Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 10.djvu/669

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
INDIAN TERRITORY.
583
INDICATOR.

3786; Modoc reservation, 140; Ottawa reservation, 2205; Peoria reservation, 227; Quapaw reservation, 154; Seneca reservation, 255; Shawnee reservation, 79; Wyandotte reservation, 288; not located by reservations, 861. The majority of the negroes enumerated in the census are ex-slaves of the Indians, or descendants of ex-slaves, and share with the Indians in the allotment of lands. A non-citizen marrying into a tribe is made a citizen, and also receives an allotment of land.

Government. The ‘Five Civilized Nations’ (the Cherokees, Creeks, Chickasaws, Choctaws, and Seminoles), who occupy almost the whole of the Territory, came thither under an agreement with the United States guaranteeing their tribal authority. They organized for themselves forms of government much like those of the States, having a Governor, Senate, and Legislature, elected by popular vote; a national court, school system, and treasury. Under this independent, self-governing system the Five Nations have lived until recent years. The workings of the system were quite tolerable in the early period, but it is quite inadequate on account of the rapid changes in conditions now taking place. The white population of the Territory, who outnumber the Indians six to one, found themselves without a voice in the government, unable to secure such privileges as look toward their proper protection and development. Accordingly, various enactments have been passed by Congress within the past few years, all having for their ultimate purpose the extension of complete Federal jurisdiction over the Territory, the extinction of Indian governments, and the opening of the country to unrestricted white settlement—in other words, their assimilation, political and legal, with the rest of the United States. However, the original guarantee of an autonomous form of government to the tribes and other complicating conditions exist to delay the process of transformation. The resisting Indian is sometimes conciliated, sometimes disregarded. In 1893 a commission to the ‘Five Civilized Nations,’ the Dawes Commission, was appointed to enter into negotiations with the Indians in the Territory for the allotment of their lands in severalty, or to procure a cession of their lands to the United States. The Commission had in 1901 finally secured from each of the five tribes tentative agreements, looking toward allotment and citizenship; but years are likely to elapse before the work of the Commission is ended, as the task of dividing 20,000,000 acres of land equitably among many thousands of legitimate claimants is enormous. An act of 1897 gave the United States courts jurisdiction within the Territory. The Curtis Act of 1898 had for its general purpose the transfers of the control of property rights from tribal authority to that of the United States. Accordingly it provided, among other things, for the enrollment of citizens, preparatory to the allotment of lands, for the regulation of town sites, and the incorporation of towns; and it gave the President a veto power over acts of the tribal governments. Differences of conditions have prevented a uniform application and enforcement of this policy. Some features are universally carried out, while others are temporarily suspended for certain tribes. An agreement with the Seminoles permits the continuance of the Seminole government in a limited way, and an agreement with the Choctaws and Chickasaws extended their governments, with certain modifications, until March 4, 1906. Consult: Hinton, “The Indian Territory, Its Status, Development, and Future,” in Review of Reviews, vol. xxiii. (New York, 1901).

INDIAN TOBACCO. See Lobelia.

INDIAN TURNIP. See Arum.

INDIAN YELLOW, or Purree. A coloring matter highly esteemed by artists. It is exported from the East Indies and China in spherical masses, which are of a dark brown color externally, but of a bright orange yellow in the interior. It is obtained in Bengal as a sediment from the urine of cows fed on decayed and yellow mango leaves. Its odor is peculiar, and resembles that of castoreum. It consists chiefly of the magnesium salt of an acid termed purreic or euxanthic acid (C19H16O10). Alkaline solutions dissolve this acid, and form a yellow liquid. A solution of euxanthate of potash, when mixed with the solutions of the salts of the earths, gives brilliant yellow, sparingly soluble precipitates, and with acetate of lead it forms an insoluble yellow. Purree is often found adulterated with chrome yellow.

INDIA-RUBBER. See Rubber.

INDICATOR (Lat., pointer). In steam engineering, an instrument to measure and to record by means of a diagram the pressure of the steam in the cylinder of an engine. The indicator was invented by James Watt, of steam engineering fame, and the modern indicator is merely a structural modification of Watt's original design.

Fig. 1. STEAM-ENGINE INDICATOR.

Concisely described, the modern steam-engine indicator consists first of a small cylinder having communication with the interior of the engine cylinder by means of a short pipe provided with a stopcock. In this small cylinder works a piston having a piston-rod extending out of the top of the cylinder. This piston is normally pressed down to the bottom of the cylinder by a spiral spring, but when steam is admitted below the piston by opening the stopcock previously mentioned, the pressure forces the piston upward against the spring, compressing it a greater or less amount, according to the steam pressure. The top of the piston-rod is attached to a lever which carries a pencil at one end.