Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1904-05-11
LAND SOLD ~ LOTTERY.
Uncle Sam Will Dispose Of indian
Lands by Lottery to Avoid Trouble.

Uncle Sam Will Dispose OF indian
Lands by Lottery to Avoid Trouble.
i: Uncle Sam will go into the lottery
business for little while, as the out
come Of legislation enacted by con-
gress at the session just ended for
opening to settlement lands in several
Indian reservations in the West. APP
picants for lands in these reserva-
tons will have to register their names
with government officials appointed to
conduct the drawings. In the sixty
days after the opening Of the reserva-
ton the lucky seekers for homes, de-
termined by lottery, will have the
chance to select the land they want.
In this way they will be protected
from the wild scramble, with the usual
attendant bloodshed, which has char
acterized the free home entry plan in
the past. There are notable advant-5
ages in the plan. It not only deter
mines the order Of choice, but keeps
record Of the people who have en-
tered the new lands and how much
they owe the government for the land
they have taken up. =
The reservation lands to be disposed
Of this time are not to be opened to
the public free of all charge, as was
done in the Oklahoma and other open.
ings several years ago, but will be sold
at fixed charge, The following
| facts show, in brief, the opportunity
for the home seekers and how they
must have money to get started this
time, instead of only dash and daring
as before: 49,.
Lands to be opened in Montana,
i 100000 acres, to be sold at $1.25 an
acre; limit for any one, entry, $40
acres; opening in August. Rosebud
reservation, South Dakota, 416,00O
acres, at So an acre; opening in July.
Red Lake reservation, Minnesotoa,
100000 acres; practically conditions.
Devils Lake reservation, North Da-
kota, 104,416 acres; most fertile lands
in that section of the west, $3.50 an
acre; opening in July.
Government officials in Washington
who will have general direction of the
plans of execution are confident that
the coming drawings will prove more
successful and satisfactory to every
one concerned than have any of the
past attempts of the government to
help along the home seekers of the
west.
Previous attempts to distribute free
land have been attended by the great
est disorder, and sometimes by loss of
life. The Oklahoma opening was the
focal point for 100000 anxious and ad.
venturous people, most of them trying
to get something for nothing, with the
idea of disposing of it as soon as they
could realize anything on it.
The real homeseekers were put at
disadvantage by these land butchers
and 10000 quarter sections of land in
tended for homes went through a
roundabout ownership without any ad-
vantage to the government and great
disadvantage to the home seekers.
By the new plan it is hoped to OBJ
viate all these difficulties. Every ap-
plicant must be registered before he
draws. When he draws a number and
goes out to select his land he must
pay fixed price an acre for all he
wants to take up. Having done that,
he will be protected in his rights by
the government by civil law in all
cases and by the military arm of the
government wherever and whenever
necessary.
The real home seekers will take up
the land in larger proportion than be-
fore, while the prize-seeking desperate
will find his former advantage over the
quiet, peace-loving citizen no longer
| exists.