The Federal supervision of the Five Civilized Tribes has rested in Commissioner J. George Wright and Dana H. Kelsey, Superintendent of the Union Agency. These men have been years in the Service. They have shown high integrity, tact and wisdom in handling a most delicate situation. Under them are employed hundreds of persons—District Agents, teachers, clerks, farmers, matrons, etc. Because of the rapid expansion of the oil industry in Oklahoma and the discovery of new fields, many of the Indian allotments have become very valuable. Naturally, these are coveted by white men who never seek Indian property unless it is valuable. In this connection I wish to call attention to what, in Oklahoma, is considered a great joke on certain white men. Before the discovery of oil, these men secured, where possible, large tracts of rich agricultural land. The hilly sections were allotted to the more ignorant Indians, the shrewder selected the bottom-lands. Through the irony of fate, the richest oilfields have been discovered in these same hilly or worthless tracts passed up by the first grafters. So, in spite of all that has been done to seize Indian lands, many of the incompetent Indians receive large royalties from the oil wells.[[25]] As these incompetents are under Government supervision, bills to remove restrictions have been agitated. Many of the candidates for Congress ran upon a platform which may be described as anti-Indian—contrary to all State promises, sacredly made. I have original handbills, such as are used in Oklahoma elections. Mr. J. H. Maxey presents his portrait and says:
“The Government Must Pay the Taxes on All Non-Taxable Indian Land”; “The Affairs of the Five Tribes Must Be Settled.” Mr. Reuben M. Roddie is even more frank. Over his picture appears in large letters:—“Pay the Indians Their Money and Remove all Restrictions.” Mr. Roddie was defeated and the Hon. Wm. M. Murray, long a friend of the Indian, was returned to Congress.
Mr. Foreman prepared for me a comprehensive statement of conditions in Oklahoma. It is the best presentation of the subject that I have seen and I herewith include it, in the following eight pages.
“The lands of the Indians were allotted to them with restrictions against alienation or encumbrance. The Creek land was restricted to August 8, 1907; the Choctaw and Chickasaw lands could be sold one-fourth in one year, one-fourth in three years and the remainder in five years from date of patent. The Cherokee land could not be sold for five years. Out of each allotment a homestead was reserved, which under the law allotting it, could not be sold or taxed for twenty-one years. This was a condition agreed to by the Government in order to get the Indians to consent to the allotment of their lands. The Creek, Seminole and Cherokee homestead was 40 acres and the Choctaw and Chickasaw 160 acres. Directly after the allotting began, a great clamor went up from the white people to Congress to remove the restrictions on the sale of a part of the lands allotted. In response to this demand, on April 21, 1904, an act was passed removing the restrictions against the sale of the lands except homesteads of the adult members of the Five Civilized Tribes not of Indian blood, which included mainly freedmen citizens of the tribes and affected 1,500,000 acres of land.
“In the next month, May, 1904, President Roosevelt commissioned Mr. M. L. Mott of North Carolina to act as National Attorney for the Creek Tribe of Indians. This appointment was important to the Indians of the Five Civilized Tribes, for Mr. Mott took a deep interest in their condition and became a forceful advocate for them; he was instrumental in impressing enactments upon the Federal statutes and securing from the Supreme Court constructions of the statutes that are essential to the Indians’ welfare and that will secure to them their property rights for many years beyond the time allotted by local consent.
“Soon after Mr. Mott assumed his duties he observed that a large part of the land made salable by the Act of April 21, 1904, almost immediately had passed into the hands of white people and the grossly inadequate consideration received by the allottees had been wasted. This was food for serious thought.
“In response to a popular demand Congress had removed the restriction against sale three years before the land was to become alienable according to the agreements under which it was allotted. The land and money had been frittered away. Under the law, all restrictions on the sale of all lands of full-bloods and mixed-bloods, except homesteads, of the Creeks, Cherokees, Choctaws, and Chickasaws were to expire by limitation within three or four years. In the light of the experience under the Act of April 21, 1904, it was not difficult to foretell what would happen when these restrictions expired under the impending statehood regime.
“To avert the calamity threatening the Indians, Mr. Mott bent all of his energies to securing an amendment of the law, extending the restrictions against the sale of all Indians’ land. In the face of strong opposition he failed to secure an extension as to mixed-bloods, but Congress was prevailed upon to pass a measure extending until 1931 the restrictions against the sale of all lands of full-blood Indians except under the supervision of the Secretary of the Interior. This was part of an act of April 26, 1906, entitled ‘An Act for the final disposition of the affairs of the Five Civilized Tribes in the Indian Territory, and for other purposes,’ which was framed to adjust conditions for the inauguration of the new State of Oklahoma, then practically assured.
“The section of the Act extending restrictions was known as the McCumber amendment. In urging its passage Senator McCumber read to the Senate an argument by Mr. Mott in which he made the statement that within thirty days after the Act of April 21, 1904, became effective, not ten per cent of the land made salable by that act remained in the hands of the allottees, and within sixty days not ten per cent of the allottees who had sold possessed a dollar to show for the heritage so improvidently disposed of. Senator McCumber and Senator Teller expressed doubt of the constitutionality of the amendment, but impressed by the necessities of the situation solved the doubt in favor of the Indians by voting for its enactment. The wisdom of this measure was vindicated and its constitutionality was established by the United States Supreme Court on May 15, 1911, in the Marchie Tiger case, reported in 221 U. S. Supreme Court Reports, page 738.
“This suit grew out of the fact that after August 8, 1907, conveyances were taken from full-blood Creek Indians on the theory that the McCumber amendment could not prevent it, in that Congress had not the power and had not intended to extend the restrictions to land so purchased. On the advice of Mr. Mott the Council of the Creek Nation made an appropriation for the purpose of testing this contention and authorized the employment of Mr. W. L. Sturdevant of St. Louis, who was retained by Mr. Mott, with the concurrence of the Interior Department, to aid in establishing in the courts the binding force of the McCumber amendment.