How the Cherokees Acquired and Disposed of the Outlet Berlin B
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Chronicles of Oklahoma Volume 16, No. 2 June, 1938 How the Cherokees Acquired and Disposed of the Outlet Berlin B. Chapman 135 The Part Played by the Enslavement of the Indians in the Removal of the Tribes to Oklahoma Gerald Forbes 163 Notes of a Missionary Among the Cherokees Edited by Grant Foreman 171 The Vigilantes in Early Beaver J. V. Frederick 190 The Founding of the Philosophical Society of Texas Herbert P. Gambrell 197 Nunih Waiya Anna Lewis 214 Governor Benjamin Franklin Overton and Governor Benjamin Crooks Burney John Bartlett Meserve 221 The Saga of Skullyville W. B. Morrison 234 Excitement on the Sweetwater Captain W. S. Nye 241 Minutes 250 Minutes of a Special Meeting of the Oklahoma Historical Society 260 Necrology 261 HOW THE CHEROKEES ACQUIRED AND DISPOSED OF THE OUTLET By Berlin B. Chapman. PART FIVE:—THE CHEROKEES CONCEDE TO A CONTRACT. Page 135 Previous articles of this series dealt with the acquisition of the Outlet by the Cherokees, the complexity of the Cherokee title, the occupation of the Outlet by the cattlemen, and the failure of the Cherokee Commission under the leadership of Lucius Fairchild to purchase the Outlet from the Cherokees in 1889. Moreover it has been explained that in order to induce the Cherokees to concede to sell the lands to the government, President Harrison issued a proclamation ordering the removal by December 1, 1890 of all live stock herded upon the Outlet. It is the purpose of Part Five of the series to relate how the Cherokees on December 19, 1891 conceded to an agreement with the Cherokee Commission ceding to the United States all title and claim to lands between the ninety-sixth and the one hundredth meridians. On December 3, 1890, two days after the provision in President Harrison's proclamation for the removal of all live stock herded upon the Outlet, took effect, the Cherokee Commission began negotiations at Tahlequah.237a The Commission consisted of David Howell Jerome, chairman, Alfred M. Wilson, and Warren G. Sayre. The Cherokees were smarting under the "unreasonable hardship"238 imposed upon them by action of the Pres- 237aThe proceedings of councils the Cherokee Commission held with the Cherokees contain 279 pages and cover the period from December 3 to 26, 1890. They are in the Indian Office, I. S. P., Drawer 8. 238See Chief Joel B. Mayes' annual message to the members of the National Council, November 4, 1890, OIA., Misc. Documents, p. 27061. Mayes said that the Cherokee Strip Live Stock Association had refused to make a payment due the Cherokees on July 1, but that they were more than willing to make it if allowed to occupy the lands. Page 136 ident. Their case in the negotiations of 1890 was left largely to Senator L. B. Bell and Col. Wm. P. Ross whose knowledge of law and facts relative to the Outlet, and whose command of English and cutting logic enabled them to play their role admirably. They did not intend to be left with a mess of pottage when negotiations with the Commission were over. It has been noted that there were matters, not relating directly to land, that the Cherokees thought were as important as the money consideration. The committee representing them was authorized to negotiate for the settlement of all claims with the United States. Throughout the negotiations the committee took time for consideration and for council among themselves so that they could make suggestions and answers as a group and not merely as individuals. On the first day of the negotiations the Commission said plainly that they did not want the committee "to start off with long range firing and written propositions," but to say what they thought.239 On the second day they submitted to the committee an offer of $7,528,442.19 for a cession and relinquishment of all the title, claim, right and interest of the Cherokee nation in and to lands in the Indian Territory west of the ninety-sixth meridian.240 It appears that the Cherokees wanted about twice the amount offered, or two dollars and fifty cents an acre, and "pay" for the Public Land Strip. On December 9 Sayre said that no proposition involving the purchase of, or payment for, the Public Land Strip would be entertained by the Commission. The Commission realized that the lands in the Outlet could be secured at a less price than that asked by the Cherokees.241 "We are here 239Jerome said: "I have lived a good many years and it has been my fortune to have lived a commercial life. I have negotiated for all kinds of interests, lands, railroads, mines, bonds and every conceivable kind of interests and it has been a rule always that everything should be plainly told at the start. That is one of the laws of a commercial and business man that is almost as inflexible as the laws of nature." 240The proposition bearing the signatures of Jerome, Sayre and Wilson is in the Indian Office, 7488 Ind. Div. 1890. It is dated Dec. 4, 1890. 241In council with the Sacs and Foxes June 5, 1890 Sayre said he had been in Washington quite a while during the past winter and knew from those in authority in the matter that no greater price than one dollar and a quarter an acre could be paid to the Cherokees for the Outlet. Sayre said he felt confident that before the Cherokees got through they would accept that price or less. Page 137 in the middle of the world," said Bell, "with millions of buyers and compelled to sell to just one." He considered the price offered as ridiculously small. "Give us the same opportunity to sell our lands that the monopolies have theirs," he said, "that are much larger than ours, and we can net twenty or thirty million. These lands are not wild lands in the sense generally used; they are right in the heart, you might say, of the business country and all checkered over with railroads, and a great deal more so than many lands west of the Mississippi. If we were allowed to go out in the world and offer these lands for sale the price you offer us would hardly pay two years interest on them." It was reported in December that John A. Blair, Secretary of the Cherokee Strip Live Stock Association, stated that he would present Chief Mayes an offer of twenty million dollars for the Outlet.242 Among the topics discussed in council were the salines in the Outlet, compensation to the Cherokees for railroad rights of way, tribal reservations established in the Cherokee country west of the ninety-sixth meridian, colonization in the Outlet of two thousand negroes, homeless and not desirable in the Cherokee home reservation, the abrogation of article fifteen of the treaty of 1866, and the removal of intruders from the home reservation. The three principal salines in the Outlet, according to Ross, had been leased in accordance with an act of 1882, except for the approval of the Secretary of the Intetior.243 Bell explained that the Secretary had not approved the leases because of certain er- 242Daily Oklahoma State Capital, Dec. 11, 1890. 243By act of August 7, 1882 the Cherokee Council was authorized to execute a lease of three salines for a period not to exceed twenty years for the manufacture of salt. The lease should insure the Cherokees a royalty of not less than one dollar a ton and be subject to the jurisdiction of the Cherokee national legislature and to the approval of the Secretary of the Interior. The proceeds of the royalty should be applied to the educational fund of the Cherokees. The salines remained subject to the provisions of the Cherokee treaty of 1866 and the lease or leases should be liable to revocation by the legislative council of the Cherokee nation and the Secretary of the Interior for the non-performance of any of said conditions. 22 Statutes, 349; Rept. of House Com. on Ind. Aff., July 1, 1882, H. Reports, 47 Cong. 1 sess., v (2069), no. 1545. The Cherokees proposed to lease the Eastern Saline to B. W. Alberty, the Middle Saline to H. H. Trott, and the Western Saline to Robert D. Knight. On July 6, 1888 the leases were submitted to the Secretary of the Interior for approval. Page 138 rors in plats,244 but that the errors had been corrected. The Cherokees observed that the salines were not agricultural lands and they proposed to reserve them for the manufacture of salt. Jerome explained how plentiful salt was at Saginaw and elsewhere and remained unconvinced that salt deposits could be of any particular value to the Cherokees. An act of July 4, 1884 granting to the Southern Kansas Railway Company a right of way through the Indian Territory provided among other things that the company should pay, "so long as said Territory is owned and occupied by the Indians," to the Secretary of the Interior the sum of fifteen dollars per annum for each mile of railway it should construct in the Territory.245 The Secretary of the Interior should apportion the money in accordance with the laws and treaties then in force among the different nations and tribes according to the number of miles of railway that might be constructed by the company through their lands. The right of way extended across the Territory in the general direction from Winfield to the mouth of the Washita; there was also provision for a branch line extending from the northern part of the Territory in the direction of Camp Supply to the western border of the Territory at or near where Wolf Creek crosses the same.