Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 January 1878 — Oklahama Territory. [ARTICLE]

Oklahama Territory.

It is reported from Washington that the Congressional Committee having the matter in charge are going to report favorably a bill to organize the new Territory of Oklahama out of a portion of the Indian Territory. A Washington correspondent says it is a scheme to bring 23,000,000 acres of the best land of the Territory into the hands of three railroad corporations, with all that such a subsidy implies, with confusion, litigation and disorder and other evils. The Indians oppose the measure, and have their representatives at the capital. They claim that they have something moie than a “usufruct” title to their lands; that they own them as tribes by virtue of a patent regularly issued by

the United States, and that they cannot be lawfully and equitably deprived of them without their consent. They claim that they are rapidly advancing in education and civilization, in numbers, and in wealth; that the Government cannot afford to break faith with them; and that the friends of the Indians ought not to countenance these efforts in that direction by their silence.— Chicago Journal.