The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1911-11-03
A SOURCE Of REGRET
THE SOUTH HALF OF THE RESER.
WALTON TO BE 4 DISAP.
POINTMENT.
LANDS ALLOTTED TO INDIANS
With No Surplus to Distribute Among
EXpectant White Home
steaders.

Clair Hunt, allotting agent on the
south half of the Colville reservation,
stopped over in Oroville Tuesday
night, on his way to Spokane and Sc
attic. According to Mr.. Hunts state
ment the date for the throwing open
of the reservation is obscured in the
distant future, and it would be impos-
sible to name any fixed time for that
event. With his assistants, Mr. Hunt
has been steadily at work assigning
allotments for a year and a half, and
he is only about one-third through
with that tedious job. He states that
there upward OF $500 claimants to be
provided for on the south half, and
with all the speed that can be made
progress is slow enough. If the same
ratio of progress is made in the allot-
ting of the remaining two-thirds of
those entitled to land it will require
two or three years more to finish up
the work
A statement made by Mr. Hunt will
be disappointing to land hunters gen.
orally, and especially to the people of
the balance of the county, who have
been confident that in time the south
half would be a well populated and
important portion of the county, and
that is the declaration that when the
allotmentS are all made there will
hardly be desirable quarter section
left for white occupancy on the south
half II any man is familiar with the
territory embraced within the reser-
ration it Is Mr.. Hunt. He has been
aver and ,knows every foot of If, and
*neff sfS n.s4ss,; ti x ~ aikrI :
ed above the public can depend upon
it being literally true. Many people
have been looking forward to the open
ing of the south half of the Colville
reservation with the expectation of Sc
curing desirable land. That eXpecta-
ton cannot be fulfilled. No doubt the
government Will proceed, after the al
lotment is completed, to distribute the
residue of the land by the lottery sys-
TEN that has attracted so much at
tention at the times OF the opening to
settlement of other Indian reserves in
the west, and applications for chances
will be numerous. Few, if any, will
draw land worth having. In the face
of the fact that there will be no land
of sufficient value to justify settler
going upon it and complying with the
homestead laws in order to secure
title, It is a safe prediction that de-
signing men and newspapers Will use
every means to attract attention to the
drawing with the object of attracting
crowds to the west.
The experience at the time of the
opening of the small Spokane reserv-
alton will fail as a lesson to deter the
rush for supposedly choice land. AT
that time every vacant piece of land
Il xrnf n1n q
there are but fourteen settlers on the
Spokane reserve representing those
who held lucky numbers. The bal
ance of those who drew land We're
willing, after seeing the prizes, to let
it remain as nature fashioned 1t, and
refused to perfect an entry. This in
formation comes from Mr.. Hunt, who
is in a position to know what he is
talking about.
OF course, this announcement will
be a great surprise to the people OF
the county. One of the stock argu-
ments against county division last fall
was Wait until the south half is set
tied, so that the people of that locality
can have voice in designating the
lines of cleavage" From this intorm-
alton from source that can not be
vote on the south half will cut about
as little figure in county affairs in the
future as it has in the past unless
the mineral resources prove to be oil
great Importance.
1t is not pleasant to have hope
shattered With others, the publishers
of this paper have always entertained
the idea that after provision had been
made for the Indian claimants there
would be a large area of choice land
for settlement, that the south half
would speedily fill up with an indus
trious, progressive and desirable class
of citizens, adding largely to the
wealth of the county and welding a
beneficial influence in the administra-
ton of county government, but that
prospect goes a-glimmering with the
report of the allotting agent.
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