Volume 18 , Issue 42

1891 - The Strip Meeting - A Bill Providing For Opening of Cherokee Outlet

We went back to 1891, November 19, Thursday, page 6, of the Weekly Republican-Traveler, Arkansas City, Kansas, for this story of "the Strip Meeting." We find the Opera House crowded with home seekers and speeches delivered by distinguished guests.

Found on Newspapers.com

The Hon. D. A. Harvey, congressional delegate from Oklahoma, was chairman of the convention. One of the speakers introduced was Hon. Sidney Clarke, a man who was too well-known to the people of Kansas and Oklahoma to need any introduction back then. Clarke's address was a concise statement of the legal status of the strip question.

Mr. Clarke's Address
Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention:
On the 11th of February 1891, and near the close of the last session of congress, the committee on the territories of the house of representatives unanimously rerouted a bill providing for the opening of the Cherokee outlet. The first section of the bill provided that the sum of $7,489, 718 be appropriated to the Cherokees to pay for the land. The second section provided that the outlet become a part of the territory of Oklahoma, that it be opened to settlement under the homestead and town-site laws, and requiring each settler to pay $1.25 per acre for the land covered by his entry. Two land district were provided for. it was also provided that until said lands were opened to settlement and entry under the terms of the bill, that no person should be permitted to enter upon and occupy the same with the view of making entry thereof, not should any person, lawfully, within the limits of the lands opened to settlement at the time the same were opened to entry, be permitted to take any advantage by reason of his presence therein, and any persons attempting to violate this provision was prohibited from entering any of said lands or acquiring rights thereto. This was in substance a proposition to open the outlet to settlement by act of congress and without any further negotiant with the Cherokees. A similar bill was favorably reported to the house by the committee on Indian affairs and if either of the bills had been reached for final consideration there is no doubt but what the same would have been passed by a decided majority. The committee on territories submitted an able report to the house, and among other things said:

"A commission was raised and began its work of negotiations with the Cherokees on July 31, 1889. Since then long months have been wasted in efforts to conclude terms with the Cherokees. it must be remembered in this connection that the legislation of March 2, 1889, authorizing the creation of the commission, was the direct result of a desire expressed and statements made by Chief Mayes on February 13, 1889, to the committee on territories of the United States senate, asking that such a commission be created and sent down to the Cherokees.

Under this condition of affairs out commission is hopeless of results from any action of theirs and state to your committee that in their opinion congress alone is adequate to act in the premises. Your committee also feels that it is not improper to state that the secretary of the interior is of the same belief and thinks that the best method of treating with these Indians is by direct action at the hands of congress.

The question of the opening of the lands of the Cherokee outlet to settlement and civilization is the burning proposition of the day in all the great southwest. It is probably the most important question connected with the department of the interior under this administration. it presents the question whether American civilization shall be stayed in its onward progress and a desert of desolation in the heart of the continent be perpetuated through the obstinacy, not of a tribe of 17,000 Indians, but, at best, of a few hundred white men with all the instincts of a white man, but obsessed of more obstinacy than Indians shall, under their claim as Indians, any longer perpetuate themselves in power, and maintain themselves in luxury as leaders of less educated and intellectual members of their so-called Cherokee nation of Indians. Your committee believe that if it were practicable to reach the ordinary Indian fee from the influence of Chief Mayes and his fellows, and submit the proposition directly to the great body of the Indians, a speedy solution and termination of the Cherokee outlet problem would be had; but insomuch as this is impracticable, and the demands of the white citizens of the United States seeking homes for himself and family, are pressing and urgent your committee believe that there is no other mode of solving the problem except for congress, acting for the United States, treating these Indians as wards, shall in the exercise of its judgment and wisdom, declare what is right, and enact a law paying a fair price for these lands.

It will be remembered that the commission referred to by the committee was authorized by congress to make an agreement not only with the Cherokees but with all other Indians owning or claiming lands lying west of the 96th degree of longitude in the Indian Territory for the cession tot he Untied States of all their title, claim or interest of every kind and character in and to the said lands.

At the time this report was made, the commission had concluded agreements with the Sac and Fox, Iowa, Pottawatomie, Absentee Shawnees and Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians for the relinquishment of their claims to their surplus lands, amounting to about 4-million acres and for the settlement of the Indians on lands in severalty. All these lands with the exception of the Cheyenne and Arapahoe have been opened to settlement and the latter will be opened at an early day. Recent agreements have been made with he Tonkawas and Wichitas and agreements will undoubtedly follow with nearly all the remaining tribes within the scope of the authority granted to the commission by the law under which it was appointed.it is reasonably certain that the agreements already made and those yet to be made will be ratified at the coming session congress, and that many million acres of land will be opened to settlement within the present limits of the territory of Oklahoma. This, then, is the status of affairs in relation to the lands south and east of the Cherokee outlet, and the position of the outlet question before congress at its last session. The territorial committee of the house did not state the case too strongly when it declared that "it probably is the most important question connected with the department of the interior under this administration," and that "it presents the question whether American civilization shall be stayed in tis onward progress and a desert of desolation in the heart of the continent be perpetuated." Taking a still broader view of the condition of affairs which existed then, and which exists today in all the country not yet opened to white settlement between Kansas and Texas, the committee might have also declared with tremendous emphasis, and with a statesmanship which comprehends the exigencies of the present and divines the future that it is the paramount duty of the American congress for the restraint of barbarism, for the suppression of crime, for the safety of life and property, for the promotion of education, civilization and progress, for the sake of good government, for the good repute of republican institutions, and for the protection of Indians and whites alike, to extend the geographical boundaries of Oklahoma so as to include all of the old Indian territory, and to provide for the early admission into the union of a great commonwealth, replete with all the elements of wealth and progress. More than300,000 people now occupy this vast area - a section of country larger than the great state of Missouri. Three quarters of the whole number of people are white, only a fraction of the remaining number full blood Indians and all of them entitled tot he protection of local civil government, to the protection of a state, a protection it is impossible to secure under subservient territorial conditions. A territorial government is a nondescript in our political system. It has always conspiciously failed to meet the wants of an intelligent and active population. The territorial government of Oklahoma is not an exception to this rule, and the people of that territory, together with the progressive elements in the five civilized tribes, comprising a population five times as great as the population of the state of Wyoming, will soon ask of Congress for the same emancipation granted to other territories - to be clothed with the panoply of statehood. Surely the state of Kansas, through the work and votes of her present congressional delegation, will support as cordially the admission of Oklahoma as a state, as she supported the admission of six territories as states in the last congress, nearly all of which were of less population and natural resources.

But the opening of the Cherokee outlet to homestead settlement at the ensuing session congress, and without unreasonable delay, is a question not only of local but of national importance. This action is demanded by every consideration of justice and propriety. There has been no proper excuse for keeping the outlet closed since the settlement reached the southern border of Kansas more than twenty years ago. The area of the unoccupied portion of the outlet is 6,022,754 acres, being greater than that of several of the states of the Union. It is not my purpose here to discuss at any length the character of the title to these lands. Three attorney-generals of the United States, three eminent judges of United States courts, the present secretary of the interior, several committees of congress, and many leading lawyers of the country in congress and out, substantially agree that "the Cherokee Indians were never given by the United States government anything more than an easement or the right to travel over and upon the surface of lands of the Cherokee outlet to the great hunting grounds of the west, which easement is now forfeited by non-use, not having been traveled upon since 1855 for hunting purposes to the great west by the Cherokees." The truth is the Cherokee Indians never possessed any of the elements of sovereignty. Such a claim is preposterous and contrary to the genius of our institutions. In the language of Secretary Noble to the Indian commission, "The United States must be sovereign within the limits of its own territory." The Cherokees have no right to complain if congress in its wisdom shall open the strip to settlement by direct legislation. They have always been treated with extraordinary leniency by the government. Whatever may have been the laches of the government with other Indians with the Cherokees there has been no "Century of dishonor." They have grown rich under the protesting care of our liberal laws and our profuse liberality and forbearance. They failed to stand by the government in our great civil war, and came back at its close to be rehabilitated in all their rights and possessions. The government has even used its army to preserve the status of the easement to the outlet, while at the same time the Cherokees were openly defying the law prohibiting the leasing of the land. More than one administration has tolerated this defiance, more than one congress has neglected to rebuke it and the record shows that while all attempts at white settlement have been promptly suppressed, the Cherokees have had but little regard for the laws and treaties and have entirely failed to comprehend the obligations imposed upon them. AT this time a law is in force authorizing the Cherokee commission to offer $7,487,718 for the outlet which is $1.25 per acre, notwithstanding it was appraised under the act of congress at only 47.49 cents per acre, in fact, this offer has been made and rejected, undoubtedly by the inspiration of the cattle syndicates, who are indignant at Secretary Noble in his just action in expelling them from the outlet, and with the hope on the part of the Indians and their attorneys that at least $3 per acre can be extorted from the government.

Every good citizen of this country - and especially the people of the great west who know what it costs to take up and make a home on the public domain, should protest against such a monstrous scheme to rob the public treasury.

If the Cherokees recall their refusal to accept $1.25 per acre as now authorized by law, that will settle the question and the opening to settlement will follow. If they still refuse that just and liberal offer - that great donation - which is largely in excess of what they ought to have, then congress should at once pass a bill authorizing the settlement of the outlet under the homestead law, leaving the Cherokees to assert in the courts any legal claim they can establish for compensation for their shadowy title.

The Cherokee lawyers, the Cherokee officials and the Cherokee delegations at Washington are persons of great assumption. During the pendency of the Oklahoma controversy I frequently met them before the committees of congress and found them profound students of craft, cunning and flagrant misrepretentations. They were the head and front of the opposition to the organization of the territory of Oklahoma, though they had no interest in the Oklahoma land, and were not in any sense parties to the controversy.

We call them Indians. The fact is they are white or mostly white people and their ability to make the worst appear the better cause is not excelled by any race or tribe of people on this continent. In the blazing light of our marvelous civilization with all its innumerable blessings and benefits a petty tribe of scarcely more than 20,000 people assert the prerogatives of national sovereignty, maintain communistic habits and customs, obstruct the transportation and commerce of surrounding states and territories and antagonize the laws and purposes of the United States government.

[Click on the link above to read more of Clarke's speech concerning the opening of the Cherokee Outlet.]
  |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

---