The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1900-05-08
OSAGE MEMORIAL
Coutinued from page 3.

miiar with the evil results that followed.
on every hand we know Of members OF
said tribes who are 6nxiousy awaiting
the allotment of their country in order
that they might be enabled to sell Their
lands and once more in this life gaze up
on and possess a ~ten-dollar United States
gold standard note.
From falling into a like situation we
pray that our people be restrained. DO
not permit the Usage trader to make the
first inroad on our trust funds. If he Is
given to understand now, once and for
all, that he can not get a dollar Of the
Usage trust funds under existing condi-
tions, the future dealing between the
Usage Indians and the Usage traders VIII
be conducted on sound business princi-
pies, to the great benefit Of both, and the
trader will receive every dollar that is
his due.
Does it not seem that the Usage Indian
trader is not worried SO much about that
which is due, him but he has become i'm
patient of even the swiftly moving sands
of life, and in his haste and avarice wild
ly seeks to at nee destroy the goose
that lays the golden egg?" The situation
- imp ms "A b1A 5aAh Noo
into; the trader let the Indian have the
goods; the traders knew the indian re-
sources, knew the amount Of his income;
the principal Of the trust funds was new
er considered or counted upon; when the
Indian got the money the trader was
there at his elbow with outstretcheu
hand to receive it; it was given TO him
almost invariably.
The ndian has lived up to his part of
the bargain, but the trade has tired of
his part; he wants to make a new deal.
He now says to the Indian: you owe us
in round numbers $3.50, 600. You will nave
to give us all the money that you could
get hold of, but it is not good enough. We
now ask you to dive down into the prin-
cipal of your trust funds and take there
from 81, 240, 100, so that you can pay us the
$3.50, 600 that you owe, in addition to the
amount that you will owe by the time
that the 81, 24O,O 900 is paid out"
Ought not the rad in all fairness be
compelled to wait until the Indian can
pay him out Of the interest on the trust
finds, as it was agreed he should do? In
the meantime the Indian may learn use
full Lessons of economy. 1t is certain that
as soon as he finds out that he cannot
get the big payment" he will economic.
In every other respect he mas made Won
derful advancement. The least of the
learning of the Osages has been the re-
puted value of money. They can hardly
be expected to know more than they do
when it is remembered that only TWEEN
ty-fve years g they were barbarians
in the most extreme sense.
In point of rapidity Of progress and en-
Eghtenment they have outstripped all
people of all time. Since the days OF the
Gentle Nazarene,' l take it, there nave
been no miracles, and it would be mirac-
ulous, indeed, if the Osages were a peo-
pie who thought and acted as do the de-
scendants of people who have lived by
traffic for hundreds of years. Yet the
Osages are possessed of many virtues,
among which are parental and fraternal
love in an eminent degree. They cherish
the hope that When the Usage people are
finally considered by congress as capable
Of assuming the onerous duties of Amer
can citizenship there will be conveyed to
those of our people who shall participate
in that suspicious change the Usage trust
IunuS anu lue Usage ldIluS lltdSNi uLlNiAh-
ininshed by a single dollar or a single
acre.
on that occasion it is to be hoped h a
Usage traders will not be deemed a mem
ace and their blemished horses and trap
pings and tinsel and brass will ave lost
their allurements.
The matter of breaking into the prin-
cipal of our trust fund is of almost vital
tribe. In seeking to keep this trust fund
intact until our country is allotted, our
present system of tribal government dfs-
rupted, the existing condition of things
here revolutionized, and our people
turned adrift upon the world to battle for
themselves, we are prompted only by
feelings of parental, fliai and fraternal
love. In the name Of that portion of the
Usage people who have been impervious
to the wiles and threats of the Usage
traders and nave been equally impene-
trable to the persuasive %eloquence OF
our own people who have followed the
promptings Of their embryo cupidity, !
earnestly entreat you to exert your in
huence in preventing the payment Of any
portion of the principal of our trust
funds. Grateful to you in advance, I am,
Yours truly,
JOHN f. PALMER.
uACITNJCTON NAV 7-Tbe fo11ouiu