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Show REPORT OF THE CONMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. XIlI The treaty of the same year with t.he Choctaws and Chickasaws goes much further, and announces the desirability of allotments in the fol-lowing words : Whereas the land ocoupied bythe Chaet;~w and Chiokasaxv Natioua * " * is . now held by the members of said nations ineommon; and whereas it is believed that the allotting of said land in severslty will promote the gelleral civilization of said nations and tend to advance their permanent welfare and the best interests of their individnel members, it is hereby agreed that should the Choctaw and Chiokasaw people, through their respectilie legislative councils, agree to tho survey and dividing their land an the system of the United States; &o. Theu follows in detail a complete system of regulations prescribing the methods to he pursued in making the division-surveying, plotting, giving notice, registering, enteriug, etc., and fixing 160 acres as the quantity of land to be assigned to each member of the two tribes. The treaties above referred to and also the treaties with the Seminoles and Creeks all provide for the holding of a general council to be com-posed of delegates from each tribe in the Territory, and the Choctaw and Chickasaw treaty further provides that -this general council shall elect a Delegate to Congress, whenever Congress shall authorize the ad-mission into its body of an official who shall represent the Indian Ter-ritory. Thus it will be seen that more than twenty years ago a Territorial form of government and the extension of the United Statesland system over the Indian Territory was anticipated and prepared for both by the Indians and the Government. Now that the privileges contingently provided for them have been guaranteed to nearly all other tribes in the country, it is high time that these .civilized tribes in their own coun-cils should take up the project.of alloting lands and provide for carpy-ing it into effect. If they will take the matter up now, the snggestions of progressive Indians as to the plans tb be pursued in the settlement and division of the territory and the dissolving of tribal ownership, . will receive ready attention from a favorably disposed public. If they refuse to take any such action they set an example to all other tribes derogatory to the influenoe which the Government is entitled to wield over them. Now that other tribeshitherto designated as wild tribes are about to take theirlands in severalty, and areanxious to do so, it would he saying but little in behalf of the. advancement made by the five civilized tribes, to represent that they are unfitted to receive allotme~~ts and to assume the responsibilities of citizens. These nations boast of . possessing some of the wealthiest men iu the country. As I said last year: These people have, in a great measure, paased from a state of barbarism and aav-agery. Many of them areedncated. They have fine ~chools and ohurohes. They are engaged in lucrative bodinesa of various kinds. I? fact, so far aa outward iap-pesrences go, there would eeepl to be very little differenae between their oiviiizstion and that of the States. The Government ha^ defended these men and their wealth with its Army, and it has a ~ i g h to assume that on their part they will fulfill |