COURTS HANDLING AFFAIRS IN INDIAN TERRITORY.
By the treaty of 1866, between the United
States and the Indian tribes in the Indian Territory, the United States
and the Indian tribes in the Indian Territory, the trial and punishment
of an Indian charged with offenses against the person or property of another
Indian in the Indian Territory was left to the tribal courts. In time this
changed.
The famous United States Criminal Court
at Fort Smith, Arkansas, was established as office of the judge of the Western
District of Arkansas on the second Monday in May, 1871. Judge Isaac C. Parker
presided for the first time over the court that was destined to attract,
under him, universal attention. The court had previously been held at Van
Buren, Arkansas, five miles from Fort Smith.
The Fort Smith court had exclusive, original,
and final jurisdiction of all crimes committed in the Indian Territory
and No Mans Land, as well as having the usual jurisdiction of a portion
of the State of Arkansas, excepting offenses committed against the person
or property of a member of Indian Tribes in the Indian Territory by other
members of Indian tribes in said Territory.
The first act of Congress tending to reduce
the jurisdiction in the Indian Territory, of the Federal Court for the Western
District of Arkansas, was approved January 6, 1883. It provided that All
that part of the Indian Territory lying north of the Canadian River and
east of Texas and the one hundredth meridian not set apart and occupied
by the Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole Indian tribes be annexed to and
form a part of the United States Judicial District of Kansas, and giving
the United States District Courts at Wichita and Fort Scott, Kansas, the
exclusive original jurisdiction of all offenses committed within the limits
of said territory against the laws of the United States, and that all portions
of the Indian Territory not so annexed to the district of Kansas for judicial
purposes and not set apart and occupied by the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek,
Chickasaw, and Seminole Indian Tribes, be annexed to and constitute a part
of the judicial district, known as the Northern District of Texas, the United
States Court at Graham in said District to have exclusive original jurisdiction
of all offenses committed in said territory against any of the laws of the
United States; it was, however, specifically provided that the act should
not in any way effect whatever cases in such territory were already commenced
and then pending in the Fort Smith Court, nor were said district courts
of Texas or Kansas given any greater jurisdiction in the territory than
was previously held by the court for the Western District of Arkansas.
[Note: The court system relative to Indian
Territory was discussed in many of the early newspapers during the years
that Judge Parker was in charge. I am only going to cover events starting
with the latter part of 1879. MAW]
Interesting article about reasons why
outlaws go to Indian Territory...
Arkansas City Traveler, Wednesday, December 17, 1879.
It is a very common occurrence for men
who commit crime in Kansas to make their escape into the Indian Territory.
Having reached there, they claim immunity from punishment and are ready
for a life of the outlaw. Many of these charmers are secluded in the western
part of the Territory, though by far the greater number are making homes
among the natives of the Five Nations.
If an intelligent observer should travel
through that part of the Territory lying East of the 96 degree of longitude
he will be struck with the large number of white population claiming rights
in the Territory by virtue of various concessions. Scores of white men are
there without authority from the general Government, but claim protection
under the local laws of the tribes, prescribing citizenship to those who
intermarry with the Indian.
Now, the white race can well afford to
spare those who, as a general rule, from choice, adopt the domestic relations
of an inferior race, but does the Indian derive any advantage thereby? What
can be the scale of society for generations to come that has for its progenitors
a vagrant vicious class? It has long been the policy of the Government to
keep the Territory intact from the grasp of the white man, but during the
elapse of time, he has gone in by stealth, and this element now enacts the
local laws of the most important tribes.
The criminal records of the Federal court
at Fort Smith bear testimony that more crimes are committed within the territory
than can be brought to trial at that renowned bar of justice. No thoughtful
man will presume that left to itself, the present condition of things will
improve in the Indian Territory. The reader will ask, Is there a remedy
for these evils? We believe
so. If Congress should pass an act to open this Territory to the actual
settler, the problem would soon be solved. But, say some, This would
be doing injustice to the Indian; we cant afford to break faith with
the red man; he is our ward and entitled to our protection. This is
pretty logic provided it does no violence to the rights of the white race.
We confess that we are of the brotherhood who believe that the white man
is as good as any, and entitled to some rights as well as the Indian. We
search in vain for authority in the organic law of this government to make
treaty with Indian tribes. If the Indian is solely the ward of this government,
by what right is he clothed with the importance of a Foreign power and treaties
ratified for his special benefit? But if Congress can never get ready to
open the Territory to the actual settler, justice to the citizens of Kansas
demands that an act be passed prescribing to the Federal Courts of this
district concurrent jurisdiction over the Indian Territory.
The large influx of population into southwest
Kansas for the last two years will demand, at least, an annual session of
the Federal Court on the southern border of the State; and with the Territory
attached to this judicial district, no locality offers as many advantages
for the business of a Federal Court as Arkansas City.
Arkansas City Traveler, January 28, 1880.
Three U. S. Marshals were in town on Monday
last, hunting for parties to put in an appearance at the Fort Smith Federal
Court.
Excerpts...
Arkansas City Traveler, Wednesday, February 18, 1880. Front Page.
PUNISHMENT OF CRIME IN THE INDIAN TERRITORY.
The House Committee on Indian affairs
have agreed upon the terms of the bill to provide for the punishment of
crime in the Indian Territory. At the meeting of the Committee on Friday
morning Chairman Scales was instructed to report it to the House. It provides
that the laws of the respective States and Territories in which are located
Indian reservations, relating to the crimes of murder, manslaughter, arson,
rape, burglary, and robbery, shall be deemed and taken to be the law and
in force within such reservations; and the district courts of the United
States within and for the respective districts in which such reservations
may be located in any State, and the territorial courts of the respective
territories in which such reservations may be located shall have original
jurisdiction over all such offenses which may be committed within such reservations.
In respect to all that portion of
the Indian Territory not set apart and occupied by the Cherokee, Creek,
Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole Indian Tribes, the provisions of the laws
of the State of Kansas relating to the crimes of murder, manslaughter, arson,
rape, burglary, and robbery shall be deemed and taken to be the law and
in force therein; and the United States district court for the western district
of the State of Kansas, at Fort Scott, shall have exclusive original jurisdiction
over all such offenses arising in said portion of the Indian Territory.
The place of punishment of any and all said offenses shall be the same as
for other like offenses arising within the jurisdiction of said respective
courts.
Arkansas City Traveler, March 24, 1880. Front Page.
WASHINGTON, March 13, 1880.
THE INDIAN TERRITORY QUESTION.
The motion made on Tuesday by Senator
Thurman, to refer to the Committee on the judiciary the remonstrance of
Indian chiefs against the passage of the bill to establish a United States
court in the Indian Territory, was taken up on Wednesday. Mr. Vest opposed
the motion, saying the Committee on territories, who reported the bill,
included several able lawyers, fully competent to draw a bill, and there
was no reason to refer this any more than any other bill to the Committee
on the judiciary. Mr. Edmunds thought that a bill to establish a United
States court in a territory which had been set aside as an independent domain
raised such important judicial questions as to make it a proper subject
for consideration by the judiciary Committee. Considerable debate occurred
between Senators Vest, Edmunds, Garland, and Conklin, the latter ably defending
the point he had taken, and the bill was finally referred to the judiciary
Committee.
Arkansas City Traveler, August 4, 1880.
Our U. S. Commissioners court was
in full blast last Monday, straightening (?) out some kind of a Territorial
mess lately indulged in by one Ishmael Davis and a Cherokee Indian.
Arkansas City Traveler, September 1, 1880. Front Page.
Capt. Payne and five of his comrades,
H. H. Stafford, J. K. Jarratt, J. Brophy, A. H. Riggs, and W. H. Smith,
were brought in by the military last Friday, after a long detention, and
turned over to the U. S. court, at this place. He found here no criminal
charge against him, and was set at liberty at once and cited, together with
his five comrades, to appear to November term of the U. S. court, to answer
charge of going, the second time, into the Indian Territory.
Capt. Payne was very desirous to answer
the charge at once, and without delay, but it cannot probably be well attended
to by either partyplaintiff or defendantat present.
It is a very important matter and will,
no doubt, be decided by His Honor, Judge Parker, when tried in accordance
with the genius of our Republican institutions, consistent with the spirit
of the age in which we live, and in the great interests of civilization
and advancement, and in the encouragement, as has always been the case,
of the hardy, energetic, and bold pioneers of our country, a liberal construction
of the law. Ft. Smith Elevator.
Arkansas City Traveler, November 24, 1880. Editorial Page.
POPE AND PAYNE.
Gen. John Pope has fired off his annual
columbine in the form of an official report, reviewing Indian affairs in
the Department of the Missouri. The burden of the document is devoted to
the late eruption of the Southern Cheyennes and repeated and pending raids
of Capt. Payne into Oklahoma. Gen. Pope details the action of the military
authorities in twice removing Payne and his followers, and on the last occasion
turning them over to the United States district court of Fort Smith. He
says it is certain that Payne and his comrades fully believe in their
right to settle in the Oklahoma district, and are anxious to test the question
in the United States courts. He also expresses the belief that it is the
intention of the colonists to reenter the Territory pending the trial of
their case, and under the Presidents proclamation it will be necessary
to arrest them and repeat the same process. Gen. Pope accordingly urges
that the question of their right to settle in the Territory be passed upon
as soon as possible by the U. S. court, now in session at Fort Smith.
It is clear from the general tenor of
Gen. Popes report that he anticipates a formidable raid. He is too
well informed not to know that the Oklahoma Colony whose headquarters are
in Wichita represents an enlisted force of several thousand men, scattered
through Southern Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas, and that the mass
of these recruits will respond to the call for a general movement, advancing
simultaneously by front and flank to the heart of Oklahoma.
They commit no trespass upon Indian reservations;
they will occupy only the ceded lands, from which the Indian title has been
extinguished by Government purchase, and which are designated as public
lands on the Government maps. It is true also that the executive is
prohibited by act of Congress from locating any more Indian tribes upon
any public lands, and hence they lie in idleness and implied perpetual isolation
from development and civilization. The position of Capt. Payne and his associates
is ably fortified by the elaborate opinion of Col. Broadhead, and Judge
Krum and Philips, of the St. Louis bar, a committee appointed to investigate
and report upon the subject. What course the executive may pursue in regard
to the pending invasion cannot be foreseen. We believe but for the obstinacy
of Secretary Schurz, President Hayes, whose first message to the present
Congress contained a very decided expression in favor of opening the Indian
Territory, would suspend his proclamation and direct Gen. Pope to interpose
no further barrier against the settlement of Oklahoma.
But with or without military intervention,
we consider the opening of these 14,000,000 acres of public lands a certain
and speedy event. It is the public sentiment and temper of the southwest
that breech clout barbarism shall no longer block the national highway,
and stem the tide of civilization between Kansas and the Gulf. The President
could do no wiser act than to order Gen. Pope to suspend offensive operation
and give Capt. Payne honorable escort to the public lands.
In any event, we believe before the ides
of March are passed, there will 20,000 bona fide settlers tilling
the soil and building the capital city of the future State of Oklahoma.
. . .
Arkansas City Traveler, Wednesday, December 8, 1880. Front Page.
THE OKLAHOMA QUESTION.
JUDGE W. P. CAMPBELL UPON ITS LEGAL AND MORAL PHASES.
Editor Wichita Eagle:
I wish through your paper to give my views
of Paynes raid upon Oklahoma. My purpose is to do what I can to save
a few honest, hard working men from being entrapped in a scheme that is
not intended for their benefit, and can end only in loss to anyone who has
anything to lose, and trouble and difficulty to all who go to Oklahoma in
opposition to the national authorities.
I echo the sentiments of a large majority
of the solid businessmen and farmers of this city and county when I say
that no honest laboring man can afford to be used by these Oklahoma boomers.
And it is the wish of all such that their scheme shall fail, as it certainly
will. There is a sense of justice and honor and a disposition to abide by
the law characteristic of the American people that, when the test comes,
will knock the wadding out of all such business.
Payne and his coadjutors pretend that
there is no act of Congress against his going into the Oklahoma country,
so called. But the law is too plain to be explained away on a flimsy technicality.
The law prohibits anyone going into the Indian country without leave, and
makes it the duty of the President to remove all intruders, and for that
purpose to use the army if necessary. A second intrusion subjects the intruder
to a penalty of one thousand dollars. The phrase Indian country,
is one of long use and well understood meaning, and includes Oklahoma as
much as it does any Indian reservation within the limits of the Indian Territory.
Payne and his crowd laugh at the penalty
inasmuch as it is merely a civil liability, and does not subject them to
imprisonment. But before they can succeed in this business, they must have
the cooperation of men who are not indifferent to such matters. The only
hope they have of success is to precipitate into the country such numbers
that the army will be powerless to remove them until Congress shall be forced
to recognize and legalize their occupancy. If they could find the precious
metals to tempt the cupidity of man, their scheme, lawless as it is, might
succeed. But when you ask a man to risk his little all and go to hard work,
plowing in the ground, he is in no great haste to do so. The average Oklahoma
boomer is little given to plowing, except by proxy. He expects to reap a
rich harvest by the sweat of other mens brows, and unless they delude
a sufficient number of poor workingmen into the idea that by joining the
expedition they can better their condition and obtain a valuable homestead
in this promised land, their speculations will prove fruitless.
If asked to give the best reason for opposing
the Oklahoma raid, I answer, because it is not right. It sets at defiance
the laws and treaties of the national government, and the President cannot,
under his oath of office, permit it to be done, but is charged by every
consideration of honor, good faith, and duty to prevent it, by the whole
power of the army if necessary.
Much has been said and written derogatory
to the policy of treating with the Indians as an independent people, and
it is urged that we should regard them as citizens, and subject them to
all the duties and responsibilities of other citizens. This sounds very
well from our standpoint, and if no other right but ours intervened, there
could be no objection to it. But they were an independent people before
they came under our jurisdiction.
So far as the Indians immediately interested
are concerned, the policy of recognizing and treating with them as a sovereign
independent people originated with the Kingdom of Spain, and while they
occupied Spanish dominions. In this relation they became possessed of certain
rights. Spain ceded her dominions known as the Territory of Louisiana to
France, subject to the treaty rights of the Indians, and in turn the same
territory was ceded by France to the United States, by the great Napoleon
who required as part of the consideration by which we obtained this magnificent
empire, a solemn promise that we would execute such treaties and articles
as may have been agreed upon between Spain and the tribes and nations of
Indians, until by mutual consent of the United States and the said tribes
or nations other suitable articles shall have been agreed upon.
We have the power and, if we will, may
disregard this stipulation, but not without dishonor. We have certainly
gone as far in that direction as fairness will permit. We compelled the
Indian to submit to extermination or the alternative of a settlement in
the Indian Territory. He chose the latter with a promise, on our part, that
it should be held sacred to him forever.
By treaty certain divisions of territory
were set apart for certain tribes and nations, and the remainder, including
Oklahoma, reserved for the future settlement of other Indians.
The act of Congress prohibiting the settlement
of any more Indians in the Indian Territory is a violation of this agreement
and ought to be repealed.
If we would civilize the Indian, let us
give him an example of truth and justice, as practiced by civilized people.
If we would teach him to obey the law, let us show him how law can protect
him in the enjoyment of his rights. The Indian is no fool, if he is a barbarian.
He knows that the settlement of Oklahoma by whites in the manner proposed
is the entering wedge that shall eventually send him adrift, with his papoose
and squaw, with no spot on earth that he can call home. He is naturally
opposed to it, and he will doubtless resist it with all the force of his
savage nature.
Much has been accomplished toward the
enlightenment of the Indian during the last twenty years, and much more
may be accomplished by pursuing an enlightened and Christian policy. But
it is vain to offer him courts and laws while we exhibit an utter disregard
of to him the highest law; to offer him bible and schools while we rob and
drive him from his home.
The principal objection the Indian has
to white civilization is on account of his apprehension that it means death
to him, and unfortunately the experience of the past is poorly calculated
to remove this apprehension.
His rights are as dear to him as ours
to us, and he feels his wrongs as we do ours. Perhaps it is very stupid
and unreasonable in him to do so. Perhaps he should consider it very kind
of our Paynes to force him to sacrifice his traditions, tastes, habits,
and prejudices in the interests of commerce and agriculture.
This is not the first time the people
have been called on to vindicate the national honor. Good faith with the
Indian is not necessarily antagonistic to the interests of commerce. Convince
him that we do not mean a conquest of his country and a destruction of his
prosperity, and there will be little trouble in gaining his consent to run
railroads through the Territory. It is not necessary to rob him in order
to give him the benefits of courts and laws.
We need to give him schools and churches
adapted to his nature and surroundings, and thus gradually fit him for citizenship,
when he will accept the new relation from choice.
I favor every legitimate means of opening
up the highways of trade through the Territory; the settlement of all the
Indians in the Territory who will go there voluntarily; the establishment
of courts with special legislation intended to protect the Indian from imposition,
and to secure him exclusive control of the soil; the building of schools
and railroads at Government expense, and the use of every other means of
encouragement to the Indian to work out the problem of his own civilization.
With such encouragement and security he
will, in time, himself build towns and cities, and invite immigration and
enterprise. I would like to see the Government, the consent of the Indians
being first obtained, construct a double track railroad from Arkansas City
through the Territory so as to connect with the southern system of railroads,
and give all companies the right to run their cars over it that will comply
with such salutary regulations and conditions as may be imposed.
But whatever is done, let it be done on
the principle of rigid justice and good faith to the Indians, they being
the judge of what is justice and good faith.
Very respectfully, W. P. CAMPBELL.
Arkansas City Traveler, December 8, 1880.
Omaha, Nebraska, December 4, 1880. Judge
Dundy in the United States Circuit this morning decided in the Ponca Indian
caseto recover their old reservation and establish a title theretothat
the Ponca tribe of Indians have legal estate in the reservation, and are
entitled to possession thereto.
This case is the first on record where
one Indian brought suit against another in the courts of the United States,
and has aroused deep and wide-spread feeling on account of the wrong done
the Poncas.
Arkansas City Traveler, January 5, 1881.
PAYNE DEFENDS HIS POSITION.
Fort Smith, Arkansas, December 31. David
L. Payne, of Oklahoma fame, by his attorneys, Baker, Krum and Boudinot,
of St. Louis, today filed his answer to the suit pending against him in
the United States court, for unlawfully entering and remaining in the Indian
Territory.
By his answer he avers that he was not
at the time charged in the complaint in any part of the Indian country owned
or occupied by any Indian tribe at the time charged in the complaint, and
for some time prior thereto, he, as a citizen of the United States, was
located on lands belonging to the United States exclusively, within the
limits of the Indian Territory, and to which no Indian or Indian tribe had
any right or title whatever; that his location and settlement was made upon
lands purchased by the United States from the Creek and Seminole Indians
by a treaty ratified in August, 1866, and that said lands are a part of
the public domain. He denies that he was removed from any part of the Indian
country embracing lands belonging to any tribe of Indians or to which any
tribe of Indians had any right whatever, but claims that he has been wrongfully
and unlawfully ejected from his said settlement upon the public domain by
the military forces of the United States, and claims damages in the sum
of $20,000.
Arkansas City Traveler, March 16, 1881.
[From the Cheyenne Transporter.]
George W. Padgett, who killed W. H. Stevens,
near Caldwell last June, was tried at Fort Smith at the last term of court
and found guilty of murder in the first degree. He has killed seven men,
and the sentence is certainly a just one.
Arkansas City Traveler, May 11, 1881. Editorial Page.
Fort Smith, Ark., May 3. Judge Parker,
of the United States district court, has rendered a judgment for the government
in the suit of the United States vs. David C. Payne, charged with unlawfully
invading the Indian Territory. The penalty under the statutes is $1,000.
Six other cases of the same nature were decided in favor of the government.
Winfield Courier, May 12, 1881.
Some of our friends would believe as long
ago as last summer that Dave Payne had been tried in the U. S. court at
Fort Smith for trespassing on the Indian lands and acquitted. We informed
them that such was not the case, but that he was awaiting his trial. That
trial has recently taken place and he was found guilty and fined one thousand
dollars and costs. Several other trespassers were found guilty.
Thus dies the Oklahoma boom just as all
sensible persons were sure it would end. We do not think that Payne is very
badly beaten. He and his clique probably made a good thing off the stupid
fellows who were green enough to pay two dollars each for membership dues
and those more stupid chaps who paid $25.00 each for a share in the Oklahoma
town company.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, July 7, 1881 - Front
Page.
Judge Parkers opinion in the case
of the United States vs. D. L. Payne sets forth at length the legal status
of the land, which it has been claimed, was open to pre-emption as the nucleus
of the future state of Oklahoma. Payne, it will be remembered, was expelled
from the Indian Territory by the United States military forces, and on re-entering
the Territory, was expelled again. This second entry being punishable under
the laws of the United States, an action was brought against Payne, who
in his answer, denied that he was in the Indian Territory, or any part thereof;
averred that the land from which he was expelled was the property of the
United States, and subjected to pre-emption, like other public lands, and
that he had settled on it under the pre-emption and homestead laws. The
question presented for decision was, therefore, Was the land on which
Payne claimed to have settled a part of or within the Indian Territory?
Judge Parker begins by inquiring whether
Payne had the right to pre-empt any of the lands conveyed by the Seminole
treaty of 1866, which was the treaty under which the Government acquired
its title to them. The homestead and pre-emption laws provide that any lands
which have been reserved by any treaty, law, or proclamation of the president,
are no part of the public lands of the United States subject to those laws,
so long as such reservation continues. The power to reserve may be exercised
by treaty, law, or executive proclamation. The third article of the Seminole
treaty, the judge holds, clearly reserves these lands for the purpose of
locating on them other Indians and freedmen. He treats this portion of the
question at considerable length, and explains why the government wanted
to locate other Indians and freedmen there. The Indian branch of the inquiry
involves nothing not generally known, but the privilege of freedmen to enter
on the land at will, is not so well understood.
Judge Parker holds the intention of the
government to have been to provide a place for the settlement of the liberated
slaves of the Indians. The tribes of the Indian Territory held colored people
in slavery, and when these were set free, it was not known whether the several
Indian tribes who held them to slavery would observe their pledges to secure
them the same rights which the Indians themselves enjoyed.
It was fear that the prejudice growing
out of their former condition as slaves would be so strong against them
that, in order to protect them, it might become necessary to settle them
in a colony by themselves. This purpose of the government was manifested
by the terms of the treaty with the Choctaws, and in making the treaty with
the Seminoles, it sought to provide a home for freedmen as had been held
in slavery by the Indians in the Indian Territory, to which they might be
removed, should it be necessary in order to secure them in their rights.
The government intended to locate there those freedmen who had been slaves
in the Indian Territory, and none others; and these could only be settled
on this land by the authority and permission of the government. Colored
persons who were never held as slaves in the Indian country, but who may
have been slaves elsewhere, are like other citizens of the United States,
and have no more right in the Indian country than other citizens.
If this land is open to pre-emption settlement,
it has been so ever since the treaty of 1866, with the Seminoles. Yet the
government has never attached it to any land district, so that settlers
could take the necessary preliminary step to perfect their titles. That
it has not done so, shows how it has construed the treaty, which is a contract
to which it is one of the parties. It is a matter of public notoriety that
the Seminoles have similarly construed the treaty; and in this case, the
construction upon which both parties to the treaty agree is the proper one
to be adopted by the courts.
Treaties, like statutes, must be construed,
if possible, to give them effect. The judge disposes of the claim that the
right to pre-empt these lands is granted by a clause in a railroad charter.
The supreme court has held that whenever a tract of land has been
appropriated to the public use, it has been severed from the mass of public
domain, and subsequent laws of sale are not construed to embrace it, though
they do not in terms express it. This land, having been reserved prior
to the passage of the railroad grant and charter, and the charter being
general in its terms, and not making any special reference to this land,
cannot be held to embrace it. This railroad grant was what the counsel of
Payne mainly relied on to sustain their case, but the law, as expounded
by Judge Parker, seems to show that it was of no value whatever.
He next decides that the land is a part
of the Indian Territory because, if it is not, the laws of the United States
do not extend over it. Payne was therefore clearly an intruder by the law,
and is liable for the penalty.
This exhaustive opinion puts a complete
quietus upon all schemes for colonizing the Indian Territory until it shall
be opened for settlement by the proper authorities. Especially does it deprive
the Hon. J. Milton Turner of the advantages arising from a previous condition
of servitude, and we trust the freedmen whom he is exhorting to follow him
to Oklahoma will be advised in time. This is one of the instances in which
the United States seems to have the power to observe its treaty and obligations
with the Indian, and the finest of Indian reservations appears to be beyond
the reach of raiders. Globe Democrat.
Arkansas City Traveler, August 17, 1881.
U. S. COMMISSIONER. It is with pleasure
we note that at a term of the circuit court of the U. S. of America, for
the district of Kansas, held at Leavenworth, June 16th, 1881, our townsman,
I. H. Bonsall, was duly appointed commissioner of the U. S. District Court.
This, with the other business incumbent upon Mr. Bonsall as a J. P., will
give him his hands full of legal matters.
Winfield Courier, August 18, 1881.
The examination of the Woodruff brothers,
charged with stealing a steer in the Territory, was had before U. S. Commissioner
Webb on Monday, and consumed the entire afternoon, there being a dozen or
more witnesses examined. It appears that the steer was with the cattle of
the defendants from the territory to their home in Butler County, the Woodruffs
saying they could not drive it back. It was put in the corral with the other
cattle, and has not been seen since. The Woodruffs were bound over
in the sum of five hundred dollars each, to appear at the next term of the
United States district court at Fort Smith, Arkansas, in November.
Arkansas City Traveler, August 24, 1881.
Woodruff, the man arrested for stealing
a steer from Deer Creek ranch, has been bound over in the sum of $500 to
appear at the next term of court at Fort Smith, Arkansas. He will be tried
for drawing a revolver on Capt. Will Whiting. The examination took place
before U. S. Commissioner Webb, at Winfield, last week. The cattle Woodruff
obtained from the Whiting Bros. are in the sheriffs hands, under an
attachment issued in favor of the Whiting Bros., who sold him the stock.
Arkansas City Traveler, August 31, 1881.
John T. Bennett, a citizen of this county,
living between Clear Dale and South Haven, was last Sunday morning, arrested
by Sheriff Thralls, on the charge of stealing cattle, and brought to this
city. The Complainants are Nez Perce Indians. There seems to be no doubt
of Bennetts guilt, and the Sheriff is of the opinion that he has been
engaged in the same business for three years. Mr. Hazzard, to whom the stock
was sold, had butchered four of them at the date of Bennetts apprehension.
During the afternoon of the same day, he visited the prisoner; and was requested
by him to run the cattle yet alive, and to efface the brands
on the hides of those he had killed. After the preliminary examination,
he will be taken to Fort Smith to be tried in the Federal Court. Wellingtonian.
Arkansas City Traveler, September 14, 1881.
An execution was issued last month by
the U. S. District Court at Fort Smith, Arkansas, against Oklahoma Payne,
et al., for the collection of the $1,000 fine assessment against them last
winter.
Arkansas City Traveler, September 28, 1881.
John D. Smith, formerly Agent at Pawnee
Agency, Indian Territory, now languishes in Fort Smith jail, under the charge
of embezzlement. His trial was postponed from the last term of the U. S.
Court.
Cowley County Courant, January 19, 1882.
The Wichita correspondent of the Kansas
City Times says Captain David Payne has the papers prepared and will
bring suit in the District Court of Sedgwick County against General Pope
for his arrest and ejectment from Oklahoma Territory. This suit will involve
the question of the right of settlement in that territory.
The following does not apply to Courts
in Indian Territory. I insert it for the humor used in the early day...
Cowley County Courant, January 19, 1882.
E. S. Bedilion, Clerk of the District
Court, is in receipt of the following definite letter of inquiry, and not
having been acquainted with the man himself, he gave us the letter to answer.
FORT WORTH, Jan. 13, 1882. Clerk
C. C. Was there such a man lived about ten or twelve years ago in your county
and did he marry there the reports are here that he has a wife somewhere
in Kansas or in The Nation. He has given my family a great deal of trouble.
I should like to know something about him.
Respectfully, ______________.
There was. We knew him well. He lived
in Bean-blossom Hollow, and used to catch skunks for a living. He was the
only resident in the county at that time, and everybody knew him well. He
was a brass-mounted son of a gun on wheels, wore a mutton-chop coat with
bean-soup lining, and was known as the bad man of the border.
The last thing we heard of him he stole
a sore-eyed dog and had to leave the country. We forget the dogs name,
but think it was Hunty. Hunty is dead now, or was a few years
ago. He was a great rabbit dog. He never caught any rabbits, but would if
he had continued to run. Yes, he was married to an Indian widow with twelve small Indians, and we supposed he was at some agency
beating the Government. They had to get up and dust when Hunty got after
them. He would make them hunt their holes and then he would smell at the
hole and bark. He used to bark, too, whenever he heard the bark of
a tree. He is a bad man, and we would advise you not to have anything to
do with him.
Cowley County Courant, February 2, 1882.
D. L. Payne, of Oklahoma notoriety, filed
suit in the district court against Gen. H. Pope, commander of the department
of the Missouri, for ejecting him from Oklahoma, in the Indian Territory,
on the 15th of June and 7th of August, 1881. In his petition Payne alleges
that Oklahoma is United States land subject to settlement, and which he
had a right to occupy as a citizen and a bona fide settler. The plaintiff
asks $25,000 for ejectment. This suit will determine in the court the status
of Oklahoma, and whether it is subject to settlement as government land
or not.
Arkansas City Traveler, March 1, 1882. Editorial Page.
The Senate Committee on Territories heard
a delegation from the five Nations in the Indian Territory in opposition
to Vests bill for the establishment of a U. S. Court in the Territory.
The committee invited them to place the agitation in the form of a bill.
In connection with the bill to establish
a United States Court in the Indian Territory, now pending before the Senate
committee, it is said that the Indians of that Territory regard the measure
with suspicion; that they suspect it to be a scheme tending to the opening
up of their country to settlement and to deprive them eventually of their
lands. To remove this fear and at the same time afford protection to life
and property in that Territory, the chairman of the committee, today, proposed
to the representatives of the Indians that they assist to the extension
of the United States criminal laws only over their Territory. This proposition
was received with apparent favor, and it is probable that a substitute for
the pending bill will be framed providing for the punishment for criminal
offenses in the Indian Territory, but leaving all civil questions to be
settled as now arranged among the Indians.
Arkansas City Traveler, March 29, 1882.
We would call the attention of our readers
to the Notice to Stockmen, which appears in this issue, and
would recommend them to read the same with attention, and in the case of
stockmen, would suggest that a compliance with the same would best subserve
their interests. As we understand it, the Indian Department intends to enforce
the levying of the tax, and will see that non-complying stockmen are ejected
and punished for trespass, etc. The penalty in this case is such fine as
the court may direct, and an additional penalty of $1 per head for all stock
the trespassing stockman may have in the Territory.
Arkansas City Traveler, March 29, 1882. Editorial Page.
Stockmen Attention.
It will be seen by the advertisement elsewhere
in this issue that Major D. W. Lipe, the authorized agent of the Cherokee
Council for the collection of the tax for holding stock on the Cherokee
Strip, in the Indian Territory, is at present at Caldwell for the purpose
of collecting said tax from parties liable. Although the time mentioned
in the Notice to Stockmen expired yesterday, yet, we presume
the Major will not leave Caldwell right away.
For the benefit of parties having doubts
as to the power of the Cherokees to enforce the tax, we append the following
sections from the Revised Statutes of the United States, directly bearing
upon this matter.
SEC. 2117. Every person who drives or
otherwise conveys any stock of horses, mules, or cattle, to range and feed,
on any land belonging to any Indian or Indian tribe, without the consent
of such tribe, is liable to a penalty of one dollar for each animal of such
stock.
SEC. 2147. The superintendent of Indian
affairs, and the Indian agents and sub-agents, shall have authority to remove
from the Indian country all persons found thereon contrary to law, and the
President is authorized to direct the military force to be employed in such
removal.
SEC. 2149. The Commissioner of Indian
Affairs is authorized and required, with the approval of the Secretary of
the Interior, to remove from any tribal reservation any person being therein
without authority of law, or whose presence within the limits of the reservation
may, in the judgment of the Commissioner, be detrimental to the peace and
welfare of the Indians, and may employ for the purpose such force as may
be necessary to enable the agent to effect the removal of such person.
SEC. 2150. The military forces of the
United States may be employed in such manner and under such regulations
as the President may direct.
First. In the apprehension of every person
who may be in the Indian country in violation of law; and in conveying him
immediately from the Indian country, by the nearest convenient and safe
route, to the civil authority of the Territory or judicial district in which
such person shall be found, to be proceeded against in due course of law;
Second. In the examination and seizure
of stores, packages, and boats, authorized by law;
Third. In preventing the introduction
of persons and property into the Indian country contrary to law; which persons
and property shall be proceeded against according to law;
Fourth. And also in destroying and breaking
up any distillery for manufacturing ardent spirits set up or continued within
the Indian country.
NOTICE TO STOCKMEN.
Holding Cattle on the Cherokee Strip
Notice is hereby given to all parties
holding cattle, sheep, horses, hogs, or other stock in that strip of country,
known as the Cherokee Outlet, being part of the Indian Territory, that they
are intruders and trespassers under the intercourse act.
To remain they must have license for so
doing from the Cherokee Council, and without such license, properly obtained,
they shall be promptly removed in such manner as shall be
directed by the Hon. Secretary of the Interior, by whose
order I give this notice. Six days from the date of this notice will be
given for parties to settle with the authorized agent of the Council, Major
D. W. Lipe, who will be at Caldwell to attend to this.
At the end of the above named time all
the delinquents will be reported for removal.
JOHN M. NEAL, U. S. Indian Inspector.
Caldwell, March 23rd, 1882.
Arkansas City Traveler, March 29, 1882.
Gen. John McNeil, U. S. Indian Inspector,
came over from Caldwell last week to give notice that parties grazing stock
on Cherokee lands must come before Major Lipe, at Caldwell, and pay their
tax. They had notices for most of the cattle and sheep men along the line
south of this place.
Winfield Courier, April 20, 1882.
Sheep Matters.
BOLTON TOWNSHIP, April 17, 1882.
EDS. COURIER: Thousands of sheep are being
driven to the state line and Indian Territory for the purpose of grazing
them in the Nation. The Cherokees, who control all the lands west of the
Arkansas River, north of the Cimarron River, and as far west as the Pan
Handle of Texas, charge the sheep men 15 cents per head for grazing privilege,
and cattle owners but 50 cents. The sheep men in consequence thereat are
complaining, inasmuch as a cow or steer requires ten acres to one for a
sheep. The Cherokee authorities dont seem to heed the complaints and
order them to pay or leave, and many will leave, for when 15 cents a head
is added to 15 cents more of Kansas tax, it makes a considerable sum on
from two to four thousand sheep. (About $600, or $1,200). Grass is abundant
and affords good feed for all kinds of stock. It contains much nutriment
this year, owing to the slow and steady growth before the late rains. Water
is plentiful and the buffalo wallows and small streams are full.
People living along the state line who
refused to pay the Cherokee tax last year will be indicted for trespass
and tried before the U. S. Court. A list of the offenders has been sent
Hon. W. A. Phillips, their attorney, also a list to the Interior Department
at Washington, and to the U. S. Marshal at Fort Smith. There are now, within
a radius of ten miles of Arkansas City, over 25,000 sheep, which will give
on an average four pounds of wool each, making 100,000 pounds of wool to
be sold in this market. A little understanding exists among the large flock
owners to hold for a fair price, or combine and ship to the best market.
The late cold rains destroyed the chinch
bugs, but had a chilling effect on the thousands of young lambs only a few
days old, that were out on the prairies unprotected. Many will die in consequence
thereof.
Let me say, while talking of sheep, the
remarks from Father Meech a few weeks since were worth reading. Have him
write again. C. M. SCOTT.
Excerpts...
Winfield Courier, April 27, 1882.
[From the Washington correspondent of the Topeka Commonwealth.]
Mr. Ryan carried through the House in
the last Congress a bill to give the right of way to one or more railroads
through the Indian Territory, but it failed in the senate. This measure
was of peculiar importance to the third District, as it could have enabled
the Santa Fe road to continue its line from Arkansas City to Fort Smith.
The subject has excited so much attention that it is not likely that the
boundary of the Territory will long be permitted to serve as a Chinese wall
against the carrying on of necessary enterprises. It was only recently that
Mr. Ryan carried through the House, when it was at the mercy of a single
objection, the bill providing for terms of the United States Court at Wichita,
and attaching a portion of the Indian Territory to the State for judicial
purposes. I doubt if there are half a dozen men in the House who could have
put through so important a bill without objection. The result was a substantial
triumph to Mr. Ryans personal popularity and to the confidence which
the House reposes in his good faith.
Your readers are not unmindful of the
fact that Mr. Ryan has persistently sought to have the contracts for Indian
supplies awarded at some parts in the West, rather than in New York, so
far from the base of supply and distribution. It will be gratifying to them
to know that his views have been adopted by the Indian Bureau, and that
Kansas City will probably be selected as the place for receiving bids.
Winfield Courier, April 27, 1882.
It is proposed to establish a Federal
court at Muscogee, Indian Territory, with criminal jurisdiction.
Winfield Courier, June 8, 1882.
At Tahlequah, Indian Territory, Reuben
Lucas was shot by order of the court for the murder of A. McKinney. He met
his death bravely.
Arkansas City Traveler, June 21, 1882.
The Indians in the Nation have decided
to support the bill establishing a United States Court in the Territory,
and have instructed their delegates at Washington to support the bill. The
court will be at Vinita, Muskogee, or Fort Gibson.
Arkansas City Traveler, September 20, 1882. Editorial Page.
[From the Cheyenne Transporter.]
The U. S. Court is now in session at Ft.
Smith, Arkansas.
Capt. Payne and outfit were
taken to Ft. Smith last Saturday, in charge of military. Payne will learn
after awhile that his Territory trips are unprofitablebut that will
never be as long as he can dupe poor fools of farmers out of their hard
earned money by his rights, shares, stocks, and
privileges he sells them. Payne and Co. make money hand over
fist by their boomer schemes.
On the 23rd ult. a detachment went off
to Oklahoma to drive off the settlers there, Lieut. Taylor, of Co. F, 9th
Cav., in command. They captured Capt. Oklahoma Payne on the 30th, with a
few settlers. The outlaws are now in camp on the southwest side of the Fort,
and are under close guard night and day, until Co. D of the 20th Inf., will
take them to Ft. Smith, where they will have to right themselves before
the U. S. court.
Arkansas City Traveler, September 20, 1882.
Geo. H. Johnson brought in a horse-thief
on Monday and turned him over to acting Agent Woodard, who sent him to the
guard house, at Ft. Reno. The young fellow had stolen one of Johnsons
horses from the picket pin at night and started up the trail.
Johnson followed after and overtook his
man on Red Rock and arrested him, with the aid of some cattlemen, and brought
him down. He will be taken to Fort Smith, and Johnson will be at the heavy
expense of appearing against him. What has become of that Wichita
U. S. Court bill?
Caldwell Commercial, Thursday, September 28, 1882.
Lieut. C. W. Taylor, 9th U. S. Cavalry,
with a squad of ten men, arrived at Fort Smith on the 21st inst., with Capt.
Dave Payne and his party consisting of the following persons: W. P. Miller,
A. P., A. L., and E. Lewis, A. C. McCord, M. Hatfield, P. W. Odell, M. Rumman,
H. A. Weatherby, W. H. Osburn, wife and child, and Miss Dicy Dixon. The
entire party were served with summons to appear at the November term of
the U. S. District Court at Fort Smith, and then released. Payne and his
party were taken from Fort Reno, via Henrietta, Texas, and in that place
Payne served out a writ of habeas corpus, which Lieut. Taylor resisted
all attempts to serve. While it makes little or no difference what becomes
of Payne, Lieut. Taylor ought to be made to understand that the military
are subservient to the civil authorities, and any attempt on the part of
a Lieutenant, or any other officer, to resist civil law, makes him just
as liable to punishment as Payne can possibly be for his attempt to settle
upon the Oklahoma lands. That young man Taylor needs a lesson on the firm
of the United States government.
Caldwell Commercial, Thursday, December 14, 1882.
We urge upon Hon. Thomas Ryan the propriety
of pushing through his bill for attaching the northwestern portion of the
Indian Territory to the District of Kansas for judicial purposes, and for
the establishment of a U. S. Court at some eligible point near the southern
border of Kansas. The western portion of the Territory is now practically
under no other law than that of force, for the reason that where a criminal
is arrested and sent to Fort Smith, persons having knowledge of his guilt
cannot be induced to give information for fear of being dragged to Fort
Smith as witnesses at a great inconvenience and loss of time and money.
The practical effect of this state of affairs is to make the Territory a
harboring place for the worst class of outlaws in the country, whom the
law-abiding and orderly people cannot rid themselves of except by taking
the law into their own hands.
Winfield Courier, December 14, 1882.
Extensive arrests have recently been made
by the Indian police of parties hunting buffalo and other game on the reservations
in the Indian Territory. There is a federal law against hunting on these
lands, with the penalty of a heavy fine and confiscation of effects. The
Indian authorities say they are determined to stop this government invasion,
and have issued instructions to arrest all outside hunting parties found
on the reservation and confiscate their property. Hunters from Kansas, Missouri,
Illinois, Texas, and other states are already arrested, and will be arraigned
before the nearest United States court.
Arkansas City Traveler, January 10, 1883.
The Wichita Judicial District.
Advices from Washington state that Col.
William A. Phillips, an agent of the Cherokee Indians, has addressed the
Secretary of the Interior, asking his assistance to secure a presidential
veto on the bill which provides for the holding of a term of the United
States court at Wichita, Kansas, and transfer to its judicial jurisdiction
certain portions of the Indian Territory heretofore attached to the western
district of Arkansas.
[U. S. DISTRICT COURT AT WICHITA ESTABLISHED.]
Arkansas City Traveler, January 17, 1883.
The bill providing for the holding of
U. S. District court at Wichita has passed both Houses of Congress, and
will no doubt soon receive the Presidents signature. It provides that
there shall be a term of the U. S. District Court for the district of Kansas
at Wichita, in each year on the first Monday in September. The city or county
authorities are to provide a suitable building for the court, and its officers
without expense to the United States. The bill provides that all that part
of the Territory lying north of the Canadian River and east of the Panhandle
of Texas and 100th [?] meridian not set apart and occupied by the Cherokee,
Creek, and Seminole Indian tribes, shall, from and after the passage of
this act, be annexed to and constitutes part of the United States Judicial
District of Kansas, and the U. S. Courts at Wichita and Ft. Scott, in the
district of Kansas, shall have exclusive original jurisdiction of all offenses
committed within the limits of the Territory hereby annexed to the district
of Kansas against any one of the United States, now, or that may hereafter
be operative therein.
Arkansas City Traveler, January 17, 1883.
The Nations Wards.
The Indian Commissioner recently issued
a circular to the various Indian Agents in which he illustrates the policy
to be enforced in the management of the Nations wards. This circular
contains a series of rules, the first of which provides for a court of Indian
officers at each inspection agency, to consist of three men selected from
the most intelligent, moral, and reliable of the tribe, who shall hold stated
sessions and hear and adjudge offenses. The court is empowered to enforce
their decisions, the only appeal being to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs
in Washington. Each Judge is to be appointed for a term of one year, subject
to removal at any time at the decision of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.
Each Judge is also to receive $20 a month salary. This Court is to have
jurisdiction over all Indian Offenses enumerated in the new rules. The first
of these offenses named are the sun dance, the calf dance, the war dance,
and all other so-called sports assimilating thereto, the penalty for which,
for the first offense, is the withholding of rations for fifteen days, and
for the second offense, the withholding of rations for not less than ten
days or more than thirty, or by incarceration in the agency prison not exceeding
30 days or both.
Another Indian offense designated is plural
marriage, the penalty for which is a fine of $200 or work at hard labor
for a period of twenty days or both. The proceeds of this penalty are to
be devoted to the benefit of the tribe to which the offender belongs. Rations
are also to be withheld from husbands who fail to support their wives.
Medicine men are also held to be offenders
against the civilization of the agencies, and any attempt on their part
to prevent the attendance of children at the agency schools, or to influence
the tribe to continue their heathenish rites, are to be punishable by ten
days solitary confinement on bread and water.
The destruction of any tribal property
is also to be punished by imprisonment for a term not exceeding thirty days,
or until such time as evidence satisfactory to the Court is presented that
the offense will not be repeated.
Each agent is instructed to present the
new rules to the several tribes at once, and to send nominations for the
judgeships as soon as possible, so that no time may be lost in the establishment
of the new system.
Evidently the Secretary does not realize
the situation in the Territory regarding the Indians if those rules are
intended to be enforced. It is a decree against Indian rites and religion,
which we believe cannot be enforced. The sun dance will be danced by the
Cheyennes, Arapahos, Kiowas, and Comanches, and polygamy will be indulged
in until they are educated to abandon it, and the medicine mans influence
will rule supreme as the Popes. As to withholding rations, think this
has been tried and failed. The Cheyennes will have their rations or fight.
Nothing is said regarding disarming them. That has been tried and failed,
too, and it will not be a healthy place for the Agents, or even healthy
within the Territory if these orders are carried out.
Arkansas City Traveler, February 21, 1883.
OKLAHOMA.
We have received a copy of the decision
of Judge I. C. Parker on the status of lands in the Indian Territory in
the case of the United States vs. D. L. Payne, in the District Court of
the United States for the Western District of Arkansas, at the May term
1881. This is a civil suit to recover a penalty of one thousand dollars
for being in the Indian Country contrary to law. Payne denies that he was
in the Indian Country, but claims that he settled on land belonging to the
Government and subject to settlement. The following is the opinion of the
court in regard to the title, and why it is not subject to settlement.
The lands in controversy are a part of
those which were by the treaty of the 14th February, 1833, made with the
Creeks, set apart to them. By the treaty of the 7th of August, 1856, made
between the United States and the Creeks, they conveyed these lands to the
Seminoles, provided, however, that the same should not be sold or otherwise
disposed of without the consent of both tribes legally given. The Seminoles,
by the 3rd article of the treaty made between them and the United States,
March 21st, 1866, provided as follows: In compliance with a desire
of the United States to locate other Indians and Freedmen thereon, the Seminoles
cede and convey to the United States their entire domain, being the tract
of land ceded to the Seminole Indians by the Creek Nation under the provisions
of article 1st, treaty of the United States with the Creeks and Seminoles,
made and conceded at Washington, D. C., August 7th, 1856.
The Creeks, by the 7th article of the
treaty of June, 1866, consented to this cession by the Seminoles.
To my mind this language used in the 3rd
article of the Seminole treaty amounts to a conveyance of the title of land
described to the United States. But the fact that the title of the land
is in the United States does not necessarily make it that part of the public
domain which is subject to settlement by citizens of the United States under
the homestead and pre-emption laws, because these laws are explicit, and
any lands which have been reserved by any treaty, law, or proclamation of
the President, are no part of the public lands of the United States subject
to these laws so long as such reservation continues, and when any part of
the public lands have been once lawfully reserved, that reservation cannot
be set aside except by a clear and explicit act of the lawful authority,
showing thereby clearly a purpose to open to settlement, by the citizens,
the land reserved.
It will be seen that Oklahoma is government
land, and that no tribe of Indians have any interest in these lands, but
that the government reserved them for the purpose of locating Indians and
Freedmen thereon, and therefore the law has the same application to them
that it does to Indian reserves. The court further says: Now, in the
estimation of many persons, it may be desirable to open this country to
settlement. If so it must be done by the power that has a right under the
constitution and laws of the country to do it.
Arkansas City Traveler, Wednesday, March 7, 1883.
There is now in Washington a delegation
of colored men from the Indian Territory, who were former slaves of the
Indians, and who are seeking legislation for appropriating money and lands
agreeably to the treaty between the Choctaws and Chickasaws and the government
in 1866. The Department of the Interior was surprised to hear that there
are 30,000 negroes in the Territory who have never cast a vote, and who
have been denied access to the schools and to the courts, being incompetent
as witnesses or jurors. The delegation is asking the government, agreeably
to the stipulations of the treaty, to remove them from among the Indians
and settle them on the Oklahoma lands, which Payne and his followers are
now trying to obtain possession of. Secretary Teller has caused the Indian
Commissioner to draw up a bill providing for the requested relief, and it
has been transmitted with strong recommendations to have it incorporated
in the deficiency appropriation bill. The bill provides 160 acres of land
for every head of a family, eighty acres for every unmarried person over
21 years of age, and sufficient money for the expenses of removal and settlement
on the land.
Winfield Courier, March 22, 1883.
The Oklahoma Lands.
We have at hand the decision of the U.
S. District Judge, I. C. Parker, in the case of the United States vs. D.
L. Payne, relative to the status of the lands in the Indian Territory known
as the Oklahoma country. In summing up the court says:
It was Indian country beyond question
while the Creeks and Seminole occupied it. The government obtained it for
Indian occupancy. Of course, it could not at the same moment make the treaty
and transplant other tribes on the land, but we find it commenced to do
so as soon thereafter as possible. It has gone on and treated it as devoted
to that purpose, by settling on a large portion of it Indian tribes. It
cannot be presumed that for fifteen years the Government has had a tract
of country within the very heart of the Indian country, which it has purchased
and permitted to remain in such condition, as it might become a place of
refuge for criminals and outlaws, who could depredate and prey upon their
Indian neighbors and others with immunity from punishment, especially when
the government has pledged protection and security from intruders to all
the tribes in the Indian country. Yet this is so if this is Indian country,
because the laws of the United States would not extend over it, and it would
not be within the jurisdiction of any state or territory. It never intended
this. It did not by this treaty of purchase with the Seminoles do it. By
its act of reservation of this country, situated as it was and being reserved
for the purpose it was, it continued still to be Indian country as much
as if it had been at that time entirely occupied by Indians. Now, in the
estimation of many persons, it may be desirable to open this country to
settlement. If so, it must be done by the power that has a right under the
constitution and laws to do it. It must not be asked or expected that to
accomplish this end the courts will break or even bend the timbers of the
law, especially when that power in the government which could act has, time
and again, refused to act. The courts do not make the laws. They interpret,
construe, and execute them as they find them.
From my views of the law, as applicable
to this case, upon the facts set up by the defendant, he is liable for the
penalty under the law, and the demurrer to the answer must be sustained.
It is so ordered.
Arkansas City Traveler, March 28, 1883.
For some time past a gang of horse thieves
have been plying their vocation in the Territory, but up to within a few
weeks past succeeded in eluding all efforts made to discover their mode
of operation or whereabouts.
The circumstance which has led to the
demoralization of the outfit was the purchase of a pony by Capt. Nipp of
a cowboy named Jay Wilkinson some three weeks since, which pony Capt. Nipp
afterwards discovered, had been stolen from the Territory. With this information
Deputy McIntire and a Mr. Phipps started out in search of Wilkinson, whom
they learned was in the vicinity of the Cimarron River. Hearing that Wilkinson
and several of his companions had fled to a dug-out, and were fixing for
a fight, Mr. McIntire deemed it advisable to return to Caldwell for reinforcements,
and being joined by Deputy U. S. Marshal Hollister and another officer,
the four returned, and after considerable reconnoitering and a lively chase,
succeeded in missing their men, but captured one Hostetter, another member
of the gang, with whom they started to the State, where Hostetter was committed
to the Winfield jail to await the next term of U. S. Court at Wichita, not
being able to give the $500 bail required. Wilkinson, who had been dodging
around trying to swap for a fresh horse, was gathered in by the boys at
Johnson Ranch, who carried him to Caldwell and turned him over to Deputy
Hollister, who straightway telegraphed to Messrs. McIntire and Nipp the
fact of his possession and declared the intention of leaving for this place,
requesting these gentlemen to meet him, which they did, bringing Wilkinson
to town where he had an examination, and was committed to jail with Hostetter.
Another of the gang, known as Mulvane George, was also arrested, but gave
$500 bail and is now at large.
Deputy McIntire informs us he expects
shortly to have more of the gang in his clutches, in which we hope he may
not be mistaken.
Winfield Courier, March 29, 1883.
We clip the following account of the capture
of two horse thieves by Deputy U. S. Marshal McIntire, mentioned in another
column, from the Arkansas City Democrat.
About three weeks ago a young man by the
name of Jay Wilkinson, a well known cowboy of the Indian Territory, sold
a pony to Capt. J. B. Nipp of this city, and a few days afterward the Captain
found out that the pony had been stolen from a ranchman in the Territory,
and informed Deputy U. S. Marshal McIntire of the fact, who, in company
with a gentleman by the name of Phipps, started out to capture Wilkinson,
whom they learned was at Smitheys ranch on the Cimarron River in the
Indian Territory. Upon arriving at the ranch, they found out that Wilkinson
had been informed by some of his confederates in this city in regard to
the movements of Deputy McIntire, and with two of his companions had proceeded
to an old dug-out some ten miles from the ranch, armed and equipped with
provision and ammunition, with the intention of standing the officers off.
George and Mr. Phipps made a careful survey of the situation, and found
that the boys were too well fortified to attempt an attack by themselves,
so they quietly pulled out for Caldwell, where they secured the services
of Deputy U. S. Marshal Hollister and another gentleman and returned for
their game. When they arrived at the dug-out, they found it deserted, but
the indications were that the boys had made a hasty exit, as they left behind
a shot-gun, revolver, and a number of other articles, and upon looking around
they discovered Wilkinson and his two companions just disappearing over
a hill some two miles distant. They immediately mounted their horses and
started in pursuit, and had a lively chase for twenty miles, when they arrived
at Johnsons ranch, where they found Jack Martin sick in bed and the
only one at the camp, who informed them that Wilkinson and one of his gang
had been there about half an hour before them, and had left their ponies
and taken two of the best horses at the ranche and struck out in a northerly
direction.
Just as the officers and posse were getting
ready to leave, a young man by the name of Frank Hostetter, whom they had
spotted as one of the gang, rode up and they placed him under arrest, and
left one man to guard him, while the remainder of the party struck out after
Wilkinson, whom they followed for about forty miles in the direction of
the State, but finally lost track of him, and returned to the ranch after
Hostetter. Hostetter was brought up to the city and taken before Commissioner
Bonsall for preliminary examination, and bound over in the sum of $500 to
appear at the next term of the U. S. Court at Wichita; being unable to give
the required bond, he was taken to Winfield and placed in the county jail
to await trial.
Wednesday, the same day the officers arrived
in this city with Hostetter, Wilkinson rode into Johnsons ranch with
the intention of again swapping horses, but as Smithey and Johnson happened
to be at the camp at the time they persuaded him, with a couple of double-barreled
shot-guns to give himself up, and the next day took him to Caldwell and
turned him over to Deputy U. S. Marshal Hollister, who telegraphed to George
McIntire that he had started for this place with the prisoner, and to meet
him in the Territory so there would be no trouble; and George, in company
with Marshal Sinnott, Patterson, Nipp, and Rarick, started out and met Hollister
about twelve miles from the City and escorted him in. Wilkinson had his
preliminary examination on Saturday and was sent up to the county jail to
await his trial at the next term of the U. S. Court.
There are four or five others connected
with the gang whom the officers are laying in wait for, and the indications
are that they will bring them to tow before many days.
LATER. Since writing the above the officers
arrested another young man known as Mulvane George, whom they have good
reasons to believe is connected with the gang. His
bond was fixed at $500 and his father, who resides at Mulvane, was
telegraphed to and came down and fixed it up.
Arkansas City Traveler, April 11, 1883.
Hostetter and Wilkinson, arrested for
horse stealing, had a preliminary examination before Judge Bonsall last
week; and in default of $1,000 bail each, were committed to jail in Wichita
till the fall term of the U. S. Court.
Caldwell Commercial, Thursday, April 12, 1883.
Hostetter and Hatfield, the two horse
thieves taken by Deputy Marshals Hollister and McIntire, had an examination
at Wellington last week, and were committed to the Wichita jail for trial
at the September term of the U. S. District Court. Loper, who appears to
be the worst pill in the box, will not have his examination for a week or
two. Three of the horses stolen from the Carnegie & Frazier ranch were
recovered.
Arkansas City Traveler, June 6, 1883.
Mr. W. R. Little of Sac & Fox Agency,
who was in our city last week attending the U. S. Commissioner, Bonsalls
court, in the case of John Huffine, started for his Territory home Saturday
evening.
Arkansas City Traveler, June 6, 1883.
John Huffine, charged before U. S. Commissioner
Bonsall with embezzling money from his employer, W. R. Little of Sac &
Fox Agency, last week, was bound over in the sum of $200 to appear at the
next term of court at Wichita. At this writing he had not given bail and
was in custody.
Caldwell Journal, July 5, 1883.
The Secretary of War has transmitted to
the Interior Department the following telegram from General Pope. Ft.
Leavenworth, June 25. To the Secretary of War, Washington, D. C.: David
L. Payne has applied to the United States circuit court today for an injunction
against yourself and me, restraining us from interfering with his entrance
to and occupation of the Oklahoma districts in the Indian Territory. This
application brings up for decision the whole question of the status of the
Oklahoma district. I sent the papers served on you and myself jointly to
the United States District Attorney for Kansas, who requested that we report
the facts to Washington, in order that instructions may be sent him. The
case needs immediate attention, and I request that the District Attorney
for Kansas be telegraphed to at once to attend to the case.
Secretary Lincoln adds that he has furnished
a copy of the telegram to the Attorney General, with a request that he take
the necessary measures to meet the application.
Arkansas City Traveler, July 11, 1883.
Payne Wants An Injunction.
The secretary of war has transmitted to
the interior department the following telegram from Gen. Pope.
Fort Leavenworth, June 25. To the
Secretary of War, Washington, D. C. David L. Payne has applied to the United
States circuit court today for an injunction against yourself and me, restraining
us from interfering with his entrance to and occupation of the Oklahoma
districts in the Indian Territory. This application brings up for decision
the whole question of the status of the Oklahoma district. I sent the papers
served on you and myself jointly to the United States District Attorney
for Kansas, who requested that we report the facts to Washington, in order
that instructions may be sent him. The case needs immediate attention, and
I request that the District Attorney for Kansas be telegraphed to at once
to attend to the case.
Secretary Lincoln adds that he has furnished
a copy of the telegram to the Attorney General, with the request that he
take the necessary measures to meet the application.
Caldwell Journal, July 19, 1883.
We are informed that Colonel Manee is
in the guard house at Fort Reno, charged with giving liquor to an Indian.
Colonel may be guilty of the charge for ought we know, but even if he is,
he should have an opportunity to defend himself before the proper law officers.
That section of the Territory is attached to the U. S. District of Kansas,
and any man arrested on the charge of violating the Intercourse laws of
the U. S., should at once be brought before a U. S. Commissioner, and if
sufficient evidence is adduced to hold him until the next term of court,
he should be permitted to give bail. That nothing of the kind has been done
in Manees case is an outrage which should not be tolerated for one
single moment. If a murder is committed in the Territory, or valuable stock
stolen, the Interior and the War departments have no means by which they
can pursue and arrest the guilty parties; but if a poor devil of a cowboy
should happen, in the generosity of his nature, to give a half-breed Indian
(who can usually get all the whiskey he wants) one single drop of an intoxicating
beverage, he is at once put under arrest and deprived of any rights or privileges
accorded to the worst criminals in the country. The person or persons who
caused the arrest of Manee and McCasker may have done what they conceived
to be their duty under the circumstances, but the suspicion prevails that
private pique and malice prompted their course, and unless they can show
clean hands and fair dealing, there will be lively times.
Manee is not a renegade, however true
the accusation against him may be, and we venture to say that a first-class
bond of $10,000 or even more, can be furnished in this city to secure his
appearance at any court in the country in answer to the charges upon which
he is now held at Reno.
His detention under the circumstances
is a wrong, and one which should be resented by every man doing business
legally in the Territory, for the reason that if any whipper-snapper of
the Indian Department can cause the arrest and imprisonment of a single
man, however humble, to gratify his whim or his malice, he can also encroach
upon the rights and liberties of the largest cattle owner, with his thousands
of dollars behind him. Only by protecting the rights and privileges of the
humble, can the rich and the lofty hope to escape injustice themselves.
Arkansas City Traveler, July 25, 1883.
Cicero Beeson, who, it will be remembered,
absconded last week with moneys belonging to his employer, Capt. J. B. Nipp,
was captured about five miles from Osage Agency, Indian Territory, by Messrs.
Nipp and Breene, and brought back to town. His preliminary examination was
waived before Judge Bonsall on Friday, and he was bound over to the next
term of court. Bail was fixed at $500, which we understand was furnished.
Arkansas City Traveler, August 8, 1883.
The three men charged with selling liquor
to Indians were brought before U. S. Commissioner Bonsall and waived examination
and were held in the sum of $500 each to appear before the U. S. Court at
Wichita. One of the men, Patrick Duffey, has given bail, and the others
went to Wichita in default.
Caldwell Journal, August 16, 1883.
We are informed that about 250 boomers
left Arkansas City on Friday of last week, for the Oklahoma lands. Payne
was in Arkansas City at the time, but gave out that he did not intend to
accompany the expedition. We learn that, in conversation with others, he
stated it to be his intention to keep still pending the trial of his case
before the U. S. Circuit Court, and that he thought inasmuch as he had adopted
that course, the War and Interior departments should also maintain a neutral
position and permit anyone who chose to settle upon the Oklahoma lands.
The fellow dont seem to understand
that such a course on the part of the government would be a virtual abandonment
of its claims, and one is sometimes at a loss to know whether he is a fool
or a knave. Perhaps a close analyzation of his character would develop both
elements, each alternately predominating as circumstances seem to require.
Arkansas City Traveler, August 22, 1883.
P. A. Lorry, of Bolton, with J. B. Nipp
and Dr. Alexander, of this city, have been drawn as petit jurors to serve
at the next term of the U. S. Court at Wichita, which meets the first Monday
in September.
Arkansas City Traveler, August 22, 1883.
The case of R. W. Wood, on a charge of
horse stealing, came up last Monday before U. S. Commissioner Bonsall, and
resulted in the defendant being bound over to the next term of the district
court at Wichita in the sum of $250. Bail was given.
Arkansas City Traveler, August 22, 1883.
Deputy U. S. Marshal G. H. McIntire, from
Cowley, recently landed a number of boarders with our sheriff, who will
likely remain with him till the September term of U. S. Court. This is the
third or fourth trip of the kind this man McIntire has made to Wichita,
and he either has plenty of material to work on, down there in the pocket
of Sumner and Cowley Counties, or else he is a pretty good worker. We believe
they are going to make him sheriff of Cowley County, at least we suppose
he is the same McIntire mentioned in the exchanges from that county, in
connection with that office. Wichita Daily Times.
Winfield Courier, August 23, 1883.
GEO. H. McINTIRE.
The announcement of Geo. H. McIntire as
a candidate for the office of Sheriff of this county came in last week too
late for special notice, but we want to say that George is one of the best
officers this county ever had; that he is efficient, energetic, courageous,
and courteous, and knows all about the business. He quietly goes about his
work without any bluster but does it all the same. He has been in such work
in this county for 12 years; was deputy under Dick Walker 4 years, under
Shenneman 3 years, and has been U. S. Deputy Marshal 2 years. He has 16
criminals now for trial in the U. S. Court at Wichita. Of the 32 criminals
taken to the pen by Shenneman, Geo. secured unaided 13. If he gets the nomination,
none but criminals will regret it.
Arkansas City Traveler, September 5, 1883.
A number of persons went up on the three
oclock train Monday morning to attend United States court at Wichita.
Arkansas City Traveler, September 5, 1883.
Quite a large number of our citizens,
among whom were J. B. Nipp, O. S. Rarick, G. H. McIntire, and A. W. Patterson,
were subpoenaed to attend the term of the United States court now in session
at Wichita.
Excerpt...
Winfield Courier, September 6, 1883.
Geo. H. McIntire, the nominee for Sheriff,
is one of the best officers Cowley County ever had. He has no bluster about
him, but attends quietly to business and does it up completely in good shape.
He has put thirteen prisoners in the Wichita jail within two months to stand
their trial in the U. S. court at that place. Yet he has not done any blowing
about and few know of the extent of his service, catching rascals either
for the United States, or for this state, which have also been efficient
and remarkable.
Caldwell Journal, September 6, 1883.
OKLAHOMA.
Judge McCrary Renders a Decision in Effect Against the Oklahoma Colonists.
The following opinion rendered by Judge
McCrary a few days ago will be read with interest by all persons who contemplated
moving to Oklahoma.
In the Circuit Court of the United States,
District of Kansas, August, 1883.
David L. Payne, complainant, vs. Robert
T. Lincoln and John Pope. In equity.
MOTION FOR PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION.
The complainant alleges that he is a citizen
of the United States, and that he served as a soldier of the United States
during the war of the rebellion, and was honorably discharged; that he is
entitled to settle upon certain territory described in the bill for the
purpose of taking a homestead and of obtaining and keeping his home, residence,
and his citizenship therein; that he has been attempting by all means in
his power to enter upon said territory for that purpose and would have done
so were it not for the acts of the defendant, who is a major-general in
the army of the United States, having command of a large body of United
States soldiers, and who, under orders from the president, has by force
prevented complainant from entering upon said territory, and thus unlawfully
deprived him of a right guaranteed to him by the constitution and laws of
the United States. The bill avers that the territory in question is public
land of the United States and open to settlement under the laws hereof.
The particular territory in controversy
is described as follows, in the bill.
Being that portion of the so-called
Indian Territory lying south of the State of Kansas and west of the State
of Arkansas, and being that portion thereof situate and lying between the
North Fork of the Canadian river on the north, and the Canadian river on
the south, and extending from the Indian meridian on the east, which meridian
nearly corresponds with the sixth principal meridian traversing the state
line of Kansas from north to south to the north and south township line
between townships seven and eight to the west of said Indian meridian, as
will more fully appear by reference to the United States survey thereof.
The prayer of the bill is for an injunction
to restrain the defendants from molesting, interfering with, seizing, imprisoning,
detaining, or prevent complainant and others similarly situated accompanying
him from going to or remaining upon said territory.
There is no service upon the defendant,
Robert T. Lincoln, and the present order is only asked as against the defendant,
John Pope.
The motion is submitted upon the allegations
of the bill in connection with the statutes and treaties applicable to the
controversy.
S. N. Wood and Waters & Ensminger,
for complainant.
J. R. Hallowell, United States attorney
for General Pope.
McGraw, Circuit Judge.
Is the land under question subject to
enter under the pre-emption and homestead laws of the United States? This
is the controlling question in the case. It is, to say the least, a question
of doubt, and one concerning which there is a serious dispute. The executive
branch of the government after the investigation, and being advised by the
attorney general of the United States, has decided it in the negative, and
have accordingly issued orders to the defendant, John Pope, who, as major-general
of the army, has military control of the Indian territory, to prevent by
force the occupation of the disputed territory by white settlers. Under
such circumstances, all that this court can at present be reasonably asked
to do is to preserve the status quo until the final adjudication
of the controversy. Were the parties at issue upon a question of legal right,
and an injunction is necessary for the purpose of preserving all existing
rights until final hearing, a preliminary injunction will generally be granted;
but in the present case the existing status would be destroyed, not preserved,
by granting the writ. The sole purpose for which the injunction is granted
in advance of a final hearing in such cases, is to preserve the rights of
the parties pending the suit, so as to leave the subject matter intact,
to be dealt with by the court in the final decree. It is to compel the party
against whom it is granted to maintain his status merely until the matter
in dispute shall by due process of the court be determined.
Hight on injunctions, sec. 8, Mammoth
Vein Coal Companys appeal, 54 Pa. St. 182. To grant the preliminary
writ to this case would be in advance of hearing upon the merits, to open
up the disputed territory by settlement, and this in effect to predetermine
the controversy as well as to destroy the present situation.
To refuse this writ is to preserve, or
at least not to disturb, the existing status. Without, therefore, considering
other questions, the motion for preliminary injunction is overruled upon
this ground.
Caldwell Journal, September 6, 1883.
Serious Charges.
Special to the Kansas City Times.
ARKANSAS CITY, KANSAS, August 31. The
greatest excitement that has ever been known in this country exists now.
The Oklahoma War Chief, a paper published in Geuda Springs, in this
county, makes charges of not only a serious nature, but criminal in character,
against Hon. P. B. Plumb, United States senator from Kansas, and Secretary
of the Interior Teller. Right on top of this some buck the men driven out
of Oklahoma by the United States army. These men are desperate and say,
as all now believe, that Judge McCrary was improperly dealt with by these
syndicates in Oklahoma. In a word, that McCrary knew that these lands were
or were not public lands; that there is no excuse for this delay. The War
Chief claims to be able to prove that Hood, a banker in Emporia, and
partner to Senator Plumb, has men now taking up these lands, and that the
settlers are held back that the syndicates may get hold of all the best
lands. Certain it is that there are men now surveying, and taking up land
there, and that they have the support of the United States army while all
men not in the rings are driven out.
Winfield Courier, September 13, 1883.
A LIVE OFFICER.
Mr. George H. McIntire has been putting
in the past two weeks in attendance on the U. S. Court, now in session at
Wichita. During the two months preceding the sitting of this court, Mr.
McIntire, in the way of his duties as Deputy U. S. Marshal, captured and
lodged in the Wichita jail thirteen criminals. These he captured in the
Territory bordering our State, and were made up of murderers, horse thieves,
illicit whiskey sellers, and other violators of law and order. Like Phil.
Sheridan, he warmed em up all along the line. As this
is the same McIntire who is to be our next sheriff, it shows that the convention
knew its man. George was Sheriff Shennemans trusted assistant
during all his term of office, and he will be a worthy successor to that
brave officer. The Republicans of Cowley hardly ever fail to find the right
man for the right place.
Caldwell Journal, September 20, 1883.
D. L. Payne, J. B. Cooper, G. B. Calvert,
and A. W. Harris, officers of the Oklahoma Colony, were arrested at Wichita,
on Wednesday of last week, on complaint of U. S. Attorney J. R. Hallowell,
charging them with a conspiracy to violate the laws of the United States,
by settling upon its lands in the Indian Territory.
The arrest is a good thing for Payne,
because it relieves him from promises made to his deluded followers, and
gives him what he dearly loves above all other things, a little cheap notoriety,
and at the same time will enable him to work a new batch of sympathy that
will likely aid in replenishing his treasury. Save the above results, and
putting the government to an unnecessary expense, we can see no good likely
to arise from the arrest of Payne and the men associated with him.
It may be, however, that the U. S. Attorney
has taken this step in order to get the case into court in such a way that
a decision must be rendered as to the status of the lands in question. But
it is claimed that the decision of Judge Parker, of the Western Arkansas
district, and the more recent decision of Judge McCrary, practically settles
that point, and leave no ground upon which Payne can claim a right to settle
upon the Oklahoma lands. Look at the move on the part of the U. S. Attorney
from any point we may, it has the appearance to us of being a farce.
Caldwell Journal, October 4, 1883.
D. L. Payne, J. B. Cooper, W. A. Harris,
and A. B. Calvert, the leaders of the Oklahoma boomers, were bound over
last week, at Wichita, by U. S. Commissioner Sherman, in the sum of $1,000
each, for their appearance at the U. S. Court, which meets at Leavenworth
on the 8th inst. The prime object of this prosecution is to fully determine
the question of the right of white people to occupy the Indian Territory,
particularly that portion which the Payne crowd claim to be public lands.
Caldwell Journal, October 4, 1883.
Bob Perry, a Texas desperado charged with
murdering a man by the name of Hart at Hunnewell, August 1st, 1882, was
brought to this city on Monday, by J. S. Crozier, U. S. Marshal of Texas,
and turned over to the U. S. authorities here in pursuance of a preliminary
examination held before a U. S. Commissioner, at Dallas, Texas, where Perry
was captured. He was jailed, and will have to remain in confinement for
a year. Wichita Eagle.
Caldwell Journal, October 25, 1883.
The Grand Jury of the U. S. District Court,
now in session at Leavenworth, have indicted Payne and his three associates
on the Oklahoma business. It is barely possible the case may come to trial
at this term. Should such be the case, whatever the result may be, the case
will be carried on up until it finally reaches the supreme court. By the
time that very deliberate body acts upon it, Payne will have been gathered
to his fathers, and the Indian Territory, as it exists today, will only
be a memory.
Caldwell Journal, November 1, 1883.
Indian Commissioners Report.
WASHINGTON, D. C., October 26, 1883.
The following is a synopsis of the annual
report of Indian Commissioner Price.
A decided advance has been made in the
improvement among the Indian tribes, particularly in the matter of industrial
school education. Some tribes have been persuaded to send their children
to school that heretofore resisted all efforts to induce them to do so.
One question may now be considered as settled beyond controversy, and that
is, that the Indian must be taught to work for his own support, and to speak
in the English language, or give place to a people who do. Among the things
needed to secure success and efficiency in solving the Indian problem, are:
1. An appropriation to survey out the
boundaries of the Indian reservations, so that both Indian and white men
may know where they have rights and where they have none.
2. A law for the punishment of persons
who furnish arms and ammunition to the Indians. No such law now exists.
3. More liberal appropriations for the
Indian police.
4. An appropriation sufficient to defray
the expense of detecting and prosecuting persons who furnish intoxicating
liquor to Indians. No ardent spirits should be introduced into the Indian
country under any pretense whatever, nor their sale permitted within twenty
miles of the Indian reservation, but under existing laws upon the subject,
it is a notorious fact that ale, beer, and preparations of alcoholic stimulants,
disguised as medicines, are sold at military posts to soldiers and civilians,
and although post-traders are not permitted to sell it directly to Indians,
yet it is an easy matter for the Indians to obtain it from soldiers and
civilians, to whom it is furnished. The punishments imposed by the law for
this offense should be made more severe.
The practice of approving by contracts
to collect from the government the money due Indians is one that ought not
to exist. It has for years been the practice to approve contracts by which
outside parties have taken from the government hundreds of thousands of
dollars for service which ought not to have cost the Indians one cent. During
the last few years agreements have been entered into between Indians and
different attorneys by which these attorneys were to receive from the Indians
$75,525 for collecting from the government money said to be due to the Indians.
It is the duty of the government to see
that wards of the nation receive what is justly due them free of cost, and
it is equally the duty of the government to see that no unjust claim is
paid. Congress should confer both civil and criminal jurisdiction on the
several states and territories over all the Indian reservations within their
respective limits, and make the person and property of the Indian amenable
to the laws of the state or territory in which he may reside, except in
cases where such property is expressly exempted by treaty or act of congress,
and give him all rights in the courts enjoyed by other persons.
Allotments in severalty to the number
of 116 have been made to Indians during the year with the best results,
and the commission will adhere to the policy of allotting lands where the
same can be legally done, and the condition is such to warrant it.
The attention of congress is again invited
to the necessity of legislation to enable Indians to make entries under
the homestead laws without cost to them. It is necessary that the land within
certain reservations be subdivided, and it is important in some cases that
this be done at once, although there is not a dollar available for the special
purpose.
An amendment to the law in reference to
intruders, so as to punish by imprisonment as well as fine, is absolutely
necessary. An intruder without property has very little to fear of a fine.
Notwithstanding his repeated expulsion from the Indian Territory, Payne
and his party of Oklahoma colonists have twice, during the present year,
made attempts at settlement in that country, requiring the aid of the military,
at great expense to the government to effect their removal. The commissioner
gives a detailed account of Paynes operations, and asks that the special
attention of congress be called to these aggressive movements on Indian
Territory lands as illustrating the urgent necessity for speedy and effective
legislation in regard to trespassers.
Recommendations for legislation for the
protection of timber on Indian lands are renewed.
During the year there was paid the Indians
in cash its annuity and otherwise $745,000. Less than $200,000 of this amount
was for the payment of annuities proper, many of which will expire in the
near future by limitation in the various treaties.
The increase in accommodations for Indian
pupils, which the school appropriations for the last fiscal year made possible,
has been followed by a corresponding increase in the attendance of pupils.
Exclusive of five or six tribes, the number enrolled during the year just
closed, is 5,143, an increase of 650 over last year. Of the 5,143 boarding
pupils, 4,396 attend schools on the reservations or in their immediate vicinity.
Boarding and day schools on the reservations have made a creditable record.
Eight new boarding schools have been opened, making the whole number now
in operation, exclusive of training schools, 77.
Caldwell Journal, November 1, 1883.
The examination of Nellie C. Bailey before
the U. S. Commissioner on the charge of killing Bothamley began at Wichita
last Friday. The only witnesses examined up to Monday were J. C. W. Donaldson
and Ralph P. Collins. The first testified that he washed and laid out Bothamley
after he was shot, on the morning of Oct. 8th; that Bothamley had a wound
under his right eye, and that the ball came out at the back of his head;
that there was a door in the rear end of the car, and the body laid on the
floor of the car with the head toward the door. Collins testified to having
been called into the car by Donaldson, found a lady in the car lying on
a bed; could not recall the exact words of the conversation, but as near
as he could remember, she claimed the deceased to be her brother; that they
were both from England, and that they had started for Texas in order to
establish a sheep ranch in that State; she also stated to witness that at
one time her brother was sick, and they left him behind, but afterwards
returned for him; and more of such truck, all with the intention of conveying
the impression that Bothamley had committed suicide. The examination had
not closed at last accounts, but the testimony of the two witnesses above
named, together with the well-known character of the Bailey woman, is sufficient
circumstantial evidence against the theory of Bothamley committing suicide.
Excerpts...
Winfield Courier, November 8, 1883.
The following is a synopsis of the annual
report of Indian Commissioner Price.
The practice of approving contracts to
collect from the government money due Indians is one that ought not to exist.
It has for years been the practice to approve contracts by which outside
parties have taken from Indians hundreds of thousands of dollars for service
which ought not to cost the Indians one cent. During the last four years
agreements have been entered into between Indians and different attorneys
by which these attorneys were to receive from Indians $75,521 for collecting
from the government to see that the wards of the nation receive what is
justly due them free of cost, and it is equally the duty of the government
to see that no unjust claim is paid. Congress should confer both civil and
criminal jurisdiction to the states and territories over all Indian reservations
within their respective limits, and make the person and property of the
Indian amenable to the laws of the state or territory in which he may reside,
except in cases where such property is expressly exempted by treaty or act
of congress, and give him all rights in the courts enjoyed by other persons.
An amendment to the law in reference to
the intruders, so as to punish by imprisonment as well as fine, is absolutely
necessary. An intruder without property has very little fine. Notwithstanding
his repeated expulsion from the Indian Territory, Payne and his party of
Oklahoma colonists have twice, during the present year, made
attempts at settlement in that country, requiring the aid of the military,
at great expense to the government, to effect their removal.
The commissioner gives a detailed account
of Paynes operations, and asks that the special attention of congress
be called to these aggressive movements on Indian Territory lands as illustrating
the urgent necessity for speedy and effective legislation in regard to trespassers.
The Indian tribes of the Indian Territory
having failed to adopt freedom into their tribes, as contemplated by the
appropriation act of 1882, it is recommended that legislation be asked authorizing
their settlement in the Oklahoma district under some well defined jurisdiction
and form of government, with power to the secretary of the interior to determine
what freed-men should be allowed to settle thereon, or else such stringent
laws be passed as will compel the respective tribes to adopt freedmen, as
provided in their treaties.
Caldwell Journal, November 22, 1883.
Owing, we suppose to the sympathetic efforts
of several soft-hearted females in Wichita, Judge Foster has decided to
admit Nellie Bailey to bail in the sum of $10,000. If she cant furnish
the bail, she will have to be confined in the Topeka jail until next September.
This is another item serving to convince anyone who gives the subject a
moments thought, that one term of the Federal Court at Wichita is
worse than a farce. Nellie Bailey may or may not be guilty of the crime
with which she is charged. In either event, she is entitled to as speedy
a trial as the ends of justice will permit.
Arkansas City Traveler, December 5, 1883.
The United States District Court convened
on Monday of last week, and among the cases to be heard was that of Dave
Payne. The hero of Oklahoma bobs up serenely with a persistency
only equaled by the going qualities of Tennysons brook. And still
the Territory is not opened.
Arkansas City Traveler, January 9, 1884.
Frank Goodin, of Okmulgee, Creek Nation,
who was arrested and taken before the U. S. Commissioner at Arkansas City
on the charge of stealing a steer belonging to E. M. Hewins, was discharged
on the ground that the place where the alleged theft occurred was under
the jurisdiction of the U. S. District court for the western district of
Arkansas. The steer, it seems, had strayed into the Creek country and was
picked up and sold, Mr. Goodin being the purchaser. The moral of this is,
that stockmen on the Cherokee strip must not let their cattle wander upon
the sacred soil of the Muskogee. Caldwell Journal.
Arkansas City Republican, February 16, 1884.
RELIGIOUS DEPARTMENT.
SELECTION BY REV. S. B. FLEMING.
The Lawless Indian.
A recent decision of the supreme court
of the United States has been accorded short paragraphs in obscure corners
with little thought of its bearing on the welfare of a quarter of a million
of people. Two years ago last August the well-known Sioux chief, Spotted
Tail, held a council and feast with his people on their reservation in Dakota,
and at its close in the afternoon mounted his horse and started home. Coming
from the opposite direction, in a wagon, were Crow Dog and his wife. The
former got out of his wagon, stooping toward the ground, and as the chief
rode along, suddenly rose up and shot him through the breast. Spotted Tail
fell from his horse, regained his feet, tried to draw his pistol, reeled
and fell back dead. Crow Dog jumped into his wagon and rode at full speed
to his camp, nine miles distant. Intense excitement prevailed among the
Indians, but no outbreak occurred. It appeared that an old feud had existed
between the two men, but that the immediate cause of the assassination was
political, Spotted Tail having been put out of the way to make room for
an aspirant to his position as head chief. The facts being known, an Indian
policeman was instructed to capture Crow Dog. This being done next day,
the assassin was turned over to the civil authorities of Dakota, and 20,000
Sioux awaited the results of the white mans way. Upon
trial in the district court of the judicial district of Dakota, Crow Dog
was found guilty and condemned to death. On appeal the case came before
the Supreme Court, the counsel for the prisoner claiming that the district
court of Dakota had no jurisdiction in the case, and therefor its finding
and sentence were void, and, praying for the issuance of a writ of habeas
corpus.
The law makers of a nation which boasts
of the supremacy of law over the land have allowed to remain on their statute
book until the year of our Lord 1884, the following:
Section 2145. The general laws of the
United States as to punishment of crimes committed in any place within the
sole and exclusive jurisdiction of the United States, except the district
of Columbia, shall except the Indian country.
Section 2146. The preceding section, shall
not be construed to extend to crimes committed by one Indian against the
person or property of another Indian, or to any Indian committing an
offense in the Indian country who has been punished by the local laws of
the tribe.
This means that over a territory aggregating
225,000 square miles, and among 250,000 people, United States laws shall
be inoperative. Fighting, stealing, gambling, polygamy, murder, and every
crime which savage passion may breed, shall go on unchecked save by such
restraints as the barbarians themselves may devise, while a Christian government
calmly looks on and lets them alone. With such a statute before him, Justice
Mathews decided that the Indians have a right to try and punish the criminal
after their own laws and customs, without interference from the United States,
and that the district court of Dakota had no jurisdiction, and Crow Dogs
imprisonment was illegal. He is, therefore, to be remanded to the laws
and customs of retaliation and revenge, injury and reprisal, and his
countrymen will be confirmed in their opinion that the white mans
ways are good only for the white man.
Better than comment is another instance
of the practical working of this legal reservation for Indians,
to which the Commissioner of Indian affairs refers in his annual report
just published.
A year ago last September, an Arapaho
half-breed, named Robert Poisal, returning from a trip in the Indian Territory,
in which he had just placed his children, was shot dead by Johnson Foster,
a Creek Indian, no motive but plunder being assignable. The murderer was
arrested by mounted police of the Seminole nation; and to prevent the
carrying out of tribunal laws and customs, in the way of summary vengeance,
he was turned over for safekeeping to the military authorities at Fort Reno.
On request of the Interior Department, the attorney general ordered the
trial of the prisoner before the United States court at Fort Smith, Arkansas,
but on further consideration and correspondence, he decided that there was
too much doubt as to jurisdiction of the United States in the matter to
justify incurring the expense of removing the prisoner and trying the case.
The war department wearied of the custody
of Foster and asked to be relieved; the Interior department urged that a
dismissal should be made, and reluctantly the attorney general consented.
Meantime since it had appeared that complaints of horse stealing and other
offenses were pending against Foster in the United States court at Fort
Smith, the United States deputy marshal, with a strong guard of troops,
undertook to remove him from Fort Reno thither. Within the first fifteen
miles, a party of Arapahos nearly succeeded in capturing him, and before
half the journey was completed, Foster had murdered the Marshals assistant
and made his escape. He is now at large. Now that he has murdered a white
man, the majesty of the law can be manifested provided he is recaptured.
How much longer will congress turn a deaf
ear to the entreaties of government officials, teachers, missionaries, and
other philanthropists, religious societies, and institutions, even the guards
themselves, that Indians be made amenable to law? Apparently hopeless of
adequate legislation in his day, Commissioner Price suggests a partial remedy
for the evil, which, like Captain Sellers window sash will keep
out the coarsest of cold. He recommends that, when new states are
admitted into the union, their constitutions shall extend over Indian reservations
the jurisdiction of territorial courts. This is a wise suggestion, which
should be borne in mind by legislators who can spend days on revision of
rules, but cannot give an hour to the erasure of one blot from our statutes.
The following indignant protest, made by Bishop Hare in 1866, has added
weight and force each year.
Civilization has loosened in some
places, broken the bonds which regulate and hold together Indian society
in its wild state, and has failed to give the people laws and officers of
justice in their place. This evil still continues unabated. Women are brutally
beaten and outraged; men are murdered in cold blood; the Indians who are
friendly to schools and churches are intimidated and preyed upon by the
evil disposed; children are molested on their way to school, and schools
are dispersed by bands of vagabonds; but there is no redress. This accursed
condition of things is an outrage upon the One Lawgiver. It is a disgrace
to our land. It should make every man who sits in the national halls of
legislators blush. And wish well to the Indians as we may, and do for them
what we will, the efforts of civil agents, teachers, and missionaries are
like the struggles of drowning men weighed with lead, as long as, by the
absence of law, Indian society is left without a base. Independent.
[I ceased looking after the last entry above. MAW]