Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1892-04-21


baroas and large portion of the tribe
were induced to take their land in sew
crafty only by the use of force.
There are about $500 of these Indians
now on the reservation and they have
allotted to them little over half mil
lion acres of land, leaving three and
one-half millions acres to be taken up
by white settlers. Every Indian, big or
little. young or old, has had 100 acres
of land allotted to him, the government
putting wire fence about the land.
And if anybody thinks the red man
does not know enough to pick the best
land he is sadly mistaken, for every
mothers son of theme has taken his
land and the land of his entire family
in the best river bottoms. And, too,
what blessing it is to have large
family. The average Indian family
numbers from twelve to fourteen, which
gives the family about 1900 acres of
land. The land is untaxable for twenty
five years and the Indian will live at
his ease on the money received by rent
ing his land to the cattlemen, while he
and his are made rich by the increase
an valTso of his land, caused by the in
dustry of his white brother, who must
bear all the burdens of taxation.
While much of the land in this reser-
walton is rich, well watered and pro-
ductive, it is not the paradise that many
Imagine it to be. About forty per cent.
of the reservation is good agricultural
land, two-tnirds of the balance being
adapted to grazing, and the rest being
so poor that it would be difficule to raise
even an umbrella upon it.
The Indians have picked the best
lands along the streams, and in most
cases the white man will have to take
the uplands, with occasionally narrow
creek bottom. In the eastern half of
the reservation, however, this upland is
frst-class and will produce enormous
crops of all kinds. Especially is it valu-
able for wheat and fruits of all kinds
As a fruit country this land will rival
central California, and cotton and broom
corn can be grown to advantage.
About fifteen townships of this land
have been added to Kingf1sher and
Canadian counties, and the balance is
divided into six counties of about roo
square miles each, and designated as
counties c, d, E, F, G, HI. Near the
center of each county is reserved $40
acres for a county seat.
Entering the reservation from the
east the first county is c.. It is forty by
twenty-five miles in size, extending
north and south across the eastern end
of the reservation. Nearly all of the
land in this county is first-class, but the
Indians have taken a large part of it.
Watona, the county seat, is about
twenty-five miles distant from either
the north, east or south line of the
reservation, near the north bank of the
North Canadian river. The stream and
the South Canadian both traverse this
county.
West of county c the reservation
widens out, so that three counties-D,
G and H-lie in a tier north and south.
County d, at the north, is cut in twain
by the South Canadian, in whose fertile
valley are many fine farms. Taloga,
the county seat, is but nine miles from
the line OF the Cherokee strip, though
to reach it the river must be forded.
County III is in the center of the reser-
walton, and about equal distance from
all sides Arapahoe, the county seat.
is In the south central part, on the
Washita river. This county is in the
best watered of the six, and as a whole.
the land is the most desirable in the
reservation.
1900 SOASAA ~ eAiAo Guilty Is WHICH
is well watered by thee Washita river.
and contains large percentage of good
land, though much of it is taken up by
a large settlement of Indians in the
southern part The county seat, Tucola.
is in the southeastern part of the county.
but nine miles from either the Wichita
reservation on the east or the Kiowa
lands on the south.
County E is in the northwestern part
of the reservation and but very little of
the land is good for agricultural pur-
poses outside of q narrow valley along
the Canadian river. The western part
is very rough and great rocks and hills
predominant everywhere. Ioland, the
county seat, is in the eastern part and
rs reached easiest from the Cherokee
strip, which is but fifteen miles away.
The Panhandle of Texas Joins this
county on the west, as it also does
county f, lying Immediately south OF
1T.
This last county is bordered on the
south by the Red river and crossed by
the Washita. The county seat, Chey-
enne, is twenty miles from the Texas
line, and several miles further from