Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 January 1894 — THE INDIAN TERRITORY. [ARTICLE]

THE INDIAN TERRITORY.

Governor Fishback Thinks It a Nursery of Crime and Lawlessness. Gov. Fishback, of Arkansas, has published an open letter to President Cleveland relative to the condition of affairs in the Indian Territory. The Governor believes they afe such as to cause the gravest alarm, and that they may result disastrously to all the States in the Mississippi valley. He believes the Territory to be a very hot-bed of crime and lawlessness and the rallying place for all the desperadoes in the country. He says “a very large percentage of the bank and train robberies which take place in the West are organized or originate in the Indian Territory. * * * During the past twelve months there have issued from the States of Arkansas, Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma Territory sixty-one requisitions upon Indian Territory authorities for fugitives.” Another evil which Gov. Fishback thinks is due to the evil doers who flock to the Territory is the demoralization of the Indians. Associating with criminals, they themselves, in a short time, become wholly corrupted and ready for any lawless act. Finally Mr. Fishback says this state of things “suggests the very serious question whether the time has not arrived for the Federal Government to assert its right of eminent domain over this portion of the national territory.”