862 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



The following is a census of the Cherokee Indians, taken in 1880 by their own gov- 

 ernment. The committee insert it in full in their report, with the letter of the chief, 

 submitting it to Congress, because it is an epitome of the statistics of Cherokee civ- 

 ilization, which is more convincing and more impressive as a proof of their progress 

 than any comment that we could make upon it : 



Summary of the census of the Cherokee Nation, taken by the anthority of the national 

 council and in conformity to the constitution, in the year 1880. 



[Prepared for and submitted to the national council in compliance with an act approved by D. W. 

 Bushyhead, principal chief, Cherokee Nation, on the 3d day of December, A. D. 1879.1 



Washington, D. C, January 17, 1881. 



To the Congress of the United States : 



Gentlemen : We herewith submit to you a summary of the Cherokee census for 

 1880, taken under authority of our law. It exhibits a Cherokee and mixed popula- 

 tion of 20,336, and an actual population in the country of 27,001. Among the statis- 

 tics it will be observed that the number of children attending schools and semi- 

 naries is equal to attendance in the adjoining States, while the number of acres in 

 cultivation and products of corn, wheat, cotton, and potatoes will compare favor- 

 ably with them, although this census was taken in the year of drought. Our cattle, 

 as you will see, number 67,400 ; hogs, 108,552; and horses, 13,643. During the war 

 our great herds of cattle were stolen or destroyed, and we are but recovering from 

 the effects of it. In a very few years our live stock will be fully up to the grazing 

 capacity of those portions of our reserved lands not in cultivation. The occupations 

 of all our people are given, and it will be soon that only sixteen are hunters and five 

 fishermen, the farmers being 3,549 in a population of 5,169 males over eighteen. This 

 year a single district (Canadian) exported 1,200 bales of cotton, the cotton crop hav- 

 ing only been introduced the past few years. 



About one-half of our people can speak the English language, and, as in our 107 

 schools the English language is now the only medium by law, in one generation this 

 distinction may be expected to pass away. Besides the intercourse laws, which ex- 

 clude liquor from the Indian Territory, we have now stringent prohibitory laws of 

 our own, and to these and the exclusion of an aggressive frontier population the 

 preservation of the less intelligent portion of our population is in a great measure duo. 

 Our own systems of law and land tenure are admirably suited to our people. The 

 statements made to you that we, or any of the Indians, are communists and hold 

 property in common are entirely erroneous. No people are more jealous of the per- 

 sonal right to property than Indians. The improvements on farms may be, and often 

 are, sold ; they may descend in families for generations, and so long as occupied can- 

 not be invaded, nor for two years after abandonment. These farms and lots are prac- 

 tically just as much the property of the individuals as yours are. He who does not 

 wish to keep can sell to all lawful citizens. The only difference between your land 

 systems and ours is that the unoccupied surface of the earth is not a chattel to be 

 sold and speculated in by men who do not use it. If your system of allotment were 

 introduced, the result in the end would be that a few would absorb the land, and the 

 poorer half of the people would soon be tenants, paying annual rents to a few men. 

 As it is, so long as one acre of our domain is unoccupied any Cherokee who wishes to 

 cultivate it can do so, and make a home, which is his. We invite your attention to 

 the fact that the five nations of the Indian Territory who have adopted this system 

 have made the most rapid progress, and so long as you do not by superior force vio- 

 late your treaties with us our people are secure. 



The allegations that there is more crime in the Indian Territory than in the adja- 

 cent States are entirely erroneous. In our penitentiary there are but twenty-eight 

 persons. Among our own people crime is even less common than in the Western 

 States. A largo number of the cases of violence reported come from white men law- 

 lessly in the Territory, and who have not been promptly removed by your officials, as 



