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Show REPORT OF COhL?IISSIONER OF INDIAN bFFAIES. vn Now this condition of semi-slivery, shall I call it, exists in emh of the five civilized nations, and grows directly out of the holding of lands in common, and is necessarily inherent in this system of tenantry. Agent Owen, in his report, page 167, says: The Wmhits Valley in the Chickassw Nation is almost a solid farm for 50 miles. It is cultivated by white labor largely, with Chickasaw landlords. I saw one farm there said to oontain 8,000 sores, another 4,000, and many other large and handsome places. I have endeavored to obtain some reliable data as to the number of farms containing 1,000 acres which exist in the five tribes. I t did not occur to me that eight times that amount of rich valley land had been appropriated by one proprietor, that another owner had 4,000 acres, and that there were <%any other very large and handsome placesn in the same valley, emh owned by individual proprietors, but all being tribal lands. A system of laws and customs, where tribal relations exist and lands are owned in common, which permits one Indiau to own so large. a quantity of land, to the exclnsion of all other Indians, merely because he was first tooccupy it or because he inherited it from his father who occupied it originally, when a11 other Indians have equal tribal rights with the happy and fortunate possessor, needs radical reformation. Are these the sacred rights secured by treaty, mhich the United States are pledged to respect and defend8 If so, then the United States are pledged to uphold and maintain a stupendous land monopoly and aristocracy that finds no parallel in this country except in two or three localities in the far West j and in these instances it may be said that the titles are clear (having been obtained by purchase from the Government), however questionable may be the policy which makes it possible for one man to own unlimited quantities of land. How many Indians who have beenless provident than these gentlemen who have been shrewd enough to fence up thousands of acres in one farm, and whose claim extends a quarter of a mile in width around the already mammoth estate, are eking out a miserable existence npou some bar-ren homestead, or, worse still, are living by suilerance as day laborers on these large estates, although they own their tribal share of these lauds which they are too poor, weak? and powerless to secure or demand I I have no documentary statistics from which I can form an accurate idea of the proportion of the population in the severill nations who are hireling day-laborers; but I have been personally informed by very intelligent resident citizens that the rat'io of this class in the 'Cherokee Nation, including those who ~ultivat~lees s than five acres, is one-sixth of the whole; among the Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Creeks about one-fourth j and that among the Seminoles the ratio is even larger. So it ia clear that a large part of the population in each oE these nations-held down below the common level of their own race by stress of pov-ertj- and the weight of daily necessities, unable by reason of present misfortunes to avail themselves of any opportunity or means to possess |