The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1920-04-20
RICHEST PEOPLE Is
THE Usage INDIANS
MADE VASTLY WEALTHY BY
OIL. ARE SPENDING MONEY
LIKE PROVERBIAL SAILOR.

PAWHUSKA, Okla.-The richest
people in the world, the Usage In
dams, are facing poverty-10 years
ahead.
The government "trust period"
ends in 1881 until which time they
receive the income from gas and oil
rights on lands allotted them, whether
they still own the lands or not.
The Indians bought the land-wild,
rock-ribbed arid tracts-for $1.25 an
acre. When oil was discovered they
promptly sold it. Later the govern
ment decided that they had sold only
the suface and by act of congress the
government now leases oil rights to
the highest bidder and turns the
money over to the Indians.
This 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.
Braves Wear Silks.
So it happens that many young
brave wears silk shirts and drives his
automobile, and many girl whose
creamy skin is barely tinged with cop
per buys imported party gowns and
diamonds, or possibly even 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 PEI
Rod is extended. then their big i'm
comes from nothing at all will end
too; for comparatively few Indians
still own oil-producing land.
Old Chief Bacond Rind says:
eve 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 care OF
themselves in the white mans world.
In 25 years more they will have
grown up and can manage their own
affairs. We ask the white mans gov
eminent to go on taking care of them
until then"
At the last quarterly ob1ent Of
oil and gas money EeRIrcelve a
total of $1,700,000. 1nSafeek they
received $500 apiec 4@fhents dur
ing 1920 probably wa.Ss,sSotaI $4,000
apiece
A family of five Osages viii, have
$4,000 to spend during the year
$4,000 in cash, 4,166 a month, S138
a 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 ultra-modern.
Ride in "Lizzies ?"
Pawhuska's streets, and all the
dusty roads that wind toward it
through the Usage hills, are bright
with the blankets of the Indians and
with their high-powered
cars. An Usage will not ride in a
"lizzie."
There are banks instead of saloons
here, otherwise Pawhuska is a typical
frontier town.
1t is under the million dollar tree"
beside the agency that auctions of oil
and gas leases are held. The bidders
that gather for these sales represent
the biggest oil interests in the world.
A lifted hand or nod of the auction
GERS head may mean a deal of half
a million. A single lessee at the last
auction paid 100000 for the right
to drill.
Only about 5000 acres of Usage
oil land have been leased. More than
100000 acres remain.
The social register of 'the Usage"
is considerably diluted with Indian
blood. And as a sixteenth or thirty
or sixty-fourth part of Usage
blood is almost undetectable strang-
ers do well 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 Usage is, in
one respect, like that of less fortu-
nate tribes; they are vanishing race.
Only thew are not dying off, but mar
rying off.