The Washington times., 1905-02-26
.OSAGE INDIANS
WEALTHY PEOPLE
Each Receives Income of
$3.50 a Year.
PROPERTY WORTH MILLIONS
Other Tribes OF Red Men Who Are
Poor and Driven Close to
Hunger.
WORTH MILLIONS


one when discussed by the new Com
missioner of Indian Affairs Francis E.
Ieupp. In the course of talk with J.
Martin Miller. Washington correspon-
dent Of the Newark News. on the sew
eral tribes and remnants of tribes of
the North American aborigines. Mr.,
Leupp said:
1.s00, are the richest people. per capita,
or the face OF the globe.
They have between $1,000, o90 and
So. 600. eco to their credit with the United
States Government, the proceeds Of land
they have sold. This money is earning
. per cent interest or, in round num-
bers, s450,o q ear. This gives each of
the osages, say, $3.50 a year. If the
principal Of their tribal fund were al
Iotted TO them as iadividuals 1t VIII DC
seen that each Indis.l would have some
s5. coo in cash
I'm addition to this the Osages have
more than si.500,000 arses of land, or
roughly. about 1000 acres each. This
land IS very valuable and would easily
average. should say. $50 an acre. Each
member of the Usage tribe then may be
said 10 own land that is worth fully
2o,oo0 making total of about s25, 600
worth of actual property for each mem
Der of the tribe.
Income Froa Rentals
I'm addition to the $3.50 income from
interest. each Indian of this tribe re-
ceives about 800 per yea- from the rem
tails of lands for stock raising purposes
Within recent years rich deposits of oil
nave been discovered on the Usage Res
erYation. and the ffIbe Is now getting
large income from this source. They
get one-tenth Of the oil pumped.
IF a baby Is bor,i in the tribe OF
| the day the interest payment is made
The infant begins to draw its share i'm
| mediately- II child dies. its parents
OF executors get the lext payment after
death II there is family of eight chill
drens fer instance. each draws it's share
| regardless Of age, as well as parents
| So that if each Usage Indian receives
$3.50 interest money and 500 rent money.
| in all $3.50. a family of ten would re-
ceiye an income of So. 500
No Race Suicide.
rs there any race suicide agitation
/ in the Usage nation?" Mr.. Leupp was
asked. He said: NO. indeed, the popu-
lar reason-poyerty-for race suicide
does not exist in the case of the Osages
I cannot say. howeFer. that the tribe
is increasing in NUMBERS very fast. II
is very slightly holding more than its
| own as TO population.
/ 1T is difficult te get a census of n
| dians The safest guide for getting al
| the population is the lay table They
always show heads when their money
Is due
THE Indians are disappearing by
| merger with the white race rather than
/ by any other way The white race
| brings into the blood the ancestral idea
of the care Of children. The death rate
| among the children of the Indians has
| always been large. They do not know
| how 10 care for their children properly
| But they love their children and cannot
be contented when separated from them
| This has made ii difficult to get their
children to attend school satisfactorily
Came by Inheritance
AS to whether the osages deserve
credit for the possession of so much
wealth, Mr. Leupp s:sid:
| Their unprecedented peg capita wealth
| came 10 them by inheritance and not
! because of any effort on their part AS
| 1t happened. their land was choice and
well located. Their good fortune may
be said TO be an accident. Some peo-
/ pie might call it luci1,y.
| Ills uotS DDt dltET lIlG i@Icl, however,
| that the Osages have many deserving
I business men among them who are
| prosperous aside from their inheritance.
| Probably the most wreucheG of any
| of the tribes are the Mohayes They
| have always been nomads. The Moquls,
| and the Pueblo Indians gcneraIly-those
| who live in little ages-eXcel in mat
ter Of thrift. They have been given in
| structions in agriculture by teachers
sent them. but often IL y prove them
| selves SO clever that 1t turns out that
| they knox more than their Instructors,
For instance, they know how 10 raise
| corn and peaches IN Gin country better
| than any white naI pcan teach them,
| They have never De, n ration Indians,
but the Government has helped them at
| times when they were in distress for
| reasons over which they had no control.
! They work early and late and are
peacea bic.
Pima Indians Poor.
'.The Pima Indians of Arizona are very
! poor, but deserving. They were always
friendly with the white man, have fur
nished scouts to the army and have in
many ways shown their good will
toward us The whites who came in
long after these Indians were settled on
little farms took up the land above their
reservation, appropriated all the water
and cut their farms off from the suppl"
These indians now eke out living In
any way they can. They have gone
along supporting themselves, unwilling
To accept help from the Government If
| they could ayoi6 it,
THE Government has now undertaken
to sink wells and put up pumps for them
so that they cdn irrigate their land. The
| Senate committee put an appropria ton
90
Indian bill with which to restore their
water. This is the only hope of this un-
fortunate tribe. Their reservation com
prises 800 600 acres of land and there
are 400 indians in the tribe. They have
no income whatever.
Are a Sturdy People.
| .sThe Pima Indians are a sturdy neo-