many settlers entered the Neutral Tract before and during the Civil War on the confident assumption that it would soon be opened under pre-emption or homestead rights. However, the politicians had other plans, and on July 19, 1866, a treaty was engineered whereby the Indians ceded the entire Neutral Tract to the government in trust; but under the final provisions of the treaty, squatters were protected by being given the right to purchase their claims.

Shortly after the treaty was approved, the American Emigrant Company purchased the entire tract, but because of the magnitude of the protest against the sale, President Johnson was induced to cancel the transaction. Within a short time the Tebo and Neosho; Union Pacific Southern Branch; Atlantic and Pacific; Missouri River, Fort Scott and Gulf railroads all made efforts to acquire control of the tract. Of these interests the fourth was in the best position to construct the line through the grant. James F. Joy, Kersey Coates, and James Craig were the leaders of this combine, and they will willing to go as high as one million dollars for the 800,000 acres of the Neutral Tract.

In 1867 they launched their campaign and succeeded in defeating a treaty for the purchase of the land which was being drawn by John C. Fremont of the Atlantic and Pacific. After much lobbying and questionable maneuvering, Joy and his associates were sold the grant on October 9, 1867, by Secretary of the Interior Orville H. Browning. There was still some opposition from the American Emigrant Company, which continued to insist that its rights under an earlier treaty had not been rescinded. Negotiations followed, and a settlement acceptable to both parties was reached.

The big problem was to deal with the squatters on the tract, and this soon developed into the largest and most spectacular railroad-squatter conflict in Kansas history. The people living in this area were hardly the type to take injustice lightly. Having routed Indians, bushwhackers, Confederates, and even federal troops, they had no intention of yielding to railroad representatives. A Cherokee Neutral Land League was formed to protect their rights, and many men were drilling openly to resist eviction or interference, by force, if necessary. They made their point by politics, propaganda, and powder. Violence became so extreme that in 1869 Governor James Harvey found it expedient to request four companies of United States troops to restore order.

The Cherokee land grab kindled the flame which ignited a conflagration over the Osage treaty. The Osage had the largest and last domain in Kansas. Kansas senators Pomeroy and Edmund Ross assisted the powerful railroad lobby at work in Washingon working for the Leavenworth, Lawrence and Galveston Railroad (the Leavenworth, Lawrence and Fort Gibson), led by William Sturges, who joined forces with Joy=s combine. Their objective was to acquire the whole plum intact. A commission visited the Osage chiefs. They obtained an agreement to sell all eight million acres to the L. L. & G. R. R. Rights of squatters and the customary provisions governing land disposition would not be operative in the tract.

This monumental steal had to be ratified by the Senate, and there were forces at work there which were not sympathetic. Sidney Clarke of Kansas and George Julian of Indiana led the attack, and their group was able to force the Indian Office to reveal the terms of the treaty before it was presented to the Senate in executive session. The monstrous nature of the transaction was instantly apparent, and even Governor Crawford denounced the nefarious scheme to transfer an empire for twenty cents an acre.

The fight over the Osage grants, brought about by the treaty signed in 1865 which ceded a tract of 843,927 acres, continued. Congress made provisions for the sale of the remaining Osage lands in an act of July 15, 1870.

The Cherokee Strip contained 434,679 acres. In November, 1869, Ross and some agents of the L. L. & G. went to purchase this land. Several other railroad agents were already there, and consequently none of them were able to procure the tract. A second attempt to buy the land at fifty cents an acre was rejected by Secretary of the Interior Jacob Cox. In 1871 and the following year the government arranged to permit settlers to purchase the Strip lands for prices ranging from $1.50 to $2.00 an acre, but these prices were substantially reduced later when the depression became more serious.

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Emporia News, August 19, 1870.

Mr. Clarke and his principle supporters are very loudly claiming that he has been the friend of the settlers, and the enemy and opponent of monopolists. How far he is justly entitled to credit under this claim the people have a right to know, and it is our duty as public journalists to furnish such facts as we have at hand, for the perusal of our readers, touching the official conduct of Mr. Clarke, and all other public officers, when they are asking the votes of the people. From an examination of his record on the Indian treaty business, we should say if all his claims for the votes of the people are as groundless as that of opposition to monopolists, he certainly stands upon a very flimsy foundation. It must be borne in mind that there has been a wonderful change in public sentiment in the past year or two, in regard to the Indian treaty business. There is a determination on the part of the people, headed by men like George W. Julian, to put a stop to such infamous swindles as the Joy purchase and the Sturgis treaty, and this change of sentiment, and this determination of the people may have something to do with Mr. Clarke=s change of front on this subject. These may account for his loud-mouth professions of love for the settlers, and his late speeches against land monopolies.

But let us examine his record on the subject of land swindles, during his two and a half terms in Congress.

He opposed the Osage treaty, two years ago, and for that should have due credit, notwithstanding he offered to support it for a consideration, which offer can be abundantly proven. But he has received full pay for that act by a re-nomination and a re-election to Congress. Even his friends admitted at the time that the Osage treaty saved him two years ago.

During Mr. Clarke=s Congressional career treaties have been made and ratified with different Indian tribes for their lands in Kansas, as follows.

The Sac and Foxes, Delawares, Kickapoos, Cherokees, and Pottawattomies, besides some minor tribes. Let us examine the provisions of these treaties in their order.

1. The Sac and Fox lands were treated forCexcept the diminished ReserveCand sold Afor the benefit of the Indians@ by means of a refined swindle known as ASealed bids,@ whereby no actual settler nor the common schools got an acre, but mammoth eastern land monopolists and speculators obtained three hundred thousand acres of the finest land in Kansas at from fifty cents to one dollar per acre. The effects of this gobble are yet plainly visible in miles square of unoccupied land in Osage, Lyon, and Franklin counties.

2. The last Delaware treaty gave 96,000 acres of the best land in Leavenworth County to the Missouri Pacific railroad company at a mere nominal sum, and not an acre to actual settlers or to schools, and by the terms of the treaty we believe the lands are not yet even subject to taxation! They were not a year or two ago. This land was given to a company that built about thirty miles of road, when they already had county bonds and franchises given them by the people sufficient to build the road. The land was a free bonus. Mr. Clarke was specially active in perpetrating this little swindle.

3. The Kickapoo treaty gave to the Atchison (or Central) Branch of the Union Pacific roadCalready endowed with $16,000 of Government bonds per mile and a large amount of other lands, the whole of the Kickapoo Reserve of over 300,000 acres, and not an acre to settlers or schools, and not to be taxed for six years, thus not only retarding their settlement, but preventing them from being a source of revenue to the State. The poor settler must pay tax on his homestead, according to Clarke=s political economy, but the rich railroad company must not pay a dollar on millions= worth of land!

4. The Cherokee treaty provided for the sale of all that magnificent tract of land known as the Cherokee Neutral Lands in Southeastern KansasCabout 800,000 acres in a bodyCand it was sold under that treaty to Mr. Joy, a railroad president, for one dollar per acre, and not an acre reserved for schools and none to settlers, except the very small number who had settled thereon prior to the making of the treaty. There are probably 20,000 people now living on these lands, of whom not over one-tenth have any guarantee for either land or improvements, but are at the mercy of Joy. This treaty had not even the merit of securing the removal of the Indians from the State, as the Cherokees had never occupied it. And this is not all, after supporting the treaty, at least by allowing its consummation, he has tried to incense the settlers on the land against Joy, for the sake of making political capital, and has continually promised them their lands, while he has done nothing to secure them.

5. The Pottawattomie treaty was ratified in the closing days of the session of Congress before the last, and while the Osage treaty, which he opposed, was pending. It provided for the sale of the entire Pottawatomie ReserveCthirty miles squareCto the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad company, for one dollar per acre, without an acre being reserved for schools or settlers! Thus it will be seen that while he opposed the Osage treaty, he at the same time favored one just as infamous for the disposal of the Pottawatomie Reserve. AOh Consistency, thou art a jewel!@ especially with Kansas congressmen. He opposed one treaty because he could not get a chance in the steal, while at the same time he favored another to keep pace with the thieving ring composed of himself and Pomeroy. Pomeroy got about 100,000 acres of that land, and of course Clarke must help him get it through. That=s the reason that old Pomeroy is now writing letters to all his friends in Kansas to come up to the support of Clarke.

The above treaties containing the provisions which we have named, have all been ratified during Mr. Clarke=s Congressional career. Did anyone ever hear a note of opposition to a single one of them from his lips? Not only did he not oppose them, but he favored them.

On top of this record on land grant swindles, he is claiming to have been the settler=s friend. These claims are paraded in big headlines in his newspapers, which we are glad to say, for the sake of the profession, are neither respectable in number or talent. There is a radical inconsistency between his record and his claim of being a friend to the poor that cannot be explained away by thinking people. He is guilty of a degree of duplicity and charlatanism which should not pass current as true coin in Kansas.

Now, it is urged by Mr. Clarke=s newspapers that he ought to go back to Congress because of his experience and influence. What has that experience and influence cost Kansas? Add together the amounts of land given away to speculators for a song, in the above treaties, and it will be found a dear experience for Kansas. It will be seen that Mr. Clarke=s valuable experience, so far as his efforts have gone, has cost the people of Kansas and the country two million and seventy-five thousand acres of the best lands in the State. Can a new member do worse than this?

We use our pen for the overthrow of Mr. Clarke because he is the wrong man to send to Congress. We want the people to read and ponder before they elect delegates to the State Convention. If Mr. Clarke is renominated, they are the ones that must be responsible. They ought not to elect the delegates. They ought not to let his office holders fix the matter up for them. They ought to spend one day for his defeat.

Arkansas City Traveler, May 24, 1876.

Mr. Withington says that a late census of the the Sac & Foxes, who came to Kansas in 1846 (two thousand seven hundred and thirty strong), now number a little over six hundred. Civilization and bad whiskey have been fatal to this once powerful and warlike tribe.

Arkansas City Traveler, May 24, 1876.

Indian Territory News.

[From the Commonwealth.]

SAC AND FOX AGENCY, INDIAN TERRITORY, May 10.

This place was thrown into considerable excitement on Sunday evening, by the arrival of a courier with word that some six armed white men had collected together some 200 head of cattle at the ranch of John Whisker, some 15 miles south of this place and driven them off, in defiance of the herder's protest and what little resistance he could offer.

What few whites live here, some nine in number, armed themselves and started in pursuit. About 8 o'clock Monday morning, they came upon the supposed cattle thieves and found some 60 or 70 head of cows and ponies, being driven by an Indian, a squaw, and some children, said Indian said he knew nothing of any more cattle, but on close observation, a fresh trail was discovered ahead, which was followed for some six or eight miles, when a herd of some 80 or 100 head of steers were found, being driven on a run by an Indian and two white men. The parties were called upon to surrender, but the white men fled and left the Indian with the cattle. The Indian got down from his horse and made for Francis Olsmith, one of the parties in pursuit from this place, with a butcher knife, and inflicted some serious wounds, but none of them fatal, he would have killed him however, had not help been close. The Indian was killed outright by a timely shot or two from the pursuers.

Papers found on the dead man go to show that the Indian's name was David Blue or Ballou, a noted Cherokee outlaw and cattle thief, and the murderer of some six or eight men. The two escaped white men, from the description, are supposed to be Charlie Willetts, and Long John, two desperate characters and the terror of the Nation. The cattle were brought to this place and await an owner, as they do not belong to Whisker as at first supposed. The brands and marks answer the description of some cattle stolen from Childers in February last, by Charlie Willetts and Long John.

The Territory at this time, is infested with a desperate set of cutthroats and horse thieves and the people, both Indians and white, have to rely on themselves for protection, and in the future, summary justice be meted out to such that come this way, by Col. Colt.

It is only a few weeks ago, that the store at this place, owned by Rankin & Gibbs, was robbed in the presence of the clerks, by three armed desperadoes, while the United States Marshall's deputies are lounging around such places as Muskogee and Vinita.

OCCASIONAL.

Arkansas City Traveler, November 1, 1876.

A Cross Bear.

In many of the eastern States "bear" is a word so rarely spoken or read that the animal of which this word is the name, together with the annoyances that grow out of its presence in the neighborhood of white settlers, are not even imagined. While the eastern farmer slumbers in security from bruin's depredations upon his premises, the pioneer of the west suffers frequent losses in stock, and in his efforts to make proper provision for his wife and little ones, finds that his life is somewhat jeopardized.

On the 1sth inst., as Harry Broome was carrying the mail from the Sac & Fox Agency to this place, and when within about 18 miles of the Cimarron River and near Beaver Lake, he came in contact with a large black bear.

The bear was on the trail, and, until after the firing of several pistol shots, refused to give the road, exhibiting a degree of obstinacy seldom witnessed except in the immediate vicinity of cubs. As soon, however, as Mr. Broome effected his passage, hostilities ceased, and bruin was left in the undisputed possession of that wild region. Indian Herald.

Arkansas City Traveler, December 13, 1876.

Another Murder in the Territory.

RED FORK RANCH, INDIAN TERRITORY, December 1, 1876.

On the morning of the 29th of November, I received word through a Mr. Harris, who was in charge of a bull train resting near this place, that there had been an old man killed on Turkey Creek, some ten miles above my ranch, and that he thought the body was secreted in the brush along the stream.

In company with Mr. Harris, I started out to investigate. Riding up Turkey Creek until we found the trail of the wagon, to which it was supposed the old man belonged, we took the back trail, as the party had come from Medicine Lodge, on the Dodge trail, and traveled south. We followed it some two miles, when, riding up on a high mound, we discovered in the bottom about 30 head of ponies quietly grazing, which filled the description (Harris thought) of the stock belonging to the supposed murdered man. Upon following the wagon trail to the crossing of the creek, we found the camping ground of the party, and the feathers of a turkey, which Mr. Harris had learned they had killed.

Everything as discovered confirmed the suspicion that there was wrong somewhere. We commenced search, but seeing a band of Indians along the stream below us (and not knowing but they might be "friendly Osages" who would beg tobacco of us), we rounded up the ponies that were scattered over the bottom, and started for the ranch.

After we had traveled about four miles, we saw two Indians coming behind us at full speed, and I rode back to meet them. When they came near, I saw they were Sac and Fox Indians. To the inquiry as to what they wanted, they replied in broken English: "See white man, deadCsquaw find him," etc. Leaving Harris to take the stock to the ranch, I turned back with the two Indians, who said they would guide me to the dead white man.

Just as we descended into the bottom, after a ride of four miles, the sun was setting. A cold wind from the northwest blew in our faces, and the tall waving grass made specters of the long shadows that fell across our path as we sped along. Turning a bend in the stream, we passed down a steep bank into the timber, and I found myself in the midst of the Indian camp, where everything was in confusion. At a word from one of my guides, they all uttered something which was unintelligible to me, but quiet was restored. My guide, dismounting, signaled me to do the same, saying, "Come.@ Then on foot I followed the Indian, who went stooping and dodging through the brush some four hundred yards, when he halted, and pointing ahead, said, "See;" and in the growing darkness I beheld the body of a dead man.

Upon approaching the body, I found it to be that of a man about fifty years of age. He was lying upon his back, his right arm across his breast, and his left arm thrown out; had been shot with a shot gun, the charge entering the left side of the face, and many of them coming out on the right side around the ear. The left pocket in his pants was wrong side out, showing that he had been searched.

Returning to my pony, I mounted and rode to my ranch, where I was told that some soldiers had arrived that evening on their way to investigate the matter, and were camped in the sand hills. They had got word at the Agency of the murder.

Yesterday morning four soldiers came to the ranch, with Ben Clark as guide, and together we rode to the scene of the murder, finding the body as I had left it the evening before. A young man the soldiers had brought from Cheyenne with them identified the corpse as an old man who had employed him to help him through to Texas with some ponies; that the old man was the owner of the stock I had taken the day before; could not tell the man's name. The body was searched, but nothing could be found to throw any light on identity. Some wild animal had eaten away part of the flesh from the face of the corpse. A grave was dug, and the old man buried from sightCno friend or kindred near to shed a tear over his remains. An ash tree at his head marks his last resting place.

The soldiers took charge of the stock, and started for Reno this morning. The cause of the murder is not yet fully known, but the murderer is thought to be a young man in the old man's employ, who has fled south, and of whom they are in hot pursuit. The murder was committed on the night of November 24th, and the body had lain five days. When more light is obtained upon the deed, I will write again.

D. W. JONES.

Arkansas City Traveler, January 3, 1877.

At the Sac & Fox Agency, a few days ago, a high life wedding occurred. The ceremony was performed by a Baptist minister of the Creek Nation, who could not speak either Sac or English. The talking was done through an interpreter and was in this wise.

Addressing the man, the minister said: "Well, you like him, you take him to be your woman?@

The Indian replied, "Yes."

The minister said, "All right."

Then, addressing the woman, he said: "Well, may be you like him, hey? You take him to be your man?

She answered: "Yes."

The preacher then concluded: "Well, you man and woman now sometime.@ Journal.

Arkansas City Traveler, January 10, 1877. Front Page.

From the Territory.

RED FORK RANCH, INDIAN TERRITORY, December 31, 1876.

The snow storm in this vicinity was terrible, lasting four days. The thermometer, Thursday and Friday nights, was below zero. Freighters have suffered much from the cold, many of them having their feet frosted. John Lane, a cattle boy coming down the trail, was badly frozen in the feet and ankles. Two companies of Infantry passed down today for Reno, having been out in all the storm.

Last week the old ranch was honored with a pleasant visit from a company of ladies and gentlemen from Caldwell. Such music, dancing, and sport as were enjoyed while their visit lasted does not often fall to our lot. I was sorry I could not follow them to the State, to partake of the feast I presume they will have over the 200 turkeys which the hunters bagged while here.

The old man who was murdered near this place was named Warnemaker. Dick Simpson, the murderer, was captured at Jacksonborough, Texas. Respectfully,

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

[Note: ARobinson Crusoe@ is D. W. Jones.]

Arkansas City Traveler, May 28, 1977. Ross Wilkin of Winfield remembers his grandfather, Henry Wilkin, telling him that Henry came to Cambridge in the early 1870s. When they first settled there, there were 250 Sac-Faux Indians camped on the east side of Grouse Creek. The Wilkins settled on the West side.

AThe Indians were peaceful. They did not know about owning anything so Grandpa had to put all his tools up or they would carry them off to Camp.@ he said. AGetting them back was easy, you just went to the camp and claimed what was yours. They didn=t mind.@