The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-07-20
RICH CROW INDIANS.

I1uW lHelF MOlley IS IO bE SpSht 4c1 1 Them-Wierd Burial Customs. Awaiting the word of President Roosevelt, 100000 arcres. of rich agri- cultrial and grazing ground are ready for settlement under the Homestead and other acts by which a citizen of the United States, though poor, can acquire an estate. The land is part of thehunting grounds of the Crow Indians in Southeastern Montana, which were years ago made into re- servation for the members of that tribe. The government began negotia- ting with the Indians for this land in 1896, and so many delays have there been that it looks now as if it will be next spring before the reservation will be actually thrown open for settlement 1 In the bargain for that part of the reservation for which they have no use the Crow Indian chiefs have shown themselves to be masters of high finance. Not for kegs of brass tacks, blankets and barrels of rum did they barter away the lands of their fathers, as did the Atlantic Coast Indians in 1 the days when Manhattan was being settled. Pretty Eagle, Two Leggings, Medicine Eagle and the other chiefs were entirely too "up to date" for that. They saw to 1t that the govern ment paid the tribe $1,150,0O0 for this surplus acreage, and by this one deal they made theselves the richest In- dians in the world. asn
 The last census of, the Crow tribe showed that there were only 51s men, and among this number the purchase money would have gone a long way, There would have been about s2,300 for each adult Indian. The government decided, however, that it would not 50 far after all if the Indians spent it in their own way. It would have been case of hike" for Billings, or Toiuca, or Pryor, or some of the other towns on the railroad, where they would have purchased all sorts of curious things, from plume bearing hearses to silk hats, and without doubt they would also have laid the foundations of a monumental jag" They would have returend in a week or so to their re- stricted reservation with terrible headaches, but with little to show for their money.
 Knowing all this from experience, Uncle Sam decided to be a real uncle to his Crow wards; and the agreement as to the payment of the purchase money has been as well surrounded with anti-squandering safeguards as the wills of maiden aunts who never left England or the endowments of modern hero funds. The Indians will not get enough in actual cash to celebrate the Fourth of July or quench a midsummer nights thirst.
 The first $9O,OOO of the $1,150,0O0 which the Indians are to receive will be spent by the Secretary of the Interior in im- proving the irrigation system which the government is constructing on that section of the reservation which the Crows still hold. The sum of $10,000 goes to the extension of the ditehes of individual Indians. Then the whole ir- rigation scheme is endowed with the sum of $100,0Q0, the fund to remain in the United States Treasury and draw interest at the rate of per cent. Tn fifteen years, it is expected, the irriga- ton scheme will be self supporting, and the Indians and the Secretary will then get together on further dis position of this money.
 The Secretary of the Interior, though his cattle buyers, will also spend $24O,- 900 purchasing tWo-year-old Southern heifers. These animals will be placed in the reservation as part of the herd
 which the tribe owns in common.
 The appropriation for jackasses
 which Congress provided was $15,000,