The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1920-04-09
.Aw 4EZZR
BY MABEL ABBOTT
N e. A. Staff Correspondent.

Pawhuska, Okla, April 9.-The
richest people in the world, the Osage
Indians, are facing proverty-1O years
ahead. 49, - .sf - ...,.
The government trust period ends
In 1891 until which time they receive
the Income from gas and oil rights on
lands allotted them, whether they will
own the lands or not s ,@e.
The Indians bought the land--wild,
rock-riGbed arid tracts for S1.25 an
acre; When oil, was discovered they
promptly sold it. Later the govern
ment decided that they had sold only
the surface and by act of congress
the government now leases oil rights
to the highest bidder and turns the
money over to the Indians, $.,
Y TRis money pours into; the tribal
fund, for according to Usage law the
tribe takes "pot luck..,' Whether there
is oil on an Indians land Or not, he
Is wealthy now. NJ III.
Braves Wear Silks, Drive ALTOS;
Girls Sometines Buy
Husbands q
So it,. happens that many young
brave wears silk shirts and drives
his automobile and many girl whose
creamy skin is barely tinged with
copper; buys imported party gowns
and diamonds, or possible even u
white husband, with the big quarterly
checks. . And if the mineral rights
under former usage lands revert to
the surface owners in 1881, as they
presumably will unless the, trust
period is extended, then their big In
comes from nothing at all will end
too; for comparatively few Indians
still own oil-producing land
Old Chief Bacon Rind says, =.
r'We have lived the life Of the
white man only little while. 1t is
still strange. Our children will not
be ready in 10 years to take cars
of themselves in the white MIN 8
world. In 25 years more they will
have grown up and can manage their
own affairs. We ask the white mans
government ito go on taking care OF
them until them IsE-
AT the last quarterly payment
of oil and gas money, they re-
ceived a total of l$1,7OO,O0O. Last
week they received $500 apiece.
Payment during 1920 probably
will total $4,000 apiece.
Al family of five Osages will
have $4,000 to spend during the
year-$50,O00 in cash, $4,166 a
month, $13S day-without work
and without risk.
PaWhuska, capital of the Usage ma
ton, seat of the government Indian
agency and the nearest spending-pOint
for the big checks it hands out, is
half primitive, half ra-mOdern.
Osages Ride in "Lizzies" Better
II Not Suggest It
.Pawhuska's streets, and all the ,dus-
ty roads that wind toward it through
the Usage hills. are bright with the
blankets of the Indians and congested
with their high-powered cars. An
Usage will not ride in Lizzie
There are banks instead of saloons
here, otherwise Pawhuska is typical
frontier town. ~, IN,
1t is under the million dollar tree
beside the agency that auctions Of
oil and gas leases are held The bid
ders that gather for these sales
represent the biggest oil interests in
the world. A lifted hand or nod OF
the auctioneer's head may mean q
deal of a half million. A single lessee
at the auction paid $620,o0O for the
right to drill
Only about 100000 acres of Usage
oil land have been leased. More than
1,000,000O acres remain.
The social register of the Osage'
is considerably with Indian blood
And as sixteenth or thirty second
or a, sixty-fourth part of Usage blood
is almost. undetectable, strangers do
we'll to avoid careless illusions.
The pleasant, well-dressed young
business man, or the shrewd, suave
political power with whom you are
talking probably is descended from
or married into the "first families" :"
For the story OF the Osages is, in
one respect, like that of less fortunate
tribes; they are a vanishing race.
Only, they are not dying off, but mar
rying off.