Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 June 1887 — RED MEN IN COUNCIL. [ARTICLE]

RED MEN IN COUNCIL.

Representatives from Eighteen Tribes Discuss the Land Question. S. delegate council representing eighteen tribes of Indians convened at Eufala, Indian Territory, on the- Bth inst. Hon. S. H. Burge, president of the Council made the opening address. He spoke at length on the necessity and advantages of education and drew many comparisons between the five civilized tribes and their Western brethren, calling, attention to the differences in their mode of living, their dress, .etc., and urging the: Western tribes to‘educate their children*, to teach them to farm, to teach them religion and to set the example by the oldeu ones adopting the garb of civilized Indians*, by having good schools and churches and giving them close attention. He hoped the Western tribes would not sell their lands. The United States Government had enacted a law to allot their lands in severalty. He believed the law would be enforced, but when it is put into effect he wanted the Indians to keep the- land allotted to them, and never sell it. All the civilized tribes and all true people sympathize with the Western Indians in their present trouble, but they must; be men and go to work to prepare to face ifi and to educate their children so that they ean be competent to cope with the advancing whites. He was followed by Hon. C. A. Burres, of the Chickasaws, and George Sanders, of Cherokees. The committee of ten appointed tO- draft a memorial to the President made' a report which was adopted. In substance it is as follows: With many misgivings-they asouine that the United States Government intends to give the Indians the benefit of civilization without depriving them: of rights. Having lived under the policy, they claim to be fair judges of its utility. They do not wish to antagonize any poliey of the government but to contribute to its effects. But they make an earnest appeal in behalf of civilized and wild tribes of the territory against the- act providing for the allotment of lands in severalty to Indians. It will be a detriment to their in•terests, as it will in the near future ingulf all of the Indians and tribes of the territory'in one catastrophe* to the enrichment of the land monopolies from whom even those with The civilized machinery of justice seem powerless to secure their rights. They deprecate any measure which will place the Indians in so unequal a contest. The Indian needs apolitical identity, an allegiance, called elsewhere patriotism, in order to make true progress in the affairs of life. The law to which objection is urged enables the Inbody politic by electing and taking to himself a quantity of land which is at present the common property of all. The land-in-severalty law apportions to each individual only a part of that which is already his property, and leaves the balance for sale to others, who will be composed of a class having no sympathy for tßeTn3Ta"ns,who will rus h -into-the -new country in their mad race for gain and < crowd out every hope and chance of Indian civilization. The Tribes ask that the President stay the operations of the law until they shall be in condition to be benefited by it. They further request that the act be not enforced until they have the opportunity of testing the validity of their rights before the judiciary of the United States. It is a singular fact that in the one resident of the town was killed. The person was Jennie Wade, and a monument is to be erected to her memory. . The name Itaska, given to the source of the Mississippi, was coined for the occasion by Schoolcraft, from the Latin veritas caput, the true source. *