Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1869-09-09
THE INDIANS.
AIiotting Thom Their Separate Lands.

DR.. Edward Painter, the Quaker Indian
Agent, for the Omaha Agency, communicates
the following concerning the allotment to
the natives of separate lands.-
One of the most important subjects, or
rather the most important subject recently
considered in Council is that Of the allotment
Of the Indian land in severalty, under the
treaty of 1866, by which each head of a fam
lily is entitled to hold in his or her own indi-
vidual right 100 acres of land; while to
every male adult of the tribe of the age of
l8 years and upwards, 40 acres is the por
tion assigned. This allotment is now in
progr' IS on this Reservation; forty-nine
farms having been already surveyed, and
corner. stones affixed to designate the 6oun-
daries of each. This movement inausurates
new era in the history of Indian affairs,
and if successfully accomplished, is destined,
as fully believe, to arrest the otherwise in
evitable tendency of the race to complete
determination. An equitable division of
these lands is almost, If not quite impracti-
cable, owing to the unequal distribution of
timber and supplies of running water, be-
sides variety in the situation and quality of
the soil. The allotment has been proceeded
in on the basis of preference to priority of
claim; notice having previously been given
to the Indians to make their own selections,
which have been indicated by pen of logs
or stakes driven in the ground, or in some
cases the tcpees set up and occupied by the
claimant.
So far the work has gone on prosperously,
and though in some cases several claimants
have aspred 10 the possession of the same
tract, yet they have thus far uniformly
agreed to reinqush in favor OF one claim
ant, and incline to the belief that it would
have required at least ten years of litigation
on the part of the white people, in what is
called a Christian community, to have ad-
justed the same number of claims to a yalu-
able property thus held in common.
From a recent census of the tribe it ap-
pears that there are 278 heads of families to
have farms OF 100 acres each set apart for
their use. Forty-six male adults over eight
cen, entitled to forty acres each, and len fe-
males unmarried over eighteen, who are also
by an arrangement of the Commissioner of
Indian Affairs, allowed to receive the same
proportion of their lands. BY this wise pro-
vision of the Government embodied in the
aforesaid treaty, these Indians are to re-
ceive their lands in scveralty, under the
sanction of the Secretary of the Interior,
and certificates are to be issued by the Com
missioner Of Indian Affairs for the several
tracts assigned by the allotment, upon which
the Indian becomes lord of the soil in the
true sense of the term, at least in SO far as
his individual ownership is concerned !;
though he is forbidden by the terms of the
treaty from selling or leasing his tract to
any parties except to the United States, or
members of the, same Indian tribe, under
| rules and regulations prescribed by the Sec
retary of the Interior. These Indians are
now beginning TO appreciate the advantages
of individual ownership of the land, SO that
each can realize the benefits of his own in
dustry and thrift, and be exempt from being
prcyed upon by the indolent and improvi-
dent.
One evil still remains which is most un-
just and oppressive: the accountability of
the tribe for the acts Of lawless individuals
whose deeds they cannot control.
To enclose 334 farms with fences, and
build a cottage for each to say nothing of
stabling and other out-building, the digging
of wells for water, &C., is no small under
taking. Still it can be done by proper ap-
preparation of money, and the right direc-
tion of labor, and that in short time. The
old tribal character of the Indians must be
broken up, or their total extinction is ineyi-
table. The chase must be abandoned as
means of subsistence. The plow, the loom
und the anvil must be substituted for the bow
and the arrow and the quick, sharp crack of
the deadly rifle. Intellectual light must
break in upon the dark recesses of ignorance
and superstition while the benign influence
of the Christian religion will, TRUST, console
the poor Indian with hope that his last days
will be his best days.