Chapter 16
An Active SummerThe summer of 1878 closed with but a single cloud on the
horizon. Like ourselves, a great many cattlemen had established
beef ranches in the Cherokee Outlet, then a vacant country, paying
a trifling rental to that tribe of civilized Indians. But a
difference of opinion arose, some contending that the Cherokees
held no title to the land; that the strip of country sixty miles
wide by two hundred long set aside by treaty as a hunting ground,
when no longer used for that purpose by the tribe, had reverted to
the government. Some refused to pay the rent money, the council of
the Cherokee Nation appealed to the general government, and troops
were ordered in to preserve the peace. We felt no uneasiness over
our holdings of cattle on the Strip, as we were pay
