Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 May 1892 — LAND OF THE BOOMER. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

LAND OF THE BOOMER.

INDIAN SPOLIATION IN OKLAHOMA TERRITORY. Aborigines Systematically Robbed of Their Homes by Their White Masters—How Treaties Have Been Violated—Scenes In an Indian Village. In the Groat West. One of the most remarkable chapters of future American history must be the one devoted to the opening to public settlement of the unoccupied lands of the Indian Territory, writes a Kingfisher, 0. T., correspondent. The student of humanity will find no more fruitful field, for here the most startling realisms of the ago have been enacted. The historian who records the decline and inevitable extermination of the Indian race will find his text incomplete without this chapter, for herein he will discover the most selfish and intolerant acts recorded of man. The narrator of pioneer settlement in the Southwest will find lessons in enerey, perseverance, endurance, and heroism, in its broadest sense, in those chronicles. From .that chapter the moralist will draw his strongest pictures of condemnation, and the true Americau will pronounce his highest encomiums. Beservoil for Indian*. The Indian Territory was included in the Louisiana purchase, and in 1816, thirteen years after acquirement by this government, the project was conceived of dividing up this Territory into Indian reservations, for as early as that date

it wa3 discovered impossible or impolitic to amalgamate the two races, and from the year following until 1889 the project was carried out, and twentyI five million acres of choice land have since been devoted to that purpose. In 1835-6 reservations were set aside for what are known as the five civilized tribes—the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles—and were immediately taken possession of by those tribes, who, originally located at the South in States east of the Mississippi River, were induced to exchange their homes there for the lands they now occupy. When the Southern States rebelled all

these Indian tribes espoused the Southern cause, and at Ahe Close of hostilities the Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks and Beminoles were induced to transfer back to the Government 14,000,000 acres of their lands. Oklahoma, as now established, and the territory west, are of these lands. That the transfer was made through force, and to some extent by chicanery, is not denied. Tho Oklahoma Boom. The story of the struggles of the delnded followers of Payne and Couch, and the final opening of Oklahoma to

settlement, has been told over and over Again, with variations. But few pictures were oV&rdrawii in recounting the hardships of these pioneers, and, while their efforts were vain, no^onedeniesthe honesty of purpose of Rtotwo great boomer captains —the one who was stricken down on the eve of realizing his hopes, the other by an assassin's bollet. The Indians had parted with their title to the lands, the lands were surveyed, and the Government had failed to settle other Indians on them, while they were occupied by the cattle barons to the exclusion Of the honest homeseeker, hence it was held, and with justice, that those lands were open to squatter Settlement pending Congressional action which would open the country to actual settlement. • Little was done regarding the matter until in 1870, when Captain David L. Payne, then a member of the Kansas Legislature from Sedgwick County, organized a movement looking toward the occqpancy and settlement of Oklahoma. In Peeember, 1880, Captain Payne with a well-organized band of followers encamped on the north border of the Cherokee outlet to recruit forces preparatory to entering the Territory. The cattle men who then occupied the Territory protested against this move, notifying the military authorities, who dispatched to Payne’s camp a troop of •

cavalry under command of Col. Copinger to prevent the colonists from entering the Territory. The final arrest of Captain Payne and the disbandment of his colony, the trial and release of the leader, and subsequent events are matters of recent history. In 1888 the Springer bill, which provided for opening the Indian country to settlement, although defeated. in the Senate, opened the way to partial success, and through Congressman Perkins of Kansas, aided by a host of loyal western men. the Fiftieth Congress

passed t ie act as an annex to the Indian bill, and thus, after twenty years’ patient waiting, was opened to settlement one of the brightest spots on the American continent. An Karthly Paracll.se. Oklahoma—and under that general term the whole of the unoccupied Indian country may be designated—is undoubtly the most uniformly splendid portion of the United States, and being centrally located, with two great trunk lines of railway—the Sunta Fe and Rock Island

—already connecting her with the great lakes of the north and the Atlantic coast, with the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific slope, and directly with every interior city of the West, she must of necessity become a power in the commercial and political world. The people who have settled in Oklahoma represent every State in the Union, and probably every class. It is the most heterogeneous mass of humanity that ever gathered together, but it is only justice to add only the better element remain as citizens; the rougher class—the nomadic population—invariably attending the frontier excitements lose their occupation with the settlement and development of the country and move on to the next place offering the same inducements that brought them. On the street corner, gathered around a street fakir, is a picture one might study with interest all day. The blanketed and tinsel-bedecked Indian buck, with his squaw and numerous progeny standing apart interested but undemonstrative; the cowboy, booted and spurred, with broad-brimmed sombrero and swaggering gait, stands rolling a cigarette while talking to a corporal and two or three private soldiers in blue who are “outing;’’ the countryman—and he is numerous and verdant —standing with Inverted eyes and open mouth close to the dry goods box from which the fakir Is working his schemes; a sprinkling of ragged, unkempt-looking children belonging to the camps pitched around the vacant lots and blocks; a bevy of greasylooking negroes direct from the South. Passing down the street are two Chinamen, seemingly just arrived; on the comer are a half-dozen well-dressed men —politicians out of a job, no doubt, ! “who are there ready to pick up the end ! of a string,” a friend suggests; a passing ambulanoe bearing some United States army officers is stopped by two sun-browned gentlemen—officials in the Indian service; a stream of covered boomers’ wagons winds around among the struggling masses of humanity, who, without visible cause, are rushing hither and thither; an auctioneer is crying a dilapidated looking steed that is being “exercised" for tne edification of possible buyers. But the picture is ever

changing, and, while not always inviting, is certainly interesting—from an advantageous position, and from a distance. An Indian Village. One of the most interesting studies is that; of the Indian. An Indian village has its attractions, and a native dance, while not particularly edifying, has novel features. Some of the happiest faces imaginable are found among

the Indian children, and they are never more pleased than to be decked out after their peculiar ideas and pose to admiring whites—not near endugh to be addressed, tor at the approach of a white man the little rascals will scamper away unless indeed one tempts them with money, when they will coyly await—they never advance—until they receive the ooin, when they will slowly retreat without an audible word, but with a

countenance sparkling with animation. The older ones are not so shy, but are usually as dumb as oysters. Some of the chiefs and head men will enter into conversation for a few moments, but prefer to listen and observe. One cannot “finish* this country without visiting the Indian camps. The “beef issue” and dances following the councils in honor of visiting tribes and the nativo games are studios; in fact, j Indian camp life as a whole is a study. A visit to the camp of Strong Bull, i Chief of the Arapahoes, a very intelligent fellow, by the way, and always courteous, or to a Cheyenne village, and particularly to the camp of Whirlwind, Chiof of the Cheyennes, would suffice. - But the closer one studies the Indian the less sentiment is left in one’s breast in his favor. An Indian, like the historical Methodist, is born as such, and as such will en<j bis existence, ho matter whai influence is brought to bear upon him. As an instance, the correspondent, when at the Ponca agency, visited, together with Colonel Xach Mulhail, a beef dance held at the house of that old war-house, George Primeau, sub-chief of the poncas. That night the women danced —the sexes never dance together—and among tho dancers was a very pretty young woman with really refined appearance and’manners. She kept perfect time and became so interested that, oblivious of the presence of strangers, she followed tho older ones in the wild, unearthly chant until she had worked herself into such a high state of excitement that she dropped to the floor with sheer exhaustion. In defense of her weakness the chief explained that she had been too long among the white people, explaining that she had attended Haskell Institute, at Lawrence, Kan., five years. His own daughter had also been educated at the same institution, and here they were dressed in blankets and taking part in the native orgies. In conversation with the girl later in the evening we found her charming. She admitted that she did not continue her studies, but she was a regular subscriber of two magazines and a ladies’ journal. Her husband was a student in Haskell Institute, where he graduated with high honors, yet he was outside, sitting erouchod around a camp-fire, dressed in leggins and with a blanket thrown around him. Interested as to what standing they hold in the school, we requested her to write her own name and those of her schoolmates. Taking a pencil, She nimbly and gracefully wrote: “Hannah Ray,” “Frank L. Smith," “Jennie Priraeaux,” “Frank Smith.”

The first name was her own, the second that of her husband, the third our host’s daughter, and the last of her little son, just four months old. Later inquiry of a gentleman connected with Indian education disclosed that each one of the first three had made remarkable records as scholars in the institute, and were exceptionally well-behaved.

A LOT JUMPER’S WARNING.

A TYPICAL BOOMER’S FAMILY.

CAPTAIN PAYNE 'S SETTLEMENT ON THE STILLWATER IN 1884.

A CHEYENNE VILLAGE.

A BOOSTER'S SCHOONER.