The Wichita Daily Eagle

THE CHEROKEE OUTLET
An Oklahoma District Court Denies the Claim of the Cherokees
Special Dispatch to the Daily Eagle

KINGFISHER, Ok., July 6.-The case of Guthrie against Hall, in which the plaintiff, a Cherokee, sought to enjoin Capt. Hall of the United States army from removing his cattle from the Cherokee outlet was decided today adversely to the plaintiff. The court held that the proclamation of the president prohibiting grazing on the outlet was an exercise of executive and police power and that the court had no power to enjoin the officers from enforcing the order under that proclamation. The court further held that the title of the Cherokees to the 6,000,000 acres known as the Cherokee outlet was simply an easement and conveyed no title to the soil. He also held that the relinquishment of the eastern portion of said lands to the Osages, Poncas, Pawnees, Otoes, and other tribes, was a virtual abandonment of said tract, and operated as a forfeiture of whatever title they possessed.

Judge Phillips, of Salina, and J. C. Roberts, of this place, ably advocated the cause of the Cherokees and kept up a running controversy with the court during most of the afternoon, trying to secure a reversal of the decision, but Judge Seay met all objections in a masterly manner.

It was clearly shown that from 1828 (the time of the treaty conveying the land) to 1891 the Cherokees never occupied the outlet except as a highway and never claimed any jurisdiction over it whatever. Hon. Horace Speed conducted the case in behalf of the government, but was not here today. This decision is regarded as the turning point in this controversy. The plaintiffs have appealed to the supreme court of the territory.