Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1896-11-04
FORTUNATE SQUAW NAN
His Lifelong Graft on The Raticns Of
Uncle Sam.
INDIAN WIVES EQUAL TO HEIRtSSsS
Opportunities that Were Seized by
Restless whites In Years PnSt--No
Trouble In I<ccping the
Wolf from the Door.

WOLF from the
What more could q man ask than to have
the government provide living for his
wife and all his children? What more
could a man wish for than to be free from
all taxes. free from the cares Of ordinary
rortais aud to live as careless and unre-
strained life as ever lived by thc wander
ing Indian tribes on our western plains?
Yet such an earthly paradise is enjoyed
by class OF white men in the west, re-
lates the Philadelphia Times, and they are
rapidly acquiring wealth under these favor
able conditions. They are mostly class
of men whose restless spirit and love Of
adventure brought them in contact with the
Indians in the early sos. Many OF these
men were hunters, supplying wagon trains
and United States troops with wild game
on their long journeys to Utah and Call
fornla. During these years the Indians fol-
lowed the buffalo, elk and deer over the
plains of Kansas and the valley OF the
Platte in Nebraska. These early pioneers
and hunters often camped and lived with
the Indians and made their homes in the
Indian tepeos. To insure their safety
they were often taken in as members of
tribe which was soon followed by their
taking a wife generally the daughter OF an
influential chief. II they wished to Join
tribe taking an Indian wife was proof OF
their sincerity-to the Indian. AS the
marriage ceremony consisted principally In
giving the prospective father-in-law Few
ponies and then conducting tho bride to
his own tepee within few years the squaw
men, as they were called. became quite
numerous.
linuuished all the territory occupied by them
in Kansas and Nebraska. and were con
fined to parts OF Wyoming and the great
Sioux reservation in western South Dako'a
In return for their concession they received
regular rations, which were increased in
1876, and certain annuities, which we're
given them In clothes each year. Those
white men who had married Indian women
bad now become engaged in stock raising.
When the Indians were restricted to their
reservations the squaw men followed their
Indian wives AID children. They gave up
hunting and devoted their time entirely to
the cattle business.
ON THE SIOUX RESERVATION.
No place in the United States is so finely
adapted TO stock raising as the Sioux reser-
walton Although the agreement of 1876 de-
prived the Indians of the Black Hills and
fertile valleys OF the Belle Fourche and the
agreement OF 1889 had further reduced their
grazing lands 100000 acres, yet the Sioux
reservation today is unsurpassed for stock
purposes The fertile valleys Of the Wounded
Knee. Porcuplne. Medicine Root and Bear
in-the-Lodge creeks are green with luXurlant
grasses even during the summer months,
when the western plains are parched and
dry. This fact the stockmen of northern
Nebraska fully appreciated and until few
years ago thousands of their cattle were
grazing on the reservation. But after
numerous disputes between the whites and
Indians and continued il-feeling caused by
petty theving on the part OF both cattle
men and Indians the Indian agent at Pine
Ridge issued an order requiring all white
men to remove their stock from the reserva-
A., FaKsf HI AFT
from this order. These were the squaw-
men who had married Indian women and
had settled on the reservation. They had
acquired none Of tho rights OF an Indian by
their marriage. but were allowed to remain
with their families. These are the men who
fear not taxes and whose families are wards
OF the government. BY treaties and agree
ments with the Indians every Sioux, whether
full, half or quarter-blood. who remains OF
the reservation draws rations from the gov
ernment, receives annuities under the treaty
OF 1868 and will practically be taken care Of
and fed until they become self-supporting
which will not come to pass for severa
generations
The white man who marrles an Indian may
remain on the reservation with all the
rights OF his wife, and has the rights OF
full-blooded Sioux as far as the stock anC
free range question Is concerned. but, o
course, draws no rations, An Indian is no
citizen and has no rights worth mention
ing, yet he has one that is the envy OF al
western cattlemen-that OF possessing free
unlimited range for his cattle in the fines
uplands and most luxuriant valleys in tn,
west.
HOMES OF SQUAw MEN.
The White river in the southwestern par
OF South Dakota, is the northern boundar!
or this great Sioux reservation and on IT.
banks are the homes of most OF the squav
men Here the vegetation is the thickes
and most nutritious. and over the hills graz,
thousands of well-fed sleek, contented cat
Of no 1s,.
have made their homes here, miles from civ
ilization, He can enter no land of his owl
on the reservation. When he wishes Il
make home he merely seeks a favorable
location near water and there builds hi.
house and corrals, BY permit OF the IndiaI
agent at Pine Ridge he may fence In 81
or 100 acres near his house for his cows anC
his horses. In most cases the house is thu
regulation log, chinked with mud, and sol
roof. Seine have board floor and other
with no floor but the natural earth. Ye
there are several squaw men who have nea
frame cottages and several log buildings TO
farm and stock purposes although latel,
there has been no attempt at farming what
ever. Stock raising is the quickest an,
surest road to wealth. Farming has beer
tried but is not a success. Crops are to-
uncertain The few acres planted in corr
this spring will yield nothing but fodder
Why shouldn't man acquire riches unde
such favorable circumstances? Every tw
weeks his wife and all her children. mother
in-law, father-in-law, and all his wlfe's othe
relatives draw from the government an aver
age Of one and one-half pounds OF beef OF
the block per day. Every month there
the issue of one pound of flour per day L
every man. woman and child, or the equiva
lent OF one pound of flour in beans, sugar
coffee and salt. Then there is the issue O
clothing by treaty of 1868, which does no
expire until 1899.
In 1900 the government will have to blu