Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1915-07-25

I
worth of oil, even at present low
prices. and is today one of the
phenomenal producing properties IN
the entire oil territory of oklahoma.
Other corporations lose i'm less
amounts, but it is estimated that the
total caused 10y the refusal of the In
dians and the interior department
means loss to the producing and
marketing companies of appIoN-
mate.y thirty-tiye million dollars.
S7,OOO.OOO in Royalties.
In the l9 years during which the
| lease has been i'm effect there has been
paid TO the members of the Usage
tribe in royalties ON oil more than
seven million dollars, During the
period between September /, 1913, and
| June 80, 1915, inclusive, the agency
al PaWhuska paid in royalties S2,SNG-
! t73.62. and i'm interest on the trust
fund of $4,000, 0OO there was paid
| during the same period 100000, as
| we'll as a bonus on some valuable oil
/ land outside the limits Of the blanket
| lease, amounting to $5O5,llO, which
was distributed September !, 1913.
] The recent quarterly payment the
| lowest for seven years because of the
| low price of oil, amount to S229,OOO,
q a few cents more than 500 each.
At the present time there are more
1 than twcnty-siX hundred producing
oil wells in the territory covered by
1 the blanket lease and the daily pro-
ductiou is approximately twenty thou
sand barrels of OIL
People who imagined that this
enormous amount of money would
develop latent commercial instincts in
[ the Ogages and open the way to them
/ for careers of business and agrtcul-
/ turo ON their own lands or elsewhere
we're vastly disappointed. Apparently
the full-blOod Indians have never re-
covered from the first dlZcd express
sion Of gratitude that they gave the
agent at pawhuSka when the first
substantial royalty payment was
made. They still live in rude dug
outs beyond the purple' hills, they still
wear blankets and mOCCasns, the
difference between now and other
days being that the blankets Of today
are the finest and the Eaudiest that
money can buy many of them worth
q kings ransom. They still wear,
women and men, EARRINGS with big
and garish pendants, they still wear
nose rings, some of theml ahd their
hands are plenufully adorned with
rings as their mOccasins reflect some
of the most exquisite bead-Work which
the evny of all curio hunters who find
their way to Pawhuska, on quarterly
payment days the jcwelry vendors and
the sharper used to have a harvest,
hut this has all been stopped by gov
crnmental regulation, and during
these later days the agency even on
pay day, is as quiet as a spring morn
ing. And while the agent can expel
whisky peddlers, gamblers, trinket
peddlers and the like of them, he can
not prevent the natural bent of the
Indian from expressing itself in the
gaudiest and most useless articles
which can be found, nor can be pre-
vent the Indian from paying what
ever price he chooses to pay The
paternalistic control of the govern
ment against which the Indians al
ready protest has been and is being
stretched too far and has its limta-
Ia tions, although recent experience is
rather contradictory on that point.
applies More to FuIl-Bloods.
The conditions just described apply
particularly and especially to the full
bloods in the tribe, which number
less than two thousand persons. The
other members are half, quarter and
ether ratios of blood down to the mar
row dividing line of one siXtyfourth.
The mixed blood Osages and their
children are for the most part intel
ligent and a goodly percentage of
them live off the reservation, some in
California and others in various parts
Of Oklahoma. The mixed bloods on
the reservation are the highest class
CT Usage citizens and engage in busi-
ness and many of them are success
full and scientific farmers one of
them, John Black Eagle, a resident of
Hominy returned recently from Car
lyle university and wrote one of the
most interesting papers on the nee
sity of the Indian getting to work
that has been published in years, The
mixed bloods declare that the pa
ternalistic system of government con-
troll has tended to keep them back,
prevent their shifting for themselves
and is generally outworn and useless.
II has been suggested by the edu-
Gated and practical younger element
of mixed bloods that the government
retain the administration and control
Of the affairs of Incompetent Indians,
but that all restrictions on the younger
and progressive Indians who can
speak and read the English language
be removed so that they may be given
chance to do something for them
selves without being ever and always
at the peck anu call Ol Jlle ItpItStuJd Jd-
tives of the government at Washing
ton.
These young Osages point out that
as conditions exist, no matter how
capable they may be to attend to
their own affairs, they are tied hand
and foot by the national government.
They cannot sell their lands, they cam
not lease them, they may not even
cultivate them without asking the con-
sent of the agent or his subOrdinates.
The young Osages assert that much
OF the lassitude and inertia which has
blighted the ambitions of the older
men is due entirely to the feeling that
they did not have to worry, that the
government had assumed the respon
sibility for their care and that, what
over happened the government Is al
ways going to see that they get
enough to eat and drink and wear.
The great history of the Osages as
warlike tribe is pointed to as evidence
that they were not always the com
placent. willing lackeys of govern
mental subordinates that we know In
this generation. The Usage warrior,
with his weapon in his hand, held his
own against the Cherokees the Creeks
and other fighting races and he did
not come off second best in any OF
these early combats which were
fought all the way from the Arkansas
river to the shores Of Lake Itasca, be-
cause all that territory was the home