Canadian Advertiser. (Canadian, Indian Terr.), Vol. 6, No. 45, Ed. 1 Friday, July 6, 1900 Page: 3 of 4
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A Choctaw Paper.
Until further notice this page of
the Canadian Advehtiser will be
at the disposal of the Choctaw
voters to discuss political ques-
tions. All communications in-
tended for this department should
be addressed to J. P. Connors,
Canadian, I. T.
No attention will be paid to
articles of an abusive character,
we have troubles of our own and
want no part in the scraps of
others. If you have been injured
by another and are too cowardly
to resent, turn the job over to
your wife.
CHOCTAW SCHOOLS
The following is a list of the
Choctaw schools that were estab-
lished and maintained in Tobucksy
eounty during the year 1897, also
the number of pupils attending
each during that year:
Name of school. No. of pupils
Allen - - • 15
Attwood - - -Id
Calvin - - 10
Choate - - 11
(Jaither - - - 8
Indianola - - 11
Leader • - 0
McAlester, 1'rcs. academy 21
McAlester, "Kendall" - 27
l'erryville - 15
1'axon 9
Ho. McAlester. "Kelly" - 1(1
Ho. McAlester, "Uozelle" - (1
Bo. Canadian - - .'II
Htuart - - 11
Halt Creek • - 11
Havanna • - 8
Zion 13
Total - 2-" l
These 254 pupils were CIiocIuwh
vouched for by the local trie le oi'
the above named It) schools, and
passed upon by the county court
as required by the Choctaw laws.
There were also 7(5 children of
Freedmeu who attended school at
5 schools in Tobucksy county dur- j
ing the year '897, These were |
also vouched fur in the manner
provided by the Choctaw lftws.'
Will some of our Tuskahoma
friends publish a correct 1 st of the i
cause the county now has within
its Units several good railroad
towns. But the present school
system (so calledi seems to "do
em" all alike.
In the face of these conditions,
the Choctaw people are constantly
reminded of the beauties of the
Atoka Agreement, especially the
"School System" as provided in
said agreement. It is about time
the Choctaw people were asking
themselves whether they have not
been buncoed in this so called
agreement. Is the benefits now
derived by them in school service
sufficient to recompense them for
the cloud placed upon their lands
by the coal clause of the agree-
ment? And if unsatisfactory now,
woe he imto them after the Sec-
retary of the Interior reduces the
royalty on coal again, as ho is at
this time reported to be preparing
to do. The Secretary of the In-
terior has it in his power to reduce
the royalty to I mill per ton, and
we need not be surprised to see il
reach that point within live years.
Then where will be the magnifici-
cnt school fund boasted of by our
Tiislikahoinn friends?
Hut they will tell you the Secre-
tary will never do this. Well let
us see. During the short time
since the Agreement lias been rati-
j fieri lie lias reduced the royalty
from 15 cents per ton, to 8 cents
per ton, and we are told he is now
considering a proposition to still
further reduce it to (i cents per ton.
And ax far as any report the ('hoc-
taw people have ever had from the
Secretary of the Interior as to what
he is doing with their money; it
may bo possible we are not receiv-
ing any royalty on coal at present.
As the Agreement provides that lie
is to reduce the royalty only for
the benefit of the Choctaw#, it
seems a little strange that he does
not consult them irimut reducing
the royalty, but he does not.
The TufriikahoiPHS are placing
great stress on the fact that the
Agreement carried by a majority
of 11101. ft did. It was that or
wo'se, and the people e'teone the
lesser of two evils. Hut if thev
had known that the Secretary
the Indian Citizen denounced the FOR SHERIFF.
man who had once abused the
poor whiskey. After the Tushka- We are authorized to announer
homa Convention the Indian cab Ellis Auolatuhhce as un independ-
zen denounced^ the whiskey ent candidate for thtvoffice of Sher-
abusing the poor man. Circ
stances alters eases, even with ti
ever constituted Indian Citizen.
Iff of i Tttbncksy County, at the
electifrbw be held on the first
Weiln^&.'ly in August 19(H).
LOST OR STRAYED.
Strayed from our
premises at Atoka on
the 23rd day of April
1897, one choice
milch cow, called
"Choctaw Govern-
ment." This cow
left our premises
while we were at-
tending a meeting of
the MUTUAL ADMIR-
ATION SOCIETY.
In her place we
found a clumsy made
cow called, Atoka
Agreement, "Tush-
our hands will be lib-
erally rewarded. If
the finder has any
doubt about having
the right cow, he can
quickly settle that
matter by taking the
cow to McAlester
and showing our
cow's bald faced cal?
to her, if she is ours
she will bigin giving
milk at once. Our
poor cow has been'
giving milk for this
lazy calf for many
years, regardless of
the fact that she has
a
MINORITY STATEMENT OF DR. E. N. WRIGHT.
kahomas Daughter,". . ... . .
c- au a* DMi > 'had nothing but
Sired by "Curtis Bill. j. . , Tu
n 1 x a a. buse in return. The
For a short time Ato= . .. .
* t . old cow gives milch
ka Agreement, the... A , .
6 ... the year round, and
new cow, gave a lit- ,
tie milk, but she has
almost "dried up" on
our hands. In fact
I she has a disagree-
able habit oi' "hold-
ing up" her milk. ington, I).
We want our old 5 j
cow returned to us,
we have an annual
milching at Tushka-
homa every October.
The finder may ad-
dress us at Wash-
. , , I would in one short year deprivi
number of Choctaw pupils who .. . .... . " , .
11 1 them of half ol their school mouev
have been attending the Choctaw-! ... . ,.. ..
. without even consulting them,
schools 111 Tobucksy count v, since' , . ... . .
' . • therobv closing their schools pon-
tile time they went into partner-! ' .. . ..
. , . ' , ..... . ever as far as that fund is concern-
ship with J. George, of Muskokeer
I will guarantee them that the peo-
ple will appreciate their effort,
and a comparison of their list and
the above list, would interest even
tneni. I venture the statement
that the number of Choctaw pu-
pils who attended the schools dur-
ing the year 1900 has been fully
one third less than the number at-
tending said schools during 1897
in Tobucksy county. And the
difference has been even greater
than this, in the Choctaw Nation
taken as a whole.
Not long since, wo inquired of 3(>
Full-bloods, who are the heads of
families, regarding the condition of
the schools in their neighborhoods,
and they all reported that they had
better schools under the manage-
ment of the Choctaw authorities
than they have had since the
''McCurtain School Surrender."
Many of them reported that they
had no schools at all in the coun-
try sections. One full-blood neigh-
borhood about ten miles from a
railroad report that they have
never heard of Benedict, McArthur
or any other school authority dur-
ing the year 1900, and they can
furnish about twenty pupils.
Hon. Josiali Reed, the present
Judge of Gains county, is a man
who has been prominent in the
affairs of his county about 20 years.
I knew him as County Clerk there
about that long ago. When asked
about the condition of the schools
in his county, he reported thai he
might as well state that they had
no schools. That there was a fake
concern at Wilburton which some
people called a school, hut the
Choctaws were not pleased with it.
He stated further that the schools
as managed at present were far in-
ferior to the schools conducted by
the Choctaws 20 years ago. Long
before the advent of railroads or
railroad towns.
This is not as it should be, be-
jand any person or
I persons who will de=!
liver her safely into1
1
C., Sans
Atoka, I.
, or McAlester, I. T.
Yours for milk.
Tushkalio:?ia & Co.
ed, then the majority against that
Agreement would have been 2002
or twice that number. Some of us
would have felt justified in voting
more than once against it. If voti
do not believo this, just give them
a chance to vote on it again. Tiiky
know mow. Thev were toi.d
then.
One of the Tushkahonia papers
state that "McCurtain must have
had a jceniiny fiit" when he dis-
covered Dr. Wright's ability. Poor
Green, he was hardly resp<msible
for his actions when Ik: had those
fits. It must have been while lie was
having one of those lits that he got
tired of his job helping run the
Choctaw schools, and decided to
turn thein over to the Secretary of
the Interior. At another time
when licj was having one of those
fits he signed an order for 100
charts to be used in the Choctaw
schools, when the charts came they
proved to be useless, but the bill
of $7.00 per chart, or 8700.(X) for
the 100 charts was of use to the
book peoplp, and when they pre-
senile! it to Green for payment, he
said, "Well I thought Hhisc
things would cost about twenty
cents apiece." But that was paid
with the people's money, and
Greens fit did not hurt him much.
Canadian celebrated the 4th of
July in the old fashioned way.
Big crowd, Barbecue, Baseball,
Heading of the Declaration of In-
dependence, Orations, etc. etc.,
too numeration to mention. Among
the many prominent Choctaws
present were Daniel Hell, Aaron
Arpalur, Hen Alberson, Allen
Archibald, all coming quite a dis-
tance to celebrate with us.
Before and After.
Before the Ardmore Convention
We offer at private sale several
large roomy buildings formerly used
as Academies for Choctaw students.
The Secretary of the Interior has so
reduced the royalty on coal that we
have no money to conduct these
schools with.
When the Secretary kindly favors
us with another reduction of the coal
royalty (for our benefit) we will then
have several neat neighborhood
school buildings for sale, as we will
have no further use for them.
Address,
Tushkahoma & Co.
ATOKA, I. T., DEC. 22, 1890.
To the Honorable Dawes Com-
mission:
Sirs: In accordance with my
statement made to your honorable
body at the signing of the negotia-
tions made between your Commis-
sion, on the part of the United
States, and the Choctaw Commis-
sion, on the part of the Choctaw
Nation, at Muskogee, Dec. 18th
1890, I hereby submit my reasons
for not signing said agreement.
Under the law creating our
Commission to negotiate with your
Commission everything of value
including our government was
placed in our hands to make the
best terms possible, that our peo-
ple might lie protected in their
property ii;iht^. This I under-
stand was als i tho design of the
government you represent. I
must lie candid in saving that the
desire of neither id' the govern-
ments was carried out in these
negotiations, and I hereby submit
my reasons fir this conclusion.
1st. Ill the allotment of lands,
the reserving of the mineral in-
terests, and the placing of them in
trust in the government of the
United States for an unlimited
time, the revenues on the same to
be used for the education of Indian
children, is impracticable. For
our mineral interest'', especially
coal, cover fully one third of our
country. And taking into con-
sideration tiie possible demands
for coal which would be supplied
from this Territory, 1 believo lean
state without contradiction that u
thousand years hence will still find
coal fields unworked, when in fifty
or a hundred years hence it will be
as ditlicult to find an Indian here,
as it is to find wild buffalo on the
Western plains. I am certain the
United States Government would
not care to assume a trust of such
magnitude, and with the possible
chance of continuing for such
long period. Hence it would not
be long before the money arising
from such developments will be
controlled by the State or Terri-
tory, which we will sooner or later
merge into, to bo used, not for the
benefit of the Indian children alone,
but for all races alike, which would
not be just.
2nd. In the allotment of our
lands, you reserve the right to use
a sufficient amount of the lands so
allotted, for the development of all
minerals, paying only a small
amount to the individual for the
use or destruction of his or her
lands. This will not be approved
by the Choctaw people, for the fol-
lowing reasons:
While in our last campaign plac-
ing the question of allotment be-
fore our people, they were led to
accept it on the promise that when
they received their land in allot-
ment, and received a patent in fee
simple tu it, they would then be
protected, and permitted to enjoy
their rights in tiieir lands. This
your ('oinm'ss on promised when
you addressed the Choctaw people
on this subject. But through
these propositions you are placing
every citizen w h.> may have any-
thing of value ill the lands allotted
to him, in a position to be molest-
ed at any time a company or cor-
poration may desire to develop
said minerals, gas or oil, and at a
small remuneration to said Choc-
taw citizen, even though he may
have said lauds iu a high state of
cultivation, thereby making all de-
velopment* on his part insecure.
Thus you will defeat what I con-
sider the most important question
lo our people, viz: a just allotment
of lands.
3rd. The provisions as to town-
sites, I think, are too indefinite
and place too much power in the
hands of the commission and leave
revenues to be derived by the
Choctaw people from the sale of
such town-sites too uncertain and
speculative. And I am certain
you will array against our national
interests all people who have,
through our laws, built substantial
homes and improvements. The
citizens of the towns in the Terri-
tory, have been an important factor
in asking Congress for protection,
and have succeeded in their efforts.
Their opposition to this provision
will be another means to stay the
important question of allotment.
4th. The Coal companies, who
through the laws of compress and
our own laws have been induced
to invest millions of dollars to de-
velop said coal; and er< whom we
have been, and are now principal-
ly dependent for revenues to carry
on our government and schools,
are, through the policy outlined in
this agreement, which is very rad-
ical, and makes their investment
insecure, compelled to seek relief
at the hands of congress; which is
another condition that will tend to
defeat the agreement, and with it
the question of allotment.
5th. We were instructed under
our law to settle all claims as to
lands and moneys, that exist be-
tween our government and the
United States from treaty stipula-
tions, believing thst when our tri-
bal government becomes extinct
we will be unable to get such set-
tlements. The principal claim be-
ing what is known as the Leased
District (comprising the Kiowa and
Comanche country, the Wichita
reservation) and Greer County,
which has lately been decided by
the United States Supreme Court,
as not belonging to Texas, but to
the Choctaw.". This, your Com-
mission declined to treat on, but
finally agreed that wo might sub-
mit all our claims to the Senate of
the United States as a board of
arbitrators. Thus you are forcing
our people into the hands of at-
torneys who will appear before the
Senate in behalf of our claims, and
who several years ago, in 1889 I
think, secured legislation in our
Council that would allow them 25
per cent of all moneys arising from
the sale of these lands, comprising
something over five million acres
of laud; which, at a dollar and a
quarter an acre, will, after deduct-
ing the Chickasaw's one fourth in-
terest, give thein over a million
dollars, or about sixty dollars per
capita if divided among our people.
One of the principal objects of our
negotiating was to save this great
expense, and we were led to be-
lieve by your honorable body,
that this could be done. It is but
right to save this expense, and
strictly from a business standpoint,
we should have a complete settle-
ment of all claims, which I am
sure your government desires.
(itli. In these agreements, you
permit us to continue our govern-
ment for a period of eight years;
still you force us to place the
greater portion of our revenues iu
the hands of your government for
school purposes, thereby depriving
our government of the necessary
funds to run it, unless we establish
a tax system, which will be a hard-
ship on our people in face of the
great expense every citizen will be
compelled to bear on account of the
contemplated change in locating
his lands.
7th. My last reason is the great
haste in which the negotiations,
which look to the settlement of an
estate of such magnitude, was eon-
sumated. To settle an estate
equitably which involves the rights
of fifteen thousand souls, which es-
tate covers over six million acres
of land, in less than a month, is
height of folly. Our Commission
was placed in a very embarrassing
position by the threats made by
you that if we did not come to
terms before the holidays, you
would go back to Washington and
nmke an adverse report which
would probably be followed by
radical legislation on the part of
congress. But I did not think,
nor do I yet believe, congress or
the President of the United States,
desire that we should treat so im-
portant a question in such a hap-
hazard way. Being one of the
parties most prominent in asking
our people to authorize negotia-
tions with your commission, I
could not, taking intb consider-
ation my reasons above stated,
conscientously affix my name to
said agreement, nor can I ask the
Choctaw people to ratify the same.
I am confident however that negu
tiations can lie made that will be
satisfactory to both Governments,
but more time must be given to
accomplish it, and I will surely
advocate such a course.
Very Respectfully,
K. N. WRIGHT, Commissiokeb.
A at, ...
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Tignor, J. D. Canadian Advertiser. (Canadian, Indian Terr.), Vol. 6, No. 45, Ed. 1 Friday, July 6, 1900, newspaper, July 6, 1900; (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc275737/m1/3/: accessed April 26, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.