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Show VIII REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. themselves of their equal distributive shares of lands, and to so utilize them as to place their families upon a higher social and financial plane-- needs some potent influence or power to dispel this system and estab-lish a new order of things-in a word, to raise np the down-trodden people to their proper level. It is undeniable that the five civilized tribes look to the Indian Office, under the intercourse laws, only for protection from the aggression of white intrusion. In no other particular do they respect or consult the authority of the Government. The United States Army has stood guard over these Indians for fifty years, shielding and protecting them from the grasp of the frontiersman and the settler. Yet they have not seconded the endeavors of the Government toinduce among the various tribes a general spirit of taking allotments by setting the example them-selves. This does not seem a grateful remembrance of the sacrifices the American people hare made for their protection, in submitting to an annual tax of many millions of dollars to support and maintain an Army, without which the Indian Territory wonld have been reckoned long ago among the things that were. Allotments.-The following table shows the amount of land held by each of the five civilized tribes in the indian Territory, and the amount to which eaoh individual would he entitled were the lands of his tribe equally divided and allotted in severalty: - Cbmokeea* ....................................................... 5 031 851 22,000 228- Creeks ...................................................... d 04d 495 1% 000 217- Chioknsaws ....................................................... 4: 650: 035 6.000 775- Choataws ........................................................ 6,688,000 18,000 417- Seminoles ........................................................ 375,000 3,000 125 -- ' Erclosive of lands nest of the Arkansas River. The foregoing table demonstrates the fmt that if in each of the five nations each head of a family and each adult person should be allowed 160 acres, and each minor child 80 acres, there would still remain a large surplus of unallotted land. The practioal proposition which it seems to me would be best for these Indians would he to divide their lands in severalty upon the basis I have suggested, or upon some other reasonable basis, and to sell the remainder to actual settlers at a fair and just price. The proceeds of the sales of these surplus lands wonld enable the very poor of whom I have spoken and for whom I plead-the laborers at $16 per month-to fence and improve their allotments, erect buildings and barns, set out orchards, and prepare themselves to live as they are entitled to live, owning as they do lands sufficient for homesteads for every one. There would also be sufficient funds to put np suitable school buildings and establish good perma-nent schools in every settlement or district. If this course is pursued |