Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1879.djvu/17

Rh military force in the Territory the invasion was speedily checked and the intruders removed.

While this was accomplished with comparative ease, owing to the promptness and vigor of the interference by the government, which repressed the mischief in its incipiency, it must be admitted that had the information which caused proper measures to be taken, in any way been delayed, or had any time been lost in acting upon it, the invasion of the Indian Territory, as planned, might in the mean time have assumed such proportions as to make its repression a matter of extreme difficulty. There is no doubt that many people in the Western States and Territories are eagerly watching every possible chance to obtain possession of the fertile lands of the Indian Territory for purposes of settlement as well as speculation, and it will require the utmost watchfulness on the part of the government to prevent lawless attempts to wrest from the Indian tribes the possession of lands guaranteed to them by treaty. This watchfulness will not be wanting, but it is also probable that the performance of this duty will become more difficult every year as the western country is more densely occupied.

When visiting the Indian Territory this autumn I deemed it proper to call the attention of the representative men of the civilized tribes whom I met at Muskogee, to this circumstance. I assured them that this Administration would meet any repetition of the lawless attempt witnessed this year with the same energy and fidelity, and I had no doubt its successors would endeavor to do the same; but that the difficulties of protecting the integrity of the Territory might in the course of time increase beyond control; that it would be wise for them to consider and provide for this emergency; that in my opinion the best thing they could do for themselves would be to divide their lands among their people in severalty in such lots as they might think best; to obtain individual title in fee like white men; and every member of their tribes being thus provided for, to consider how the rest of the lands not occupied and cultivated by themselves could for their benefit be disposed of to other settlers, so that if they did not keep those lands themselves they would at least secure their value in money; that an individual title to lands actually occupied by them would be under all circumstances safer to them than their national title without individual fee; that the individual ownership of land would also be calculated to stimulate their progress and prosperity; that as their friend I advised them to take this matter into serious consideration while under the assured protection of the government they were perfectly free to do so; that if they acted upon such advice the government would find itself far better able to secure to them the value of their lands than it would be to maintain the present state of things, if at some future day the flood of immigration should sweep over the borders of the surrounding States into the Indian Territory, finding them unprepared.

The idea of dividing their lands among them in severalty is probably not yet popular with a majority of the members of the civilized tribes