The Vinita Weekly Chieftain, 1902-12-25

in wagons than to any other town. During this same period some of the worst gangs of outlaws tbat ever ravaged a country have found refuge in tbat nation. Yioita, in the Cherokee Nation, has long been one of the country's leading cattle shipping towns, a Mil ita neighbor, Claremore, fojlv miles west, called a statehood con vention for Deo. 3 this year, ic tbat same Cherokee country, hid hidden - den hidden in tbe rough, flinty bills th' border Arkansas, live full-bloo N who cannot talk English and w.Vi still gain a precarious livelihoo by bunting. From 1893 to 1902 tbe commij -' sioo has labored. lie members have seen the Indian population in tbe Territory rise to a total of more than 80,000, while more than 350,000 whites hsve settled within its boundaries. In 1893 the Choc Choc-taws - taws Choc-taws and Chickasaws concluded a treaty with thecommissiou, a rear after the small Seminole K had treated. In August, IOC Cherokee and Creeks f. sgreed ( j give up tribal exis exists - ts exists soon as the details of allot and rearrangement coul.l be pleted. The commission's work, he er le by no means completed, sling questions remain to be tied. A work of great magi.i that it not yet finished is the'U ing up of the tribal rolls. Here have been met fraud, Ignorance and hindrances. Citizenship bes come to have a tangible commer commercial - cial commercial value, where a citizen is likely to come into posession of from 100 to 500 acree of land, and those whites who bave lougbfeo settled in the Territory ere rf ', - depart. of t ii ru I ' - en! claimed cilisenfhip attempted to prove it. I;.- . i slaves of Indians were givt. lenshlp in the tribes alter the civil war, and now some hundreds of negroes are trying hard to prove that their parents were freedmen under the citisenshtp provision. Besides this, there are grave mattera connected with the ealsb lishment of a territorial govern government - ment government to b established. What hall ba dona with the valuable u. '. and asphalt deposits bow fceld and leased by the tribes actieg ai commercial organisations ? What embargo shall ba laid ou 11? ttle of the lands when they are tran ferred to ths individual owner- f How are the echool ani tM.st;-.'.i systems to be mrrasgd Vi Mj both Indiana and wlitet ti htH advaotagat Supposing the ,n a Territory and Oklahoma to i . In. eluded in ona Territory, hu r the peculiar needs of thre v . sUll live in the old full h. . i style to be met? And where I i'Ut, fat of territorial g3?ernmnt to b tablished? Will the lj wltl aa tt a territorial govern : t the present time result li, fjioint thesa tribes toward Uuita-i Cuts eitlsenshlp too fast, so : : .'' , t- IDS 'resident tin a w; in preventing their g

at all? The leaven of r ' spreading among the tt -ua'.es of the greal f iv schools, and &,is 1 t; , have penetrated to the : i are taking their pkcm in the movement to-. 1 mation. Born to the I odiee against white i . id. rut ways, then tralntd to t tai 'it of view of the whir 5 t leges and univers-il' IV. are standing by e - -1 t ward any move: advance tbeir j ' nomio lndepe-ii "is preeideat 1 ' aid and prafl! ".I time is cnt v. graduate is psr-j'.tf to his people s- ; A salt, derby hat cm i for tbe blank r, ( c',ts. . To t fir i -