The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-01-25
fslving un Their Lnnda.

Minneapolis Tribune
 The F'lathead Indian tribe is prepar- ing to abandon the old life and enter upon the career of husbandmen and stock raisers.
 The coming change is due to the opening to settlement of their great reservation on the Pacific slope of Northwestern Montana. which will oc- cur next spring. Gts trerie
 The body of land contains approxi- mateiy 1.500,000 acres--the most fertile in America--and it's opening will be practically the last great accession to the public domain. The Indians will each receive eighty acres, and as they are far advanced in the ways of civil ization there is no doubt of their abil- ity to take care of themselves. In this they differ greatly from the other aborigines in the Rocky Mountains, and, indeed. in all other sections of the country.
 Among the many Indian tribes of the Rocky Mountains none is more re- nowned in modern history than the Sell ish Nation, commonly called Flatheads These Indians are shapeiy the bar barous custom. head-flattening. implied by the appellatfon and practicedi by some of the tribes on the Sound and Pacific coast, being utterly unknown among them.
 It can be stated as a fact, admitting no contradiction, that the Flathead, or Selfish, Indians throughout their en- tire contact with the white race, dat ing from 1902 to the present day, have proved themselves the noblest type of red men upon the American continent, Senator Vest, of Missouri, in a speech in the United States Senate in 1884. paid eloquent tribute. to this tribe in the following words:
 Today the Flatheads are 100 per cent in advance of any other Indians In point of civinzation. at least in Mon- tana. Among the Flatheads you find farms, you find civilization, you find you find relations of hus- band and wife and of father and child scrupulously observed"
 Two distinct causes may account for the superiority of the Flatheads over other Indian tribes, viz: natural dis position and temperament, which fur nishes excellent moral traits upon which to work. and a religious train ing afforded to few. if any. other h. dian nations ~Y
 Because of their docility and eager ness in adopting the principles of Christianity and because of the perse- verlng labors of Jesuit missionaries and Catholic sisters and nuns, cover- ing more than half a century, the Flat head Indians are today the civilized community described by Senator Vest.
 Instead of warlike. shiftless type, they are peaceful, kind. temperate, in- dustrious. They read, write till the soil, have their orchards. their cattle. and their domestic fowls. They wer the garb of the white man in large numbers. observe the laws of the land. are comparatively free from all immor- al practices and worship God with an unswerving faithfulness and devotion.
 It is also well known that during all the years since white men set foot in this part of the country there is no record of any member of the Flat head tribe having ever spilled the blood of white man. It is doubtful wheth- CT any other. aboriginal race could make a similar claim.
 This exceptional tribe of Indians in few months will be forced to relin- quish their broad valleys and limpid fishing grounds to the memorable em- pire builder. The white. man needs more land. The Indians must go.
 There Is tinge of sadness constant new observer. as he witnesses the broad acres upon acres of richly en- dowed virgin lands. which springs from the thought that the red man is des- tined to give up these lands to the white man and himself be narrowed down to the limitations of a small eighty acre unit of land fog the re- mainder of his days,
 The Flathead reserve has an area Of 1.433, 900 acres, all of which, with the exception of the lands taken up by the Indians for homesteads. will be thrown open to the whito man.
 The opening Is expected to be at tended by the greatest rush of home- sekers jn the history of the West.
 The Chinese domiciled in Siam have to pay a small poll tax once every three years. When this has been paid the collector ties a. string around the mems