Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1893-10-26
SELF-SuppORTlNG INDIANS.

Seventy.six Fer Cent of the Indians of
This Country support Themselves
without Aid From the Government
Their Wealth.
Washington Star.
There are to-day 243,53i Indians
mon, women and children--in the
United States, and of this number 7G
per cent, or 1854 are self.supporting
and receive no subsistence supplies
whatever from the government. OF the
total number, 133,4i7 are known us
reservation Indians, residing as wards
of the nation on 1870 different reserva-
tons in 20 States and territories, the
reservations being made either by law,
by executive order, or by treaty, and
subject to increase or diminution by the
government at pleasure. These reserva.
ton Indians own $13,64S,51S worth of
horses, mules, swine, sheep and domestic
lows, which, with their own property
and the trust funds owned by many Of
the tribes, place them far above the
reach of want. The non-reservation
Indians, of which there are ITO, lit, are
in an even more enviable condition. All
are immensely rich as tribes, and the
degree of enlightenment and civilization
they have attained is startling revela-
ton to the initiated. OF this class,
$4,000 belong to five civilized tribes in
Indian Territory, 10,2s7 to the MoQuis
and Pueblos Of Arizona and New
Mexico, 5,203 to the Six Nations of
New York, 1856 to the eastern band of
Gherokees of North Carolina, Georgia,
| Tennessee and Alabama, aud 1900 TO
| tha Nouo ff,s ,f ~ -
were acquired by purchase, settlement,
or treaty, their trust funds by the sale
OF their surplus lands, and their other
property by the personal exertion and
labor CT the tribes, assisted in their
efforts by the Federal government.
little remnant tribe of Delawares,
descendants of the old Leni.Lenape Of
the Middle States, now residing among
the Kiowas and Comanches in Okla.
homa, and numbering only 05 souls in
all, have to their credit IN the United
States Treasury the sum of 1874, 1856,
which is $0,202 in cold cash for every
man, woman and papoose of them, be-
sides so acres per capita of land, to-
| gether with horses, stock, houses and
other property. They are probably the
richest per capita of all the Indians,
their wealth in trust funds and land
alone being $ll,209 per capita. Com
pared with theirs the per-capita wealth
of the richest nations of the world is in
significant.
The five civilized tribes inhabiting the
Indian Ierritory-the Choctaws, Chick
asaws, Cherokees, Greeks, and Semi
noles-constituting, as stated, popula.
ton OF $4,000 souls, have more concrete
wealth among themselves, chiefly held
in common by each tribe, than any body
OF people of equal size under the sun.
once absolute savagcs, infesting the bot
toms and wilderncsses of Tennessee,
Georgia and Alabama, except the Semi
noles, who came from Florida, thay are
now creditable and cultivated citizens,
OF perhaps little higher order than
many OF our imported European Ameri-
cans, with legislative, executive and
Judicial departments, trial by jury, and
the right OF appeal to the supreme court.
The men as rule are handsome, and
the women comely, frequently even
beautiful; so attractive, indeed, that
white men from elsewhere, captiyated
by their charms and worth, rs we'll as
by the delicious climate and other favor
able conditions under which they live,
seek alliances with them in lnatrimony
and cast in their lot with the tribes.
The half-bloods produced by these mar.
riages are much more promising race
than one would suppose.
Altogether the live tribes have in
band and in the United States Treasury
the aggregate sum Of $l9,000,000; they
own nearly 20,000,000 acres Of land,
some Of it literally underlaid with de.
posts of coal, iron and other rich
mineral resources, the whole valued
at 81 900, 100000 and easily salable at
that figure to-day; they produce between
S5,000,0OO and $6,0O0,00O worth OF
farm crops every year; and their live
stock is estimated at 100000 head. Be
sides all this they have prosperous cities
and towns, with schools, newspapers,
factories, mills and workshops in large
numbers, and $i77,066 worth of church
property Not counting their stock,
houses, mills, or factories, but simply
their land, trust funds, and farm pro.
ducts, the per-capita wealth of the five
tribes, men, women and children is
$1,S12.