THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 863 



our treaties obligate tlie United States to do. Even these reports are persistently ex- 

 aggerated. The Cherokee authorities assist in arresting fugitives from justice from 

 other States. 



We submit these statistics to you to show you that the allegations made to you and 

 the press by interested persons who wish to seize our country — that we are not pro- 

 gressing, and that we do not use our country — are entirely false and erroneous. Our 

 population has increased nearly 25 per cent, since the war. 



D. W. BUSHYHEAD, 



Frineipal Chief. 

 P. N. BLACKSTONE, 

 GEORGE SANDERS, 



Cherokee Delegation. 



For a most exhaustive review of the condition of the Indians in In- 

 dian Territory, up to 1886, see the report of Hon. John T. Morgan, 

 June 5, 1886, U. S. Senate Eeport No. 1278, Part 1, first session. Forty- 

 ninth Congress. The entire social, economic, and other conditions of 

 the population of Indian Territory are therein given. 



For data as to leases of Indian lands in Indian Territory for grazing 

 purposes, see Senate Ex. Doc. No. 54, January 12, 1884 ; also Senate 

 Ex. Doc. No. 17, second session. Forty-eighth Congress, January 6, 1885. 



For valuable statistics relating to the Indians of Indian Territory, see 

 House Eeport No. 98, third session. Forty- second Congress, March 5, 

 1873, by John P. C. Shanks, of Indiana. 



For the statistics of the Five Nations to 1885, see pages 221 to 227 

 herein, and also see pages 147 to 161, Eeport Commissioner of Indian 

 Affairs for 1886. 



THE "FIVE CIVILIZED TEIBES." 



Hon. J. D. C. Atkins, in his annual report for 1886, thus refers to the 

 Indian Territory and Oklahoma : 



INDIAN TERRITORY AND OKLAHOMA. 



In view of this policy of protection for the Indians, it is reason able that the Indian 

 Bureau and the country should look to the five civilized tribes of the Indian Ter- 

 ritory about whom so much has been said by orators and statesmen, and of whom so 

 much is expected by the friends of the Indian, to set freely and promptly such an 

 example as shall advance the civilization of their savage brethren of other tribes. 

 The influence of their example upon the semi-civilized and sav age tribes makes the 

 study of their condition and methods a matter not only of great interest' but also of 

 first importance. 



The treaties of 1866, and other treaties also, guarantee to the five civilized tribes 

 the possession of their lands; but, withoutrthe moral and physical i)ower which is 

 represented by the Army of the United States, what are these treaties worth as a 

 protection against the rapacious greed of the homeless people of the States who seek 

 homesteads within the borders of the Indian Territory ? If the protecting power of 

 this Government were withdrawn for thirty days, where won Id the treaties be, and 

 the laws of the Indians and the Indians themselves f The history of Payne and Couch 

 and their followers, and the determined effort of both Republican and Democratic ad- 

 ministrations to resist their unlawful claims and demands, is too recent not to be still 

 fresh in the memory of these Indians. It is both not reasonable to expect that the 

 Government will never tire of menacing its own people with its own Army. Therefore 



