time the question of Statehood for the youngest of our Territories is
being actively debated. No one disputes the fact that the population and
wealth is large enough to justify the step, and the only question at
issue is whether the whole of the Indian Territory should be included in
the new State, or whether the lands of the so-called civilized tribes
should be excluded.

The lawlessness which has prevailed in some portions of the Indian
Territory is held to be a strong argument in favor of opening up all the
lands for settlement. At present the Indians own immense tracts of land
under very peculiar conditions. A large number of white men, many of
them respectable citizens, and many of them outlaws and refugees from
justice, have married fair Cherokee, Choctaw and Creek girls, and these
men, while not recognized by the heads of the tribes, are able to draw
from the Government, in the names of their wives, the large sums of
money from time to time distributed. Advocates of Statehood favor the
allotment to each Indian of his share of the land, and the purchase by
the Government of the immense residue, which could then be opened for
settlement.

Until this question is settled, the anomaly will continue of
civilization and the reverse existing side by side. Some of the Indians
have assumed the manners, dress, virtues and vices of their white
neighbors, in which case they have generally dropped their old names and
assumed something reasonable in their place. But many of the red men who
adhere to tradition, and who object to innovation, still stick to the
names given them in their boyhood. Thus, in traveling across the Indian
Territory, Indians with such names as "Hears-Something-Everywhere,"
"Knows-Where-He-Walks," "Bear-in-the-Cloud," "Goose-Over-the-Hill,"
"Shell-on-the-Neck," "Sorrel Horse," "White Fox,"