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Show OKLAHOMA. 207 a pipe of his " home raisin'," and " interviewed" him as to the situa-tion. He had been a Union Cherokee ; took a hundred men out of here by night in the fall of ' 61 ; went North and became a captain; came back after the war, to find his house and fences burned, and all his stock run off some to Kansas, some to Texas. " Was rich afo' the war ; derned poor now, but gittin' started again. Hated the loss of my sheep wuss'n any thing else fine bloods couldn't get others like ' em." At dark, fagged and heated, we reached the widow's. She was a bright, half- blood Cherokee, and entertained us till late bed- time with accounts of " the old nation in Geaugey." and their fights and troubles till they were sent here. Thence we traveled on to Tahlequah, the Cherokee capital, a pretty town of perhaps eight hundred people. Our first acquaintance was with William Boudinot, brother of the Elias Boudinot who has been so active at Washington pushing the Okla-homa Bill. William is editor of the Cherokee Advocate, official organ of the Nation, published in English and Cherokee, and a handsome, well- conducted sheet. The Choctaws also have a small paper called the Vindicator, these being the only papers published in the Territory. Tahlequah was for us rich in historic interest, and we spent three days most delightfully among the curious old records of the Nation, here preserved. The Cherokees represent the best history and the highest hope of the Indian race. If they are a failure, the race can not be civil-ized the aborigine is doomed. They have been an organized nation with constitution and written laws for eighty years ; far back of that they were superior to all neighboring tribes. The oldest printed law I can find bears date of Broom's Town ( in Georgia), llth Sept. 1808, and is as follows : KESOIAT ED, by the Chiefs and Warriors in a National Council Assembled: . . . When any person 1 or persons which may or shall be charged with stealing a horse, and upon conviction by one or two witnesses, he, she, or they, shall be punished with one hundred stripes on the bare back, and the punishment to be in proportion for stealing property of less value ; and should the accused person or persons raise up with arms in his or their hands, as guns, axes, spears, and knives, in opposition to the regulating company, or should they kill him or them, the blood of him or them shall not be required of any of the persons belonging to the regulators from the clan the person so killed belonged to. Accepted: BLACK Fox, Principal Chief. PATHKILLER, Second Chief. TOOCHALAR. CHAS. HICKS, Secretary to Council. Other acts bear the signatures of Ehnautaunaueh, Secretary; and " Turtle- at- home, Speaker of Council." The constitution of May 6, |
