Omaha daily bee., 1902-07-22
REsPDoTlBLr LANp sBlRks

RESPECTABLE LAND SHARKS.
II The Omaha Bee desired to set the
truth of agency conditions and Indian
afairs in this county before It's readers,
why does II not send a man here to in
vestigate who will seek information from
our representative citizens instead OF from
bootleggers and d%isgruntled politicians who
have axes TO grind In defaming the agent
and leading citizens OF our co~unty.-Pender
Republic.
The Bee has no desire or disposition to
misrepresent either the agency condi-
tons or the conditions of the Indians or
white men at or near the Omaha and
Winnebago reservations, nor has 1t any
political ends to subserve or personal
malice to crafty in defaming the agent
or any citizen of Thurston county. When
1t despatched a special representative
from its reportorial staff to investigate
the conditions at the agency two months
ago, he was instructed to make a pains
taking and impartial inquiry without
withdrawing or blackwashing anyone
He may have conferred with bootleggers
and di%sgruntled politicians as we'll as
with representative citizens, but the
facts he gathered are damaging and
scandalous.
1t Is deplorable but nevertheless true
that representative citizens Of Thurston
county nearly all belong to that class
that believes a dead Indian is a good
Indian after he has been plucked, and
that anything that can be gotten put of
the Indian by fair means or foul means
is perfectly legitimate. In this respect
the representative citizens Of Thurston
county are much like representative citi-
zens Of Omaha twenty-five years ago,
who were willing to share the plumber
of a lottery gambler by the name of
Pattee, who wal very liberal with his
money and was willing to distribute it
to representative citizens so long as he
was let alone and his swindling gift en-
terprises tolerated by the community.
A sample brick of the methods where
representative citizens" are interested
in Indian land speculation has Just been
furnished by decidedly more respectable
citizens Of the same county to Special
Agent Ruby relative to the purchase of
Omaha reservation lands last spring.
The following extract from the affidavit
Of Thomas Huston will suffice.
am a resident of Thurston county, In
the state Of Nebraska. Am acquainted with
the value OF real estate In the neighbor-
hood in which l reside. The land above de-
anrihad (daonriRflonN -. -, Al. oIAA -.
Of May last. reasonably worth S45 per acre.
/ was In oNeill, Neb.. on the Gath day Of
May, 1902. / vent there Tor the purpose
Of attending the sale OF the above. described
lands, together with other lands known as
the Omaha Indian lands, There l found a
combination to control said sale. The per-
sons in said combination, as near as / could
learn, were Nick Fritz. Matthias williams,
John McKeagan, William Tigh and Mr..
henderson. They invited the persons pres
emit. who intended to bid on any OF said
lands, to attend a meeting at the office Of
one John A. Harmon, an attorney-at-law,
which l attended. At this meeting there
were twenty or more prospective purchas-
ers present. The managers OF this meeting
stated publicly that there was no chance
for any Of us to attempt to bid and get
any Of this land that they had everything
fixed 30 that we could not get II. The
managers then offered to pay each one
present. who had come there to bid, a
sum out OF a fund that was then and there
raised by said managers and put into the
hands of one A. West for disbursement OF
said sum. Said sum-, being 81, $50, was in
our presence paid over to said West and
was afterwards paid by said West to the
persons present In consideration that they
refrain from bidding at said sale. I ac-
cepted what was allotted to me, which was
$3.50, believing that the combination was
such that I could lave no opportunity to
bid. II l had had an opportunity to bid
l would have paid S45 per acre for the
eighty acres above described.
Similar affidavits were made by r. A.
Downs and James l. Seymour of Pen
der, each Of whom had received bonuses
for refusing to bid on the Omaha reser-
walton lands, which were sold at $1S per
acre to the conspirators when they could
have sold readily to responsible, respect
able citizens for $45.
If there is any difference between this
bold and villainous conspiracy to rob
the Indians in the downright purchase
of their lands and the leasing Of 10000
or $4,000 acres of lands at from 90 cents
to 81 per acre, for which sub-lessees pay
from So to So per acre. we fail to com
prehend it. If an agent could allow the
sale of $45 Indian lands for $1s an acre
to stand without sounding an alarm.
how can he be DETAINED by being de-
nounced as a fraud in collision with
frauds? 'a'o