St. Paul daily globe., 1892-03-31
Uncle Sans Soldiers to Reach
: the Sisseton Country in a
Few Days.
Very Little Danger. However,
That There Will Be Any
Blood Shed.
Indications That There Will
Be More People Than
Quarter Sections.
Sensational Suit for Alien
alton Of Affections at
~ LIE Sueur,
Special to the Globe.

Special to The Globe.
BROWNS VALLEY, Minn.,-The very
near approach of the final opening to
white settlement of the 100000 acres of
surplus lands of the SsSeton and Wah-
peton Indian reservation is creating
daily increasing excitement. Arrange
ments have been fully completed where
by the five companies of regular army
soldiers will arrive at Browns Vulley
on or before April 4. On arriving i'll
Browns Valley the troops will march
to point seven miles west of this city
Oh the reservation, and 20 into camp.
The point for camping, which was Sc
lected by Indian Agent Mccormick, is
in big bend of the Minnesota river,and
is very pretty spot. Here Uncle Sans
men will find awaiting them an abun-
dance of water and native timber for
fuel. While this will be the principal
headquarters for the soldiers, they will
be detailed by squads, and. as occasion
demands. sent out to points along the
border to assist the native Indian police
in keeping back unruly persons who
seem determined to get upon the
lands at all hazards before the day set
for the final opening. 1t was supposed
that when it became gener rally known
that government troops were TO be sent
to, the reserve the fact would have a
quieting effect upon intending settlers
hut instead the more daring and de-
tertnined ones appear anxious to I'M
prove the time before the arrival or
troops, and today have gone out i'll
/I1, flNn fn Jaly
out suitable claims. No arrests by In
dian police have as yet been reported,
and it Is safe to say that there Will be
none. as the
Redskins Seem Tilnid
about exercising the authority vested
III them, seeming inclined to await the
arrival of soldiers to assist them. 1t is
estimated OH good authority that no less
than 200 white men are now Secreted on
theFeServation within radius of thirty
miles OF this city. They are hiding in
llliian houses, and. camping III tents III
deep ravines. Agent McCussiek'is ac-
duainted with this fact. and says, upon
the arrival of troops the entire reserva-
ton will be secured and these
venturesome fellows put to route. On
the whole, the opening of the Sisseton
reservation promises to outdOethe mad
and exciting scenes enacted at the time
of the great Oklahoma rush. Your cor
respondent bases his opinion on the fact
that the lands cf the SiSseton reServa-
tion are among the most desirable in
the Northwest. This fact is acknOwl-
edged by everybody who has visited it.
And the lands have been extensively
advertised throughout the entire coun-
try. and even i'll various parts of the Old
world. Not only the railroads tributary
to theSreserve, but four locating firms in
Brewn'S Valley have been at work for
more than six months past informing
the outside world of the grand oppor-
tunitieS here offered to secure free
home, and the amount of correspondence
now carried on by these firms is simply
enormous, the SiSseton Land company
alone receiving on an average $50 to 200
letters of Inquiry per day. The city
council AT this place recently placed an
advertisement III $50 newspapers, in
Guiding many influential farm journals
in the Eastern, Central and North
western states, and the returns are
now coming IN so rapidly that two
clerks are kept constantly at work an
swering inquiries. The three-coiumn
article, descriptive of the reservation
that appeared in the GLOBE short time
ago, brought hundreds of Inquiries. In
fact, it is safe to estimate that there will
be at least four men for every quarter
section of land to be opened, and some
of our locating firms openly state that
there will be fully ten men for each
claim. This means excitement, and lots
of it. The reservation proper contains
in round numbers 100000 acres. Of
this 100000 acres has been selected by
and allotted to the resident Indians,
every man, woman and child receiving
a patent for 100 acres, leaving for set
tiement by whites 100000 acres, or 3, $50
claims of 160 acres each. The land Is
subject 10 settlement and entry under
the
New Homestead Law
approved by congress March g. 1891.
TniS requires that claimant must re-
side continuously upon the land for
period of fourteen months before max
ing proof, but if he does not desire to
make proof at the end of fourteen
months he may continue his residence
for period of five years, in the mean
time paying no taxes, and at the eXpira
tinn OF the five years prove uD as be-
fore. Persons who take land on this
reservation will be required TO pay for
the same, az the time Of making proof,
$3.50 per acre. This was the price paid
the Indians by the government at the
time OF the purchase, but bill has
been recer tly introduced in congress to
make the price S1.25 per acre to white
settlers, and has good prospects for
passing. Il should be remembered that
the native Indians who inhabit this
reservation are thrifty. law-abldiug
and fairly intelligent class of people
who have long been staunch friends of
the palefaces, having taken an
active part in assisting the
whites to put down the great
Indian massacre in 1862. The
goes, and are proud to know that they
are now recognized by their white
neighbors as citizens of the United
States i'll every sense of the word. They
have been self-supporting for years, the
government appropriations for this tribe
being confined wholly to The support of
the schools. There are schools and
churches on the reservation equal to
those of their white neighborS-eleven
church edifces being located thereon.
Many of the preachers and some of the
teachers in the schools are natives, and
many of the Sissetons are teachers on
other reservations. These Indians have
done much farming i'll the part, but are
preparing to engage in the business on
more extensive scale in the future.
From the money received from the sale
of their surplus lands they have bought
good American horses, erected comfort
able houses and barns, and this spring
are selecting new and complete line
of the latest improved farm machinery.
In short, the Slssetons are wide 4
:, rral-.. md tAriftu nlaSS and the whites