The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1911-08-18

zion along Win nyQer, IlaZa duel
Bismarck. Garrison is we'll To-
Gated for those who wish to get
good land, and many will remain
there after registering until the
drawing takes place. Plaza is. the
only town entirely adjacent to the
reservation. The other reservation
towns will run autos out to the
reservation and return, traversing
the tract that is to be opened, SO
that the applicants for land may
have a fine opportunity for seeing
the same.
The drawing will take place four
days after close of registration at
Minot. The occasion will assume
something Of the spectacular. The
custom heretofore has been to put
the envelopes containing the ap-
plications into huge cylinder 30
feet long and six feet in diameter,
being thoroughly mixed by revolv.
ing, before the drawing. Judge
Written has instituted an innova:
tion for this occasion. A platform
40 feet square will be erected,
screened with netted wire to the
height of fifteen feet. On the
morning Of the drawing, Septem.
ber 9Th, the envelopes with the en-
closed applications will be dumped
into this screened 4O-foot square
platform enclosure, six men with
scoop shovels shoveling and mix
ing the same for the period of one
hour. At the expiration of this
time, two little girls, six or seven
years of age, selected by Judge
Written, will come upon the plat.
form, and in the presence of the
crowd cast lots for the privilege of
drawing first. The lncky little
maid will walk blindfolded into
the litter of envelopes and her
selection will be No. l, and the
drawing will proceed.
Any piece of land drawn, ac-
cording to public expressions in
the vicinity of the reservation, will
be we'll worth while, even though
to some favored ones fall the
choicest 1905. The character of
the soil is dark brown alluvial top,
with a retentive subsoil. This
subsoil is the secret of good wheat
land-the melting SHOWS of the
spring and the rains seeping down
through the top soil and being re-
tanned in the subsoil to feed the
roots of. the wheat as they shoot
downward into the moisture shere
preserved for nourishment.
History has been made on the
reservation soon to be opened to
the man of the plow. Hardly the
story of the remarkable scientific
- -T
achievements of advancing civili-
zation, nor the tales of fierce bar
barism, written in black indelible
type, simply the verbal story Of
people told BY the old men at the
tribal councils and there heard by
one who passed it to the writer.
Such is the story Of the Fort Ber-
thold reservation Indians, told by
Major Murphy of Minot. who was
Indian agent from 1889 to 1894.
There are now about 1900 Indians
living on this reservation, members
Of three distinct tribes. the Arick-
arees, (corn she ellers J, Gros Ventre,
(big belly and Mandans, (name
given By the French missionaries.
meaning travelling people, and
bound together about two hundred
years ago for protection against
the powerful and warlike Sioux.
Cfthe three tribes, the Arickarees
alone originated far from where
they now dwell, they having come
from the southern Pawnee tribes
(now in Oklahoma two hundred
years ago, on account of Q tribal
wrangle between the chiefs. The
first houses at the reservation were
builded iii 1909, when the Amerl-