Volume 18 , Issue 43

1895 - Rights of Whites In Chickasha, I.T.

It was in Guthrie Daily Leader, Guthrie, Oklahoma, dated 7 September 1895, Saturday, page 1, we found this headline: "Rights Of Whites." It was concerning the recent methods the Indian police used in collecting the one percent intruders' tax in Chickasha, Indian Territory.

Found on Newspapers.com

Chickasha, I.T., Sept. 6 (1895) -- Judge C. B. Kilgore of the Northern district of the Indian Territory began the first term of the new court yesterday with the following charge tot he grand jury concerning the recent methods the Indian police used in collecting the one percent intruders' tax:

'The citizens of the United States are in the Indian territory by sufferance, by permission in the nature of a mild invitation. The Chickasaw nation has the exclusive right to impose terms on people who come here to go into business and has the exclusive right to levy and collect all reasonable taxes on such persons and their business. It can remove persons from the territory who do not comply with such reasonable regulations. But it cannot in its effort to collect taxes from persons in default use more force than is necessary to vindicate the law. Its agents and employees cannot on the pretext of collecting its revenues resolve themselves into a drunken mob and insult women and helpless men and terrorize the community with Winchesters and pistols.

They have no right to so conduct themselves, as to frighten the peaceable and law-abiding people of the town who are pursuing their vocations under authority from the Chickasaw Nation. I apprehend the government of the Untied States will see that her citizens are afforded protection from such outbreaks. It is the duty of the grand jury to make a thorough and impartial investigation of the charges which are made against the employee of the nation in the premises."
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