Ranch and Range in Oklahoma Page: 20
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allowing C.W. Turner to hold cattle because Turner's Indian citizenship
had not been definitely established. The Creeks were in U.S. courts well
into the 189os trying to maintain their right to regulate the Indian Terri-
tory cattle business to their advantage. They argued that "in no civilized
country on earth is a man allowed to have and exercise property rights
without being subject to the laws of the country that allows the exercise
of these rights."3 All that seemed to be required to protect native stock
raising while gaining revenues from outsiders was a careful set of regula-
tions and "good men, men who will not take any rash acts, men of cool
minds, of good character and men who will at the same time ... see that
the law is executed."4 Even without "cool minds" there could be some suc-
cess, as was clear from the effective Shawnee policy. "If they [the Shawnees]
found that cowmen had come in to take their cattle," said a neighboring
Seminole, "they surrounded them with pistols and drove out such cattle
as belonged to them, and then said, 'You go along; we will have nothing to
do with you.'"" After all the Indians had a fee simple title to their land
which they believed would be respected as the result of the price paid in
human suffering at the time of the 183os removals. "For God sake," said
Choctaw chief Coleman Cole, "when we bought this country, we did not
buy the white man with it."s
But, as with most things, the regulation of the cattle business was not as
simple as it first appeared. For one thing, the regulatees were uncooperative.
L. B. Bell, appointed tax collector under the Cherokee law, was threatened
both by white cattlemen and by other Cherokees who hoped to make
speculative gains from Kansas cattle by taking individual title to grazing
land. It seemed that everyone claimed to be an exception to the rules.
Hunter and Evans did not think ranchers providing annuity beef for
treaty obligations should be taxed. Turner and Parkinson wrote to Creek
chief Ward Coachman in 1879 that they held a license from the Commis-
sioner of Indian Affairs to buy and trade livestock in three Indian nations,
that they employed Creek herders to the benefit of the Indians and would
be unable to round up all their cattle to depart even if the Creek govern-
ment decided to expell them for violating tribal law. C. W. Turner noted
that the cattle legislation mentioned no specific time for collecting the tax,
so he would pay when ready. E. Burt, an agent appointed by the U.S. for
3 Samuel Checote to House of Kings and Warriors, October 19, 1880, Creek Pastures and
Stock File, Indian Archives; S. S. Fears to National Council, October 23, 1893, ibid.
4 L. C. Perryman to Temage Cornells, August 29, 1892, ibid.
5 United States Senate, 49th Congress, ist Session, Report 1278, pp. 164-66.
6 Indian Journal (Muskogee, Indian Territory), February 6, 1878.20
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Ranch and Range in Oklahoma (Book)
Reprint of a book containing historical information about ranching in Oklahoma during the cattle drive era, as well as maps showing the different cattle drive trails that ran from Texas through Oklahoma. Index begins on page 122.
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Skaggs, Jimmy M. Ranch and Range in Oklahoma, book, 1983; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc862888/m1/30/: accessed April 24, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; .