It is stated by apologists that Indian Territory became an impossible country in which to live, that crime was rampant, and that the Five Nations included among their membership thousands of outlaws and robbers. This is a gross exaggeration. There were some hundreds of undesirable citizens who made Indian Territory their habitat from just previous to the Civil War to about the year 1880. Most of these were white men, although there was a sprinkling of mixed-bloods and that worst citizen, the individual whose blood is made up of a mixture of negro, Indian and white. The older Indians, who are more competent to judge, and many of the white persons who long ago settled in Oklahoma, maintain that while this class of citizens caused a good deal of trouble, yet on the whole the Indians were vastly better off between the years 1855 and 1900 than they are at the present time.[21] There was some violence, murder, train robbing and attendant evils. As against this, however, the great body of Indians were self-supporting, there was no general graft, and very little pauperism.[22] There is evidence of the correctness of this statement even at the present time. In traveling through Oklahoma, overland, for 600 miles, I noticed in scores of places the type of house erected by the Indians forty or fifty years ago either still standing or in ruins. Their houses were superior, as a rule, to the present flimsy, cheap structures erected either by the natives themselves, or by Government or State employees for the Indians. The old houses were of logs, or heavy boards, the walls being thick. They were thus cool in summer and warm in winter. Near every house was an orchard. The tracts owned by the Indians were extensive, and cattle, horses and hogs had free range. Thus, every Indian family was assured necessary beasts of burden and meat for winter use. Now that the allotments have passed into the hands of white persons, or are restricted in size, or are leased, practically everything is fenced, there are no ranges of consequence; the old-style house is gone, the trees in the orchards have decayed and fallen, or are cut down, most of the remaining orchards are those of white people, although, of course, a few Indian orchards survive. The houses built for the Indians, or by them, are wretched affairs, small, the walls thin, and not substantial. They are hot in summer and cold in winter.