| OCR Text |
Show REPORT OF TEE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. LXIII I Inasmuch as the Chickasaws seem to have de6,fitely decided iiot to adopt their freedmen, there remains of the $300,000, $17,375, which should be appropriated to assist those freedmen in removing from the Chickasaw country, and there should be recovered from the Chickasaws for the same purpose the $55,125 which has been paid them, and to whicli they have had no shadow of claim. This, with a suih of $2,500, which has already been recouped from the Chickasaws and expended for the education of their freedmen, under the provision of the act of May 17, 1882, quoted above, makes up the Chickasaw one-fourth of the $300,000 named in the treaty. In January last the delegates of the Chickasaw Nation addressed a memorial to the President, in which, after reciting the provisions of the treaty of April 28,1866, with the Choctaws and Chickasaws relative to the freedmen in those nations, and the action of the Chickasaws therc-under, they earnestly asked- 9 The United States to fulfill the treaty of 1866 by romaving without delay to the leased district west of the ninet,y.eighth meridian of longitnde, or to the Oklahorns country, ceded by the Creek treaty of 1866, or elmwhere, all the freodmen who shall consent to sooh removal, and by pleciug all those who shall refuse to go on the same footing as other citizens of the United States in the Chickasaw Nation. During the year seveml complaints have been received from the fr'eedmen relative to the denial of their rights, and particularly as to the utter lack of educational facilities. .Recently Agent Owen h6ld a conference with some of the leading freedmen, at which they expressed a desire to remain in the nation if theip rights, especially in the matter of schools, could be accorded them, but signified their willingness to submit to the decision of the Government. The Chickasaw authorities positively refuse to take any steps looking to their adoption, and even refuse to provide for thkir education. This reluctance to carry out the st,ipnlations of the treaty is doubtless caused in great measure by the fear that the freedmen will outvote the Chickasaws, they being fully as numerous as the Indians. These people, therefore, whose rights, pro-tection, and education were guaranteed by treaty, are left in ignorance, without civil or political rights, and with no hope of improvement. Under these circumstances, I believe their removal from the Nation is thc only practicable method by which they can be afforded eduea-tional and other privileges. It has been decided by Judge Parker, of the district court of the western district of Arkansas, that the United States may settle freedmen belonging to the five civilized tribes upon lands acquired from the Semtnoles and Credks, and Agent Owen sug-gests that the Chickasaw freedmen be removed to that portion of Okla-homa lying on the Canadian river, west of the Pottawatomie re'serva-tion. Many of the freedmen have doubtless made improvements on the lauds which theg! and their fathers have occupied but not possessed ; and if, because they can acquire no title thereto, they are forced to |
