OCR Text |
Show COXMISSIONER OF ISDIAN AFFAIES. . Ixi family, this being the amount wl~iuh tile treaty of 1866 provided should be paid per capita, to freedmen to defray the expense of their removal from the Chickasaw Nation. (5) That all freedmen who do not elect to remove permanently from the nation "shall be placed upon the sa!ue footing as oilier citizens of the United States, resident in said natio~r,a nd shall be subject to re-moval therefrom for similar causes." (6) That to such freedmen as shall remove allotments in severalty in Oklahoma shall be made in accordance with the provisions of the gen-eral allotmeilt act. (7) Thxt $77,375 shall be appropriated tom~nl p:lying the $100 per capita to freedmen who remove. In submitting the bill Oommissioller Atkins said: I have iuserted in the proposed bill an appropriation of $77,:375, of which the anm of w,OOO is required to be refunded by the Chickasaws, the whale amount being the aom appropriated by the third article of the treaty of 1866, to be beldin trnfit for the beusfit of the freedmen in case the Indians refused to adopt them. The ntunber of freedmon in the Chickasa\v Natiou is estimated st from 3,000 t* 4,000, bot undoubtedl~s lnrge-number of those resident with the Chiokassns are Choctaw freedmen, and citizens of that nation. It is not probable that the sbovo anuount will be sufficient to remove all the Chickasaw freedmen fro111 that nation, bnt it will be enough for the present, and to test the pr?otic.aWlity of this effort for their relief. The legislation proposed is understood to be seceytable both to the Chiakasaws aud the freedmen, sldbongh the latter would doubtless preferto remain, if they oonld be socorded the rights of oitizanship and scbool facilities. The condition of these people it? unfortunate in the extreme? and jns-t, ice both to them and to the Ohiokasaws demands early action by Oon-gress. CRICKASAW ELECTION TROUBLES. On August 8,'1888, a general eIection was held in the OhiekasawNa-tion, Indian Territory, for the purpose of choosing a governor and other national and county officers of that nation, as provided by the consti-tution and laws thereof. For the.office of governor there were, as appears, two candidates, William M. Guy, the then inc~imbenb, and WilIiam L. Byrd, who represented an opposing faction of the Ohick-asaw people.. It seems that at this election Guy received a small majority of the votes cast,, bnt when the same were transmitted to the speaker of the hollse of representatives of the Ohiekasaw legislature, whose duty it is under the wnstitutiou of that natiou to oanvass the rotes for gov-ernor and to c1eclar.b the election in the presence of both houses of the legislatare, the said legislature threw out certain rotes, thus giving to Eyrtl an apparent majority. Thereupon Guy'a friends claimed that the action of the legislature in '6 counting U ~ r din " \?as unconstitotional, anda very bitter contest was begnn. |