The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-12-04
INDIAN IND IT'S MONEY.
He Spends Cash Freely for Brig - Col
 Ored Goods.


 He Spends Cash Freely for Brig Col Ored Goods.
 | From tho Morning Oregoniap,l
 John s. Beall, a business man of Spo- kane, who has been recently travelling in Idaho, was in Lewiston for several days last week, and while there was an interested observer of the manner in which the Neg Perces Indians are re- ceiving and making use of money now being paid them by the government ao- cording to agreement, for their unal- lotted lands, MT, Beall said:
 Lewiston and the whole region round about had been looking forward to the pay day for a long time and had been making preparations for it. The Indians, of course, had also made preparations, and had decided a long time beforehand just what they would do individually with their wealth when it should come to them. The payments commenced last Monday, when $50,0 ,0O0 l think. was paid out. Since then the payments have continued at the rate of $90,000 a day, which will be kept up understand, until the whole sum of over $1,50O,OOO is paid over to the Indians. The latter receive their checks from the agent at the reservation, which, | you know, is some ten miles from Lew iston, The Lewiston banks cash the checks, all in gold, charging the Indians | 50 cents a hundred, which covers the cost of having had the big sum trans ported and leaves them some profit The Indians will take nothing but gold They can't count greenbacks, and sil- yer, even in dollar pieces, presents diff culties to most of them The amounts re- ceived by the individual Indians range, l believe, all the way from $500 to about | $3OOO, according to whether he is a | bachelor or a married man. If he re- joices in squaw and papooses he is a wealthy buck, for the larger his family the greater the amount he receives. l saw an incident at one of the banks yesterday that was somewhat amusing An Indian had left his squaw outside while he entered and drew about $1, ,000 | or so. Half of this money he immedi- | ately deposited, the rest he put in his | pocket, except a $5 piece, which heA had | changed to five silver dollars. These he brought out and gave to the squaw with grunt which doubtless signified that it was all the money she was going to get out of this snap.
 One thing may be said which is de- cidedly to the credit of the Indians They are paying all their debts. even those extending back dozen years or more. Every creditor stations himself or has a man at the bank, who. as fast as a debtor Indian receives his money reminds him of te debt The Indian makes no murmur, but quietly pays over the amount. He never forgets the | debt, and requires no accaunt book to | refer it. Many-I presume all of the | Lewiston merchants-have frequently l trusted these Indians for goods sold them at various times during the last few years, knowing that they were to | receive money. The post trader at the reservation has trusted them to an al most unlimited extent in some in- stances. I was told that many Indians were indebted to him for sums ranging as high as $500 Of course it would have been hard on him and on the other merchants if the Indians had chosen to renounce their obligations, but none of them have done so.
 Jim Reuben, the Indian who engi- neered the arrangement whereby the | Indians were allotted the lands and re- eeived the money for the territory | thrown open to the whites is very con- spicuous in an unassuming way about Lewiston. He is unusually intelligent as Indians go, and his whole tribe place great reliance on his judgment upon all questions affecting them. He has al ways stood as a go-between from his people to the whites. It was he. you know, who went to Washington in the interest of the Neg Perces when the subject of allotment came up, and he stays around now to see that they get all that belongs to them. He gets a pretty good thing out of it himself | two per cent of the whole sum paid the tribe, or over s30000, besides his own familys share and allotment.
 "The Indians are laying in a vast stock of blankets, saddles and similar useful articles, as we'll as buckets of beads for the squaws. They buy a great number of broad brimmed light hats. For months they have ben go- ing through the stores selecting their purchases in advance They buy the blankets having the gayest colors, and they will all beScarrying miniature rain bows on their backs for a. long time to come. They pay from $9 to SIP for these blankets but they don't buy them so much for quality as for color An Indian never bargains, and you can't show him things and talk him into buying them as you can the white cus- toner. He insists on going through the stock and picking out what he wants, unaided This saves a vast amount of labor, two or three clerks being able to wait on the Indians where a dozen or more would be required to wait on white people, Having made his selection he may come back every | day or so to look at 1t for half an