THE INDIAN COUNTRY FIGHT

Friend Enoch Hoag telegraphs to Gen. Walker, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, under date of April 27, received here yesterday, as follows:

"Have visited Tahlequah, and all is quiet. The tragedy originated from imprudent interference by Federal authority with Cherokee laws while being duly executed under treaty rights"

The force of this judgment of the Superintendent lies in the word "imprudent;" for it is not disputed that the United States Court had authority to issue the writ for the arrest of Proctor, because the charge that was presented before it was an attempt to kill Kesterson and Kesterson is a citizen of the United States. This alter fact gave the United States Court jurisdiction and its officers had the right to arrest Proctor while he was on trial in the Cherokee Court, as well as before or after that trial.

It was in the attempt to kill Kesterson, as is alleged, that Proctor killed Kesterson's wife, who was a cherokee woman, and the trial for the actual killing was properly before the Cherokee Court. The "imprudence" was undoubtedly in the manner and time in which the execution of the warrent for Proctor was attempted. Fuller information will enable a complete judgment as to the extent and location of the blame for the terrible slaughter.