The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-04-23
LOTS OF LAND.
The Government Has a Large
Amount UndispOsed OF,
But the Fertile Soil is About
Exhausted.
NEED OF IRRIGATION.
How 1t is Proposed to Dispose
Of Land.

WAGHINGToN, April Cd Especial. ] =
The committees on public lands and on
Indian affairs are pretty much of one mind
to the measure introduced by Mr. Nc
Rae, and when perfected by some amend
ments the general opinion is that it will
speedily become a law. The impression has
been for some time that there was very lit
tie good land remaining to which this
measure could apply, but the figures in
the Indian committees bills and reports
show a surprisingly large area which may
soon be obtained, and according to Mr.
McRae there IS much more in abandoned
military reservations and prospective for
FIXTURES of railway grants. Everybody has
read with much interest of the great rushes
made into the recently opened lands in
Oklahoma, South Dakota and elsewhere,
the result of which was that the most Wig
orous, sometimes the most desperate and
1awless, held the lands. The McRae bill
would put an end to all this. 1t provides
for selling the land to the highest bidders,
but each purchaser must be bona fide set
tier and obtain only the tract allowed for
presumption or homestead. In short, he
would only buy the exclusive right to take
as a settler.
Many Small Areas.
Several treaties now pending and sew
eral bills are introduced to give effect to
other treaties which will in no long time
open considerable land, but several of the
tracts are so remote and secluded and also
available to intending settlers already in
the vicinity. Among these is the land of
the Yakimas in the state of Washington
part of which is said to be very good. An
other treaty provides for cession of the land
of the Xunas in California but that is
chiefly in region where water is more val
liable than land, the latter is only use
full where there is plenty of the former.
The Chippewa reservation in Minnesota is
of the same general character as other
md md 57.1rir ion ic
not needed there.
By one general treaty now pending the
COmanches, KioWas and Apaches give up
a tract of tOlerably good land in the Indian
Territory The large area which the Yank-
ton Sioux of South Dakota asked to
surrender is of a varied character, and the
testimony to its fertility is quite
f1icting. In all probability it is like most
of the land on the dividing line between
the dry plains and the region of abundant
moisture, where, as Jerry Simpson puts it,
There is just rain enough to make fellow
hang on and hope and just drought enough
to keep him dog poor till he learns how tc
farm in such country The Round
Valley reservation and the klamath river
reservation in California comprise some
good valley land, with much of the Dor
dering hills and some rocky points. The
land to be obtained from the White Noun
tain Apaches in Arizona is of character
like the small valleys in Utah and western
available by a large body of settlers acting
together in providing a water supply.
Otherwise it would be available only for
pasture.
The Kickapoos have some fairly goo0
Iand both in Arizona and the Indian Ter
ritory. This tribe has been noted from an
early period in history incurably
hostile. Within a hundred years they have
alternately fought and fallen back before
the whites from the Wabash to the upper
ALL e
the tribe voted few years ago to submit
and take United States protection the rest
declared eternal enmity to the white man
and scattered in all directions, and there
are today Indians of the Kickapoo blood
in British COlumb ia and the Mexican state
of chihuahua as well as in almost every
tribe between
Progressive Red Men.
AS seen on the map and as shown in the
figures, there seems to be an enormous area
of available land, but so much of it is
mountain or desert that the best informed
witnesses before the Indian committee do
not think the total tillable exceed
5, O0O 900 acres, and it is probably less than
that. AS there must be at least half a
million men who want to go west, get
land and grow up with the country it is
easy to see the reasons for Mr.. McRae's
bill to prevent a rush. Mention of the pro-
posed treaty with the Nez Perces of Idaho
revives a languid interest in this progress
I've but unfortunate race Oh Indians Ihcy
rank with the CherObees, NavajOeS, the
Crees of Manitoba and some others hav-
ing an original civilization or at any rate
an inherent tendency toward progress.
The earliest expeditions to beyond the
Rocky mountains found the Nez Perces SUI
perior to other Indians, and when the Nor
mons first extended their settlements
northward from Great Salt lake they were
met by parties of that tribe and found
them the shrewdest traders in horseflcsh
in the country as well as very skillful
breeders. The story of Chief Joseph is still
fresh in the public mind, and he is fully
recognized as one of the few truly noble
red men
Nearing the Crucial Period.
There is in Oregon a collection Of rem
nants of tribes, known as the affiliated
bands, who propose to cede some land, and
that part of the Wichita reservation in the
Indian Territory which is to be ceded is
described as very fine. The military reser-
walton at Durango, Colo, is of the same
general character as the Utah and Arizona
land above described, and there are other
military reservations soon to be made avail
able. In the Fifty second congress bill
passed the house for reclaining some 3d.
0OO 600 acres of the land granted to rail
road companies, but it failed of action in
the senate.
Lest any reader should be deceived by
the figures it must be added that the most
valuable lands have long since passed to
private parties, and nearly all that remain
consist of mountain and desert, SALT soda
and alkah beds. In-short, the briefest ex-
animation of the maps and of the figures
before the two committees shows that we
are rapidly nearing, if we have not already
reached, that period which our English
friends have so long pointed out as the
time when our popular institutions would
hRI fria Il an-