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Show mihW olLH hupBiJ Had No Cofidence in the Government-Gore's Government-Gore's Sensation IcAlester, Oklu., Aug, S. How the cm tracts were procured hy -which, according ac-cording to Senator Thomas p. C-oro, $3,mh),iWi In attorneys' fees was to be made out of the sale of land given to tho Indians by the government, was related before the special congressional congres-sional Investigating committee today. V. T. I loll man, a Choctaw Indian, test. lied that he had been employed by J F. McMurray, holder of the con tracts, to go out among the Oklahoma Indians and ind.rco them to sign the documents. At the same time, Holl-rnan Holl-rnan related, he was paid "a dollar a head" for securing contracts appointing appoint-ing McMurray to act in tax cases. In this way McMurray procured 10,000 contracts to sell land. The terms -were 10 per cent attorneys' attor-neys' fees, or $.1,000,000 profit for McMurray Mc-Murray and his associates. To promote pro-mote this deal in congress, Senator Goro contends, he was offered a $25,; t'OO or $50,000 bribe. Hollman testified that he himself had signed tho 10 per cent contract because he, iu common with other Indians, In-dians, had become discouraged on tho government's promise to sell the land. "I would have given per cent to McMurray," said Hollman, "if ho could have gotten ns the money quickly." quick-ly." Ho said he bo, mod some of the Indians would he willing to havo given McMurray 7d per cent. In a statement to the committee, and without going on the stand, McMurray Mc-Murray today declared that tho contracts con-tracts came to him originally against hla desire. Ho said the Indians at a 'war council" had demonstrated thelr impatience at the government's alleged al-leged slowness In selling the land. aDd bad called upon lilm to take the Job at ( per cent, which he did with reluctance. re-luctance. McMurray will go on the stand later. Questioned further, Hollman testified testi-fied It was the belief of the Indians that their property was worth from $:;0.0iio.ooo to j-10.000.000, and the understanding un-derstanding was that McMurray waa to get 10 per cent of this. "is it the belief of the Indians that McMurray has some power at Washington Wash-ington by which he was able to get money more quickly than if you left It to the government?" asked C'ongrcss-j C'ongrcss-j man B. A. Saunders of Virginia "We didn't know how he was going 1o do it, but thought he knew how," was the answer. "Did you think i.iCMurray was a magician?" "Wo thought ho knew how to do It." "Is It actually the lllef among th ludlaDs that they have to pay sume-lody sume-lody else to get what the government has said rightfully belongs to them?" 'That has become the belief that they have to g.ve up a good portion, of what they get in attorneys' lees." D C. McCurtain, a Choctaw Indian and an attorney for his tribe, went on the stand and reiterated his charges that McMurray, in 1906, in the lobby I of the Raleigh hotel In Washington, had offered hlru a $25,000 bribe to withdraw tribal opposition to old contracts con-tracts which were disapproved by President Roosevelt. He declared ho had onco been employed by McMurray McMur-ray while he was delegate to Washington Wash-ington for his tribe, but he asserted tho work for McMurray was in behalf of, and with the consent of, the Indians. When tho bribe was offered, he was not associated with McMurray, and ho did Dot share In the $7:.u,000 attorneys' at-torneys' fees granted McMurray In thu Utizens' cases several yeans ago. |