Buck—The Settlement of Oklahoma. 327 
Side by side can be seen the wheat or corn fields of Kansas 
and the cotton fields of Texas and the lower South. A great, 
diversity of crops exists, each farmer planting the staple of 
the locality from which he came. 1 This section is especially 
suited to fruit raising, peaches and grapes being very abundant. 
Melons are a staple crop in some of the eastern counties, and 
hundreds of carloads are shipped east every year. 2 
The southern part of Oklahoma comprises Greer county, 
long disputed with Texas, and what was formerly the Kiowa, 
Comanche and Apache Indian reservation. The former is ex¬ 
ceptionally productive, considering its western location. In the 
Kiowa, Comanche and Apache tracts there are fertile lands, 
along the Washita and other valleys, with undulating plains 
stretching away to the Ked river on the south. Much of the 
land in this area is suitable only for grazing, and thousands of 
acres in the mountains are absolutely worthless except for min¬ 
erals. The Washita mountains in the northeastern part of the 
reservation consist of gigantic piles of rock pushed up through 
the prairie and covering an area of twelve by thirty miles. 
T'hey are interspersed with fertile valleys and mountain parks. 
Hundred of large mountain springs give rise to- streams which 
flow in every direction to join the large rivers. The moun¬ 
tains also give promise of considerable wealth in minerals, oil 
and natural gas. 3 
Indian- Territory Before the Opening. 
The idea of removing the troublesome Indians of the south¬ 
ern states to the great unsettled plains west of the Mississippi 
appeared immediately after the acquisition of Louisiana in 
1803. In ihe very next year Congress passed an act authoriz¬ 
ing the President to make such removals, the Indians to ex¬ 
change their lands east of the Mississippi for other lands to be 
granted them in the West. In 1809 a delegation from the 
Cherokee Indians in Georgia, the Carolinas, Alabama and 
1 Int. Dept., Misc. Repts., 1900, pt. 2, p. 633. 
2 Ibid., 1902, pt. 2, pp. 438, 440. 
3 Ibid., 1900, pt. 2, pp. 684-686. 
