Some one was asking about Indian Blood several days ago. Found this and thought you all might like to read it. Pat Chronicles of Oklahoma Volume 12, No. 4 December, 1934 GOVERNOR WILLIAM LEANDER BYRD By John Bartlett Meserve Page 437 - 438 circuit courts and county courts. The analogy between the Chickasaw constitution and the constitution of the States was quite complete and evidenced the high standard of tribal leadership which obtained among these Indians. A disturbing factor in the hitherto peaceful conditions among the so-called Five Civilized Tribes, was provoked by the influx of white intruders, during the years succeeding the Civil War. The intermarriage of many of these whites into the tribal membership became common and the pathway became paved for the more complete amalgamation of the races, as obtains today. This situation was peculiarly true in the Chickasaw Nation and ultimately created trouble in the political affairs of the Nation, In 1876, the Chickasaw tribal government, by law, conferred full rights of membership in the tribe, upon all white persons who intermarried among their members. No particular disadvantage arose at first but as time progressed, these "white" Indians began to gather control. By the laws of the Nation, any Indian was enabled to occupy any of the unoccupied lands in the Nation and it was not long before the "white" Indians occupied the most valuable lands. The Chickasaws had experienced dif! ficulties with the white settlers back in Mississippi and it was to escape the infringements which they had suffered, that they bargained for their removal to the Indian Territory. They understood that their lands in the West were to be theirs, free from interference by the white man, but the growing presence of these white members of the tribe, began to imperil their political life. The Chickasaws had provoked this situation by admitting these white settlers, to full tribal membership. In an address before the United States Senate made by Senator Platt at a time when the matter of white aggressions in the Indian Territory, was at its height, he offered a most compelling illustration. "A single instance will show how the white people have absorbed the lands in the Indian Territory to the exclusion of the Indians. At a town named Duncan (in the Chickasaw Nation) there was a Scotchman by the name of Duncan who had a trading post. There was also a white woman there who had been the wife of an Indian, but whose husband had died. The white (Page 438) woman, by marrying the Indian, became an Indian citizen. Then, when she became a widow, the Scotchman married her. By that means he became an Indian. Mr. Peffer: Both white? Mr. Platt: Both white; not a drop of Indian blood in the veins of either. These two persons, husband and wife, Mr. and Mrs. Duncan have 7,000 acres of land under cultivation and grazing by their right of occupancy as Indians. They have also a town of 1,500 inhabitants, the right to occupy which is conveyed by Mr. Duncan and the yearly rentals for occupancy amount, I suppose, to from five to seven thousand dollars."