The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1904-07-14


~ Man, woman and child-white
Men DO Their work.
Endowed with some 5000 more actual
wealth than that possessed by the aver
age citizsn Of the United States and
nearly twice as well off as the residents
of Brookline, Mass.-the worlds richest
community-it remains for tribe of
red men residing in northern Oklahoma,
ignorant, slothful as a rule and APP
parently but little removed from their
early state Of savagery, to bear off the
palm as the richest people in existence
to-day.
It is not that the members of this
tribe-the Osage-are millionaires.
They are not to be mentioned in the
same breath with John D. Rockefeller
or Pierpont Morgan, yet there is this to
be borne in mind-their collective
wealth exceeds that of all other COM
munities. Were all the wealth of the
world to be divided up the Usage would
receive far more than you or your next
door neighbor, or than Morgan or
Rockefeller for that matter.
GET 1915 PER CAPITA.
To state the figures plainly, the aver
age man in this world is entitled to
$1,000 worth of property, or $50 per
capita income. The Usage, through a
kind fortune and the goodness of heart
of the Great White Father, who drove
him from his earliest haunts, has $4,000
worth of property, and on that capital,
H.,
vest it, he receives from this govern
ment per capita income of $316.
To every single member of the tribe,
to the babe In the cradle who is liter
ally born with a silver spoon in its
mouth, to the old man lettering on the
brink Of the grave, to male and female
alike, this payment is made without re-
strictions 1t is in really very similar
payment to that which the Government
makes for pensions, but the sum is far
more substantial.
WILD AND GooD-NATURED.
And how did this red man come to be
20 enormously rich? somebody
may ask, The explanation is very. sim
pie. It was, indeed, through no special
exertion on his part, for iftthe truth
must be told the Osages have about
equally won the title of the LATEST peo-
pie on earth as well as the richest.
Away back in the early days the Osages
who apparently have always been a
rather mild, good-natured race, lived in
that part Of America now known ais
Missouri The tribe occupied the whole
State, living up and down the river
in the winter and following the buffalo
out in the buffalo time"
It was here that the white settlers,
In their march westward, first came in
to contact with them. The Osages were
not particularly bold warriors and gave
way rapidly before the advance of the
white man in fact rather scampered
westward SO that they first reached
the great rich fields of Kansas, raising
their tepees there, and by right of
eminent domain which this Government
has seen fit to recognize fell heir to the
property. When the Government took
up the matter of reservation for them
their big chiefs promptly agreed that
the amount Of land to which the Osages
were BY all rights entitled was 100000
acres in the richest part Of Kansas.
This the government consented tc
buy, particularly since the Osages were
giving trouble to the messengers of the
Wells Fargo Express Company and
were becoming involved in broils with
their more active neighbors, the
Cheyennes and Arapahoes.
The Government, therefore, paid to
the Usage tribe, or rather gave them as
a bond for deposit In the United States
Treasury, the sum of $8,271,143.3S. On
this Uncle Sam has been paying regu-
lsrly for just 20 years interest of per
cent, amounting annually to 1885,. 16
Uncle Sam did not leave the Indians
without home, however. He invited
them to move their tepees to Northern
Oklahoma, and in the fertile regior
they were told to take 100000 acres
and spend the rest of their days in
" wealth and luxury.
Therefore, in addition to his regular
allowance from the Government, the
Usage Indian is very easily enabled to
turn a penny or two by simply renting
out his lands, and as matter of fact
the tribe does draw a revenue of 3d.
600 annually from this source They
now number 1,788. Last year they
raised, or rather the white men who
work for them raised, 100000 bushel OF
wheat, 10000 bushels of oats, 20,00t
bushels of corn, II $50 bushels of vege.
tables and made 5000 pounds of but.
ter. Besides, they have 13,5O7 horses
$4,000 head of cattle. 117,0o0 swine and
$4,000 domestic fowls.
As to the manner In which These
'lords Of creation" with their bounti.
full supply Of the worlds goods, spend
their time and further as giving an in.
teresting illustration of the effect Of
wealth divided on the socialistic plan
a Western traveller who formerly lived
with the osages and is now in Wash.
ington gives the following testimony:
HAVE TOO MUCH MONEY.
Il hardly think that my friends
among the Usage Indians would thinl
well Of me If were to come out in prin,
as criticising their sloth and idleness,
said he, "but the truth of the matter i:
do not think that the fault rests with
the Usage Indians themselves, they be.
ing mild, pleasant, agreeable people
but with conditions that have caused