The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-06-07

advertiser Correspondence, Copyright
by Frederic J. Easkin.l

Dy freuerlc y. IdSKlhl
SPOKANE, May 22.-Foot by foot
the American Indian has been driven
quering tide of a superior civilization.
Life by life he has yielded up his place
as one of the great families of the
human race, until today he has but
one acre where he used TO have hum
dred thousand; today there is only one
of him where there used to be a hum
dred. From the Atlantic westward,
and from the Pacific eastward two
tides of civilization have been forcing
him back. Just now the United States
government is preparing to take some
more of his land and present it to
those white American citizens who still
desire to be conquerors of the wild.
This time 1t is the lands of the Occur
d Alene Indian reservation that are
to be divided There are more than
half a million acres in it and only 600
Indians. Uncle Sam is going to give
each Indian a quarter section, and the
rest he will present to some of his
fortunate white nieces and nephews.
But after all the Indian will fare
pretty well. The average American
citizen who possesses 100 acres of tip
top farming land considers himself
rather we'll off. Each Indian on the
reservation will be allowed to pick
quarter section before his paleface
fore. the Indians will get the cream
of the reservation if they choose wise |
ly. This, together with that portion
which will be set aside for other pur-
is probable that the Indians will choose /
farming land: and this will leave some !
400 600 acres to be divided among white |
homesteaders. 100, 900 of which will be
agricultural land. The other 300.0oN
acres are mountainous and covered
with valuable timber.
There is much work to be done be-
fore the reservation can be thrown
open for settlement. The law provides
that there shall be three appraisers.
and that each one of them must visit
every forty-acre section on the reser-
walton. There are 1850 of these sub
divisions. The valuators will probably
drive a stake in the center of each
quarter section and walk around it.
and the law will have been complied
with. The Indians will be given their
selections, which must be approved by
the Secretary of the Interior. and then
the remainder will be classified, APP
praised and turned over to the white
This, the law provides,
shall be thrown open for homestead
at such time and in such
manner as the President may desig- ;
nate This ''such manner" will be the
new form of land lottery, a lottery |
n which every ticket draws a prize
Until the prizes are exhausted. In the {
oug run the timbered land will prob
ably prove more valuable than that {
which is cleared. and it is likely TO :
meet with equal favor with the other. I
On the reservation the government |
las a sawmill. capable of cutting TO-. l
100 feet of logs a day, with planer {
md shingle plant, also a grist mill of I
hirty-five barrels capacity. These {
we're eStab lfShe0 years ago ana nave [
,een a great help to the Indians in i'm
proving their lands. The Indians are 7
equired to take the logs to the saw {
Mill. where they are cut into lumber. {
rhe government supplies all the skilled i
abor but the Indians must bring the i
ogs to the mill and take the lumber &
way. In this way they have secured I
much of the lumber for their houses 5
md barns at no cost except the labor I
# securing the logs and hauling the /
lumber. No charge is made for grind q
ng their grain q
The reservation is bounded on the 7
vest by the washington-Idah state G
inc. which it follows forty-two miles L
outh Its northern extremity is al t
most due east of Rockford. Washing Il
on It's upper boundary runs east
ew miles and then turns TO the south il
asst. crossing Occur d'Alene lake and /.
unning to the southeast of the town {
f Harrison. Idaho. seven miles. The o
eservation comes almost to a point I
here. and its southeastern boundary d
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