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the land belonged to them, nor had they now a place within the tribe.
While they were overlooked on the Potomac, these Negroes found no change in their condition on the Arkansas and Red River.
They are a feeble folk, these coloured people;. and their masters, though unwilling to face small bodies of White men, are ready to fight any number of Blacks.
When news arrived at Fort Gibson and Fort Scott that the war was over and the Negroes emancipated, the Cherokee and Choctaw masters yielded with a sullen fury to their loss.
They kicked the liberated Negroes from their camp.
Beyond the reach of help from Boston and New York, even if Boston and New York had means of helping them, how were the Blacks to live?
In theory they were now free; but having neither tents nor lodges, where could they find a shelter from the snow and rain?
Without guns and ponies, how were they to follow deer and elk?
They had no nets for taking fish, no snares for catching birds.
Having no place in any Indian tribe, they had no right to stay on any of the tribal lands.
Nor were they dowered with the invention and resources of
1875.
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