Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1891-04-02
INDEPENDENT INDIANS.
Tribes which Are Worth Many Millions
Dollars.


Tribes Which Are Worth Many Millions. of
Dollars.
It is customary to consider Indians as
q species of beggars, because they are
mainly pensioners on the governments:
view. Poverty-stricken, or even de-
pendent tribes, are the exception, while
many are very well off in this worlds
goods. The Cherokees and Creeks are
prosperous farmers and business men,
and many a white man has envied their
possessions
In another part of Indian territory
live the Osages, the most independent
Indians on earth; in fact, they are SO
rich that, if all their assets were
turned into ready cash, there would
be about $4,000 for every person,
from the veteran warrior to the tiniest
papoose. The story of how they got
SO rich is an interesting one In 1878
the Osages occupied vast reServa-
ton in the very heart of Kansas. It
was becoming more valuable every year,
and as consequence the whites were
closing in upon the Indians. The Osages
became alarmed and asked the govern
ment to let them sell out and 60 to the
Indian territory, and the proposition
being satisfactory, millions of acres
changed hands.
With part of the proceeds of the sale
the new reservation in Indian terrific
~, containing one million six hundred
thousand acres, was purchased. and the
remaining sum was held in trust by the
government, and it now amounts to
something over eight million dollars.
When the present reservation was
bought from the Cherokees it cost sew
ty-five cents per acre; to-day eighty per
cent. of the land is valued at two dollars
an acre; the remainder-thet illable por-
TOMS worth from eight to twelve dol
lars an acre. Their personal property
is valued at nearly million dollars,
and they have school fund of one hun
dred and eighty thousand dollars. Foot
ing up these items, the Osages are found
| to be worth fifteen million dollars, and
as the tribe numbers fifteen hundred
persons, it is an easy matter to compute
| the average wealth per capita
There is enough tillable land to give
every Usage, big and little, two hundred
| acres apiece for a farm. and enough
| grazing land left to tack on to each farm
eight hundred acres additional. Yet
y
| are Industrious, and some of the farms
are as well cultivated as any white
mans. The majority, however, do not
work very hard, because they don't have
| to. The interest on the trust fund is
| paid quarterly, and each member of the
tribe comes in for an equal share of this
money, which amounts to forty-one dol
lars and fifty cents, or one hundred and
sixty-six dollars annually. This in
| come, in addition to a few acres of land
under cultivation and some cattle and
ponies, keeps the ordinary Usage family
in comfort, if not affiuence.
The Osages have made great advance
ment in the past twenty wears. At
| first they would not send their children
to school They recognized the ad-
| vantages of an education to a poor
white man who had his living to make
but failed to see how they could be
benefited by any change in their men
tai status. Year after year the agents
advised and persuaded, until at last the
government threatened that their in.
terest money would be withheld if all
children of school age were not al
school five months in the year. This
touched their pockets and had the de-
! sired effect. Within six years the
! school attendance has increased from
twenty-five per cent. of the minor chill
dren to eighty per cent. In a few
years more, when the remaining twenty
per cent. are gathered in, the Osages
can rank, not only as the wealthiest
people, but as the greatest patrons OF
education in the world.-Golden Days