Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 85, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 July 1901 — DATE IS NOW FIXED. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

DATE IS NOW FIXED.

OKLAHOMA INDIAN LANDS TO BE OPENED AUGUST 6. President's Proclamation Names*the Day and Prescribes the Manner of Allotment of the Homesteads—lndians Ask an Injunction. The proclamation of President McKinJey opening to settlement the lands ceded by Indians in the territory of Oklahoma has been given to' the public. The proclamation covers the cessions made by the Wichita and affiliated bands of Indians in accordance with the act of March 2, 1895, and those made by the Comanche, Kiowa, and Apache tribes in pursuance of the act of June 6, 1900. The proclamation provides for the opening of the lands in these reservations which are not reserved at 9 o’clock a. m. on Aug. 6 next,., the lands to be open to settlement under the homestead and town.sjte laws of the United States. The proclamation says that those who wish to make entry of land under the homestead law shall be registered. The registration will take place at the land offices at Reno and Lawton. The registration at each office will be for boih land districts. To obtain registration the applicant will be required to show himself duly qualified to make homestead entry of these lands under existing laws and to give the registering officer such appropriate matters of description and identity as will protect the applicant and the government against any attempted impersonation. Registration cannot be effected through the use of the mails or the employment, of an agent, excepting that honorably discharged soldiers and sailors may present their applications through an agent, no agent being allowed to represent more than one soldier. No person will be allowed to register more than once. After being registered applicants will be given certificates allowing them to go upon the ceded lands and examine,them in order to aid them in making an intelligent selection.

It is explicitly stated that “no one will be permitted to make settlement upon any of the lands in advance of the opening provided for,” and the statement is added that "during the first Sixty days following said opening no one but registered applicants will be permitted to make homestead settlement upon afiy of sajd lands, and then only in pursuance, of a homestead entry duly allowed'by the local land officers' or of a soldier’s declaratory statement duly accepted by such officers.” The opening up of the new country will necessitate the creation of two new land districts, and three new counties, and they have been established by proclamation of the President, and a force of thirty clerks left Washington to conduct the business pertaining to the opening. The land office for the first districts is to be located at El Reno, in Oklahoma County, and the second at the new town of Lawton, named for the late Gen. Lawton, and located ou the site of Old Fort Sill. The new counties created are named, respectively, Caddo, with Anadarko as county seat; Comanche, with Lawton as county seat, and Kiowa, with Hobart as county seat. A portion of the Dew lands is added to counties already established. The President has also issued a proclamation designating the Wichita mountains in the heart of the old Kiowa reservation as a forest reserve. The lands thus reserved cover an area of 58,000 acres, and are covered with timber and undergrowth. Under the plan of allotment the United States government retains 70,000 acres of the land surrounding Fort Sill, the military post of the reservations. After this deduction from the reservations an 1 the allotment to the Indians is concluded there will j-emjrin over 10,000 homesteads of 160 acres each for settlement. An injunction suit was brought before Judge Irwin at El Reno for an order restraining' the register of the land office, the receiver, the surveyors, and all other persons from proceeding with the opening of the lands, according to the proclamation of the President and the net of Congress under which he proceeded. The bill of particulars fhr the injunction contemls that the lands of tlte Indians are being illegally and unconstitutionally wrested from them against their wishes. It shows that the organic act creating the territory of Oklahoma made the laws mid the constitution of the United States. applicable to the territory. Provisions were made in the act whereby tjie Indians could eavoke the aid or the courts for their protection. Under the constitution of the United States “no person shall lie deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law,” It contends that Lone Wolf is a “person,” and that the opening of the reservation will deprive him of his landed rights, and will do the name injustice to the other Indians affected.

LANDS TO BE OPENED AUGUST 6.