Volume 14 , Issue 9

Abstract of Legislative Work & Sen. Robert L. Owen (1907-1912)

We were digging through some of the boxes of Grandma's that clutter our basement and storage and found this Abstract of Legislative Work In Which Senator Robert L. Owen Actively Participated, 16 December 1907 to 1 March 1912, when Oklahoma had just become a State of the Union. Thank goodness for ancestry clutter, huh? We scanned to a PDF file at the link above.

It begins with the Sixtieth Congress, First Session, 16 December 1907 to 30 May 1908. They attended to the appropriations for the support,etc., of Apaches, Kiowas, Comanches and Wichitas, the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, the Kaws, Kickapoos, Pawnees, Poncas, Quapaws, Sac and Fox, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Cherokees, Creeks, Seminoles, etc.

There was a special appropriations for Apaches, Kiowas, Comanches and Wichitas ($375,000); Chilocco School ($120,000); Sac and Fox, per capita ($100,000); Kickapoos ($215,000); enlarging Tribal Schools for white children in Five Civilized Tribes ($300,000); Union Agency ($152,000); Dawes Commission ($143,410); to suppress liquor traffic ($40,000); furnishing counties with records affecting titles ($15,000).

Public buildings were authorized for Oklahoma City to cost not exceeding $300,000; Muskogee ($250,000); and Enid ($100,000). Appropriations were secured to begin work on public buildings at Oklahoma City, $50,000; Muskogee, $50,000; Enid, $20,000; Chickasha, $15,000; Tulsa, $20,000; McAlester, $15,000; Guthrie, $35,000.

Legislative obtained for discontinuing the taxing of Indian lessors or lessees for cost of making leases and issuing patents. The immediate sale of tribal buildings provided, giving State, counties and municipalities of Oklahoma preferential rights to acquire such property. The distribution of balance due Iowa Indians was obtained.

The Following Acts Passed:

1. Providing patent of 40 acres to Catholic Indian Mission, Quapaw Nation, for church and school.
2. Authority to sell 640 acres of the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Agency and use proceeds for school purposes.
3. Authorizing Secretary to lay out towns in segregated coal lands and to give patents to town lots theretofore sold and under cloud.
4. Payment of annuity to intermarried whites of the Cherokee Nation provided.
5. Authority granted for removal of restrictions from two acres of unalloyed land in each school district for school purposes.
6. Authority given to sell certain Cheyenne reserve lands, with preferential rights to adjoining property owners.
7. Authority given to sell 640 acres of Cheyenne lands to El Reno for school purposes.
8. Acts passing quieting town lot titles at Dewey and at Hartshorne.
9. Acts passed granting a 10-acre park to Enid, a town block to Alva, and a town block to Woodward.
10. Authority obtained to offer unsold Kiowa, Comanche and Apache land under the Act of June 5, 1906, with special rights to vendees to acquire immediate title.
11. Act passed to allow 160 acres to each Kiowa, Comanche and Apache child born since previous allotment.
12. Authority to pay outstanding chickasaw and Choctaw warrants bought for valuable consideration without fraud.
13. Senate passed Act authorizing Osages to bring suit for civilization fund, $800,000; failed in House.
14. An Act authorizing moneys forfeited by bidders on Kiowa, Comanche and Apache lands, where such payment involved an honest mistake, to be refunded.
15. An Act authorizing sale of one-half section of land adjoining Lawton, 20% of proceeds to be used to build court house and post office at cost not exceeding $100,000.
16. Authority granted to turn over to Lawton, Hobart and Anadarko unexpended balance town lot proceeds.
17. An Act (May 27, 1908) removing restrictions in allotted lands of the Five Civilized Tribes, removing restrictions on about 9,000,000 acres, with authority in the Secretary of the Interior to remove the restrictions on the entire remainder of unalloyed lands. This Act would add probably $200,000,000 to the tax schedules of Oklahoma.
18. The right of eminent domain was made to apply to all allotted or restricted lands for public road purposes.
19. The authority of the Oklahoma Courts to complete control over minors was recognized.
20. Provision was made that Indians may lease their restricted lands for agricultural purposes for five years without the consent of the Secretary of the Interior, except homesteads, which could not be leased for a longer period than one year without the consent of the Secretary.

Senator Owen Introduced Bills of Public Importance

1. To appropriate $500,000 for improvement of the Arkansas river in Oklahoma (S.3,417)
2. Senator Owen obtained legislative authority for a Government survey of the Arkansas river to Tulsa, with a view to its improvement, as a part of the general system. Later he assisted in securing two large dredge boats to begin the improvement of the Arkansas front he Mississippi up toward Oklahoma (36 Stats. L. 651)
3. Various bills to erect public buildings at Alva, Anadarko, Ardmore, Bartlesville, Chickasha, El Reno, Enid, Lawton, McAlester, Muskogee, Vinita and Woodward.
4. Bill to elect Senators by direct vote of the people (S. J. Res. 91)
5. To establish a Department of Labor (S. 7,266)
6. To pay interest on the Cherokee funds (S. 4,051)
7. To establish a road from Fort Gibson to the National Cemetery (S. 3,424)
8. Bill for the relief of the people of Hartshorne (S. 4,289)
9. Bill providing for the Initiative and Referendum (7,208)
10. Bill extending time to purchasers of Kiowa, Comanche and Apache Fort Sill lands (S. 4,290)
11. Bill to pay loyal Creeks (S. 3,424)
12. Bill for the relief of the Miami Indians (S. 3,422)
13. Bill limiting speculative loans by national banks (S. 3,984)
14. Bill providing for insurance of national bank deposits (S. 3,988)
15. Bill to provide a Home for Aged and Infirm Indians in Oklahoma (S. 3,420)
16. Bill to establish Indian Training School in Oklahoma (S. 3,421)
17. Bill to establish fish hatcheries in Oklahoma (S. 3,426)
18. Bill extending payment on town site lots (S. 3,995)
19. Bill granting lands to Oklahoma (S. 7,057-7,178)
20. Bill conferring jurisdiction on Court of Claims to ascertain Osage Civilization Fund (S. Res. 67)
21. Bill for the relief of purchasers of town lots of Pawhuska (S. 6,795 and 7,207)
22. Bill to establish fish hatchery at Platt National Park (S. 4,293)
23. Bill to penalize false entries of public moneys (S. 5,854)
24. Bill prohibit stock gambling (S. 5,678)
25. Bill to establish public schools for children in Quapaw Agency (S. 5,779)
26. Bill providing for erection of statue of Sequoyah at Washington (S. 3,425)
27. Bill to adjudicate rights of persons who formerly held town lots in Sulphur, Oklahoma (S. 6,741-7,206)

Sen. Owen Printed Senate Documents for Distribution:

1. The Oklahoma Constitution (S. Doc. 1,006)
2. Resolutions of the Trans-Mississippi commercial Congress favoring experimental farms west of Mississippi river (S. Doc. 162)
3. Memorial of Tonkawa Indians (S. Doc. 206)
4. Memorial of Creek Indians (S. Doc 310)
5. Report as to disbursement of the funds of the five Civilized Tribes (S. Doc. 825, 61st Congress, third session).

Senator Robert L. Owen

Senator Owen was elected Secretary of the Democratic conference and was assigned tot he following committees: Indian Affairs, Public Lands, Territories, Post Offices and Post Roads, Pacific Islands and Porto (sic) Rico, MississippiRiver and its Tributaries, Indian Depredations, and Civil Service and Retrenchment.

On February 25, 1908, Mr. Owen spoke in the Senate for four hours on the Aldrich bill providing for emergency currency. This speech is reported in 108 columns of the Congressional Record, beginning at page 2,427. Owen voted against the conference report on the Vreeland-Aldrich Bill and opposed its passage on May 30, 1908 (Record 7,260). He also advocated the direct election of Senators May 23, 1908, and compelled a vote to be taken in the Senate for the first time on this proposition (Record 6,806). He pressed it again in the 61st Congress in an elaborate argument. This contest resulted -- in the 62nd Congress -- in passing through the Senate a measure providing for the election of Senators by direct vote of the people (June 12, 1911, Record 1,921).

You can click on the link at the beginning to read the rest of the story that continues to the second session (7 Dec. 1908 to 4 Mar 1909); Mar 15 to August 5, 1909; December 6, 1909 to June 25, 1910; and Dec. 5, 1910 to Mar. 4, 1911; Dec. 4, 1911 to Mar. 1912.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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