Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 July 1885 — LAND-GRABBERS. [ARTICLE]

LAND-GRABBERS.

Power of the Government to Prevent Illegal Occupation of Lands in Indian Territory. Millions of Acres Occupied by Oittle Companies Without the Color of Law or Justice. [Washington telegram to Chicago Tribune.] Gen. Sparks, Commissioner of the General Land Office, has had a complete list of all the eases where the public lands have been improperly fenced made out, with a statement of the present status of affairs. In all of these cases the parties have been notified to remove the fences. In some instances they have Consulted attorneys who have held that a reasonable number of openings in the fences is sufficient. In such cases the openings are guarded, and to all intents and purposes fences still exist. _ The total amount of land that has been appropriated in this ■fray is between! one and two million acres. Secretary Lamar has received a letter from GCn. McCook, ex-Governor of Colorado, relative to the power of the Government to prevent illegal occupation of lands in Indian Teiritory. The writer asserts that the law declares that the Secretary of the Interior has full control of all Indian affairs under the laws, subject to direction by the President; that certain contracts may be made by individuals with Indians relative to services in procuring the payments of claims, but no authority exists for making contracts of any other nature, and, if made, they are null and void; that no purchase, grant, lease, or other conveyance of lands or of any title or claim thereto from any Indian nation or tribe of Indians shall be of any validity in law or equity, unless the same shall be made by treaty or convention, entered into pursuant to the Constitution; that only the United States can make any contract with any Indian nation or tribe affecting lands, whether by purchase, lease, or otherwise, and the United States can do so only by formal agreement; and that the President may employ the military to remove trespassers from the Indian lands. Gen. McCook substantiates the above points by citations from the Revised Statutes, and declares that the United States can make agreements respecting Indian lands only with the Indians themselves, and not with third parties, and only with the Indians by agreement ratified by Congress. Notwithstanding the positive prohibitions of the law against the leasing or conveyance of lands by Indian tribes, substantially all the lands in Indian Territory set apart for exclusive Indian occupation, General McCook says, are in the possession of white men, under leases from Indians who had no power to lease, and with the tacit recognition of the Department’ of the Interior (under a former administration), which he believes had no ■ power to recognize or assent to any such lease or possession.

LIST OF THE LESSEES. The following is given as a partial list of parties in occupation of such lands in the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Reservations in Indian Territory, and the amount of land controlled by them and embraced in their designated boundaries: Hampton H. Denman of Washington, D. C., formerly member of the Kansas State Senate, 55,(M10 acres. Edward Fenlon of Leavenworth, Kas., and William C. Mallelly of Caldwell, Kas., each 564,800 acres. Robert -A. Hunter of St. Louis, Mo., 500,000 acres. Albert G. Evans of St. Louis, Mo., 456, - 960 acres. , Lewis L. Briggs of Muscoton, Kas., 318,720 acres. Jesse S. Morrison, of Darlington, L T., 138,240 acres. Unknown lessee, leasing Oct, 15, 1883, 714,000 acres. Total to above parties, 3,832,520 acres. THE NOMINAL RENTAL. . “Briggs, a member of the: Kansas State Senate, 1881-85, and E. M. Hewins, and others, in trust for the Cherokee Strip Live-Stock Association of Kansas, a Kansas corporation, leased for fiveyearsfrom Oct. 1, 1883, 3,000,000 acres, being all the unoccupied lands conveyed to the Pawnees, Poncas, JNez Perces, Otoes, Missouris, Osages, and Kansas Indians. The rental is lg cents per acre. If the Indians had power to make leases, and if the Interior Department had power to assent to them, what can be said of such an execution of a public trust, supposed to be created for the purpose of protecting Indian rights and interests, as the acquiescence in a lease of lands for ’ a term of years at a rental which is nothing more than nominal? Is that the way the Government of the Ignited States should care for its wards? If such' leases were legal—if authority existed to make them—they would still be obtaining from the Indian wards, with the assent of their guardian, valuable property rights and privileges for a pittance. If the legality of the leases were doubtful they should not be permitted the countenance of an administration pledged to set its face against corruption, collusion, and wrong. Being, as they unquestionably are, wholly unauthorized and illegal, as well as improvident, should there be an instant’s hesitation in disavowing them, and in the summary exercise of all the power and authority of the Government in dispossessing the holders under them?” TRESPASSERS. *’ Continuing his argument declaring the illegality of the leases, Gen. McCook says: “Both under the common law and the enactments of Congress all parties other than Indians occupying these lands are trespassers. The intention of the lawsetting apart this domain was that it should be enjoyed by the Indians for the purpose of making to them civilized homes, encouraging them in habits of industry, and elevating and improving their condition. The actual facts now are that, instead of the Indians possessing and enjoying the benefits designed for them, their country is overrun with speculators and adventurers of every degree, who havei despoiled them of their property, and practically sequestrated their birthrights, destroying their opportunities of self-sup-port, and leaving them nothing for the future, while keeping them dependent in the present " Senator Plumb, of Kansas, is said to be engaged in a careful study of Southern scenes and life, and the horrible possibility is suggested that he is going to write a book. > Mb. Ruskin’s father was once a wine merchant His maternal grandmother was the landlady of the Old King’s Head Tavern at Croydon, and her husband was a sailor. B. F. Hackman, at one time publisher of the American Register at Washington, has become a partner in the New Orleans Daily States Publishing Company. A. New Bedford woman has taken to playing the cornet The question of woman's suSering is widening. Helen Gardner claims to be the only trbman infidel in the world.