Identifier: muskogeenortheas00bene (find matches)
Title: Muskogee and northeastern Oklahoma, including the counties of Muskogee, McIntosh, Wagoner, Cherokee, Sequoyah, Adair, Delaware, Mayes, Rogers, Washington, Nowata, Craig, and Ottawa
Year: 1922 (1920s)
Authors: Benedict, John Downing, 1854-
Subjects:
Publisher: Chicago : S.J. Clarke Pub. Co.
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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hooting be-came general. Major Owens was mortally wounded, several of his deputieswere killed and several Indians killed or wounded. Bracken (now city weighmaster in Muskogee) and a few ofthe posse retreated and managed to escape unhurt, while Proctor,the prisoner, escaped with only a slight wound. This unfortunateaffair served to increase rather than to allay the acrimoniousfeeling that existed at that time between the tribal court officialsand the United States Court officials, although neither party wasdirectly responsible for this battle. GRAFT AND GRAFTERS Soon after the Dawes Commission began the immense task ofallotting to each individual Indian his proportionate share oftribal lands, the cry was raised that the Territory was being over-run with an armv of land-sharks who would use everv effort anddevice to rob the Indian of his land. For many months TheGrafter was the favorite theme for the sensational news corres-pondent, until many good people especially throughout the Xorth
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Vol. 1—2 1 MUSKOGEE AND NORTHEASTERN OKLAHOMA 323 and East, were led to believe that the great body of white menwho had emigrated to the Territory, were organized for the pur-pose of defrauding the natives of their lands. Every opening ofpublic lands has had its rush of prospective settlers and adven-turers, and the rush to this country when the Dawes Commissionbegan to partition the vast landed estate of Indian Territory, wasnot unusual nor unexpected. There is a peculiar fascinationaccompanying land openings which is specially attractive tospeculators and get rich quick sharks, and a goodly number ofthat class of men invaded this country with the expectation ofsecuring land at a nominal price, but they were far outnumberedby honest men who were in favor of protecting the interests ofthe Indian. Some of these reckless adventurers proceeded to getdeeds from simple-minded Indians at a trivial cost and their ne-farious acts were heralded abroad as constituting the principalbusiness of

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