Volume 18 , Issue 35

1893 - Ex-Chief Bushyhead Expresses Cherokees Views On Statehood.

It was reported in the Muskogee Phoenix, Muskogee, Oklahoma, dated 16 November 1893, Thursday, page 1, "Ex-chief Bushyhead Expresses the Cherokees views On Statehood."

Found on Newspapers.com

Arkansas City, Nov. 10 (1893) -- Ex Chief D. W. Bushyhead, of the Cherokee Nation, who was spending a good deal of time here looking after the interests of the town of Kildare, located on his allotment in the strip, gave the general opinion of the Cherokees on the statehood question. He though that the question of statehood was one which should originate with he Indians themselves. He frankly said that it was inevitable, but that while the white men carry things throughout railroad speed, the Indians are a little slow, and would be especially so in this case as the statehood question had never been considered by the Cherokees. It would be wholly new to them.

Bushyhead stated, "The inevitable is that we will be merged into your civilization. That will be the ultimate solution. But it will not come at once. The sentiment of the Indians is against it. Only the other, I noticed that the Chickasaw council passed resolutions against statehood with Oklahoma. It was stated that at the Purcell convention the five civilized tribes were represented and declared for statehood. There was not a delegate there from he five tribes who was a bona fide citizen. The delegates who attended were whites living among the different tribes. The real owners of the soil were not there at all."

"Why is the settlement against statehood?"

"Now, I can only give you my opinion of affairs. I'm not in politics. I held office in my nation sixteen years, and my experience is that there is nothing so expensive as glory. Just now I am attending strictly to business. The question of statehood, however, has never been presented to the Indians. It is a question of education, and something depends on how it is presented. When I was a chief in 1879, my first message tot he council favored a federation of the five tribes. There was several meetings, but nothing ever came of them."

"Then you look for a federation as one of the first results of the appointment of the commission?"

"If I were at the head of Cherokee affairs, that is what I would endeavor to bring about. That would be the first step toward the change that must surely come in the future. Let the five tribes come together in federation and let them move for statehood themselves."

"For uniting with Oklahoma, is it to be inferred?"

"No, our people have a dread of that. They look at Oklahoma as the home of all intruders, and think that united to Oklahoma they would be thrown among a lot of land sharks who would far outnumber them and be voted out of everything. The Cherokees have over $2,500,000 on which the government is paying interest, and they believe that if united to Oklahoma, this would be legislated away from them."

"Then they want a separate state?"

"Well, they do not want admission as a part of Oklahoma."

Discussing the land embraced in the present Cherokee reservation, Mr. Bushyhead said that on the maps of the Interior Department it appeared as 5,331,000 acres, but the most he could figure in the home reservation was 4,800,000 acres. There were about 25,000 Cherokees.

"If they were eighty acres each," suggested the correspondent, after a little figuring, "this would leave about 2,800.000 cares spent o settlement."

The Indian Will Want All
"Whenever the time comes for allotment," said the ex-chief, quickly and warmly, "let the government find the number of actual citizens of the Cherokee nation. Let them divide 4,800,000 by this number and let each citizen have his share of the land to dispose of it as he will."

"You think that the general sentiment of the Cherokee?" "That is - that will be the sentiment when they consent to make the change."

Mr. Bushyhead thought that this would hold true in all the five tribes. He affirmed that the title tot heir lands - under a patent from VAnBuren in 1838, based on an act of congress of 1830 - was as good as any title in the United States. It was under a treaty of 1866 that the Cherokee strip was set apart.

"First of all, before any steps are taken toward statehood," said the ex-chief, "there are a number of questions to be settled. First is the intruder question. The contract for the sale of the strip pledges the government to remove intruders from our reservation. first, those who settled there prior to August 11, 1886, are to have their property appraised and paid for. Then the intruders are to be removed. From the sale of the strip $295,000 was set apart to pay them, and a commission is now at work making the appraisement. Second, all who settled int he reservation since August 11, 1886, are to be removed without any benefit. There are 4,000 or 5,000 in each class, I judge. This matter must be settled ahead of statehood. And then the people will want to act for themselves and come in by themselves."

Mr. Bushyhead estimated that of the 25,000 bona fide residents of the nation nearly one-half are full -bloods and at present these are opposed to statehood under any circumstances.

It will be seen that many vexing questions would come up, and the commission named last Wednesday, consisting of senator Dawes, of Massachusetts, Meredith H. Kidd, of Indiana, and Archibald S. McKenenon, of Arkansas, many be a long-lived one.
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