The Olneyville tribune. (Providence, R.I.) 1893-189?, 1894-04-21
OSAGE INDIANS.
Some characteristics of This Tribe
Of Red Men.
They Can't Punish a Cripple
Even II he EmbeZzleS.

some twenty buildings, stores and
agony structures, mads'up the capi-
tai. Ont in a shallow valley, about
half mile from the agency, were
camped the Indians.
There are some sixteen hundred
Osages. About four hundred of these
are haif-bloods, or whites, admitted
into the tribe. These wear store
clothes OF an inferior sort and attempt
to distinguish themselves by civilized
airs. The eight hundred others wear
blankets, don feathers, decorate their
faces with paint, and are proud of il.
These are the full bloods The Osages
are a very wealthy outfit. They have
some l, 800, 900 acyes of as good land as
ever slipped from the Infinite. lfany
one were to buy it at anything like a
value, it would be worth fully $40 an
acre as an average.
aside from this, the Osages have
some 50, 900, 900 in the treasury in
Washington, $4,000, 900 of which is
supposed TO bear five per cent interest
per annum. / don't know that the in
terest is ever paid, but, whether IS in
terest or a donation, each Osaga re-
ceives from his great white father in
Washington $40 year in four pay
ments. The head of a family draws this
money. If there are ten in a family,
be has 81 400 year, and spends it
like a copper-colored lord. There are
seven traders in the Usage nation. To
the extent of the money due them,
every Indian has tick with these
traders.
"The politics of the Usage govern
ment divided the Osages into five
bands. They correspond to the states
of a nation, or the counties of a state.
The Osages have their head chief-a
sort of president-their chief Justice,
their treasurer, their attorney general
and their congress. This last is called
the national council. 1t is made up
of three delegates from each band.
None of the officers of the Osages get
over hundred dollars n year salary.
The honor, and the opportunity it af
fords for 'skinning' somebody, is re-
garded sufficient without piling up any
greater monetary bait by way of Sti-
pend. The national council has fifteen
members, three from each band.
"All these officers were elected. And
an Indian election is great scheme.
The ballot box is inside of sort of
rope corral. This rope fence, made
Of picket ropes and lariats tied to
trees, prevents anybody from getting
within forty feet of the voting table;
that is, any outside buck not employed
in the actual business of the election.
Inside are the judges and few select
friends of the candid ites, with the in
tarpreter and the clerk of elections.
When an Indian votes, the ballot is
opened and read, so that all the world
may hear-read in English and in the
Usage language, so that none may COM
plain that il was not honest and un-
derstood As result, fraud would
seem impossible.
These Indians are very Jealous
politicians. They will rake candi-
dates past with fine tooth comb, and
every story they can tell on him,
whether true or false, is told and re-
told, talked over and commented upon
every campfire in Osagedom. They
have a very good code of laws l am
told Some OF the faults of their
criminal laws are obvious. One was
Indicate 20 me as / stood looking on
the day / was there. A little dry,
dark. humphacked Usage was stand
ing near. He wore the clothes of n
white man. and took heed of him AZ
the only crippled Indian 1 ever saw.
What Indians do with their cripples is
never explained, but there are never
any about at any rate. This particu-
lar distortion, who had a shrewd, keen,
weasel face. was named to me as for
mer treasurer OF the tribe.
"'He loped of with 5000 of our
money Ny informant was a full
blooded Indian, with the common.
place name Of Bill Connor, and was
much feared and respected in the
tribe for intelligence, as we'll as for