Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1945-08-17
By ELMO SCOTT WATSON

Released by Western Newspaper Union.
QECENTLY the department
IN of the Interior issued a new
colored map, the first of its kind,
which shows how Uncle Sam
since 1870 has acquired the ma
TONS public domain from &C
principal Indian tribes by some
389 treaties and numerous acts
of congress. A study Of this map
shows that these cessions by the
red man constitute about $50
of the public domain, or some
thing like $500, 900 square miles.
In so far as the aggregate cost
of this land was approximately
$500, 900, 000-that means a little
more than 1907 a square mile or
approximately 48 cents an acre
it would seem that Uncle Sam
certainly got a bargain in these
dealings with his red children.
In a statement issued at the time
the map was released, Secretary
Harold Ickes of the department of
the interior declared that while
questions are still frequently raised
as to whether the Indians received
fair prices for their land, the rec
ords show that, except in a very
few cases where military duress was
present, the prices were such as to
satisfy the Indians. Discussions of
enhancement of land prices from
original costs to the present esti-
mated value of nearly 40 billion
dollars only lead to idle specula-
ton. There is no equitable basis of
value comparison then and now.
"Some Black Pages"
while the history of our dealings
with the Indians contains some
black pages, since the days of the
early settlers there has been fixed
policy based upon the principle of
free purchase and sale in dealings
between the native inhabitants of
the land and the white immigrants.
In no other continent has any seri-
Gus attempt ever been made to deal
with weak aboriginal population
on these terms.
while the is million dollars that
we paid to Napoleon in the Louisiana
Purchase was merely in compensa-
ton for his cession of political au-
thority, we proceeded to pay the In
liar frthac Of tho oalaI i{<r
more than 20 times this sum for such
lands as they were willing to sell.
Moreover, the Indian tribes were
wise enough to reserve from their
cessions sufficient land to bring
them an income that each year ex-
ceeds the amount of our payment to
Napoleon"
1t is true, as Secretary Ickes says,
that in the majority of cases the
Indians probably received a fair
price for their lands since there is
no equitable basis of value compari-
son, but it is doubtful if the Sioux,
the Nez Perces, the Modocs and the
Poncas-to name only few-would
agree with Mr.. Ickes that the "prin-
ciple of free purchase and sale" had
been observed in their dealings with
the Great White Father. Certainly
they have reason to regard his treat
ment of them as some of the "black
pages" which the secretary men,
tons, In which military duress"
was very definitely present.
Louisiana Territory.
Since Mr.. Ickes mentions the Lou
isiana Purchase, it might be well
to examine briefly the record of our
governments dealings with one of
the aboriginal occupants of that re-
gion, the Sioux. For generations
these Dakotas had occupied a vast
empire along the Missouri river, in
GLIDING most of the present states of
North and South Dakota and parts
of Nebraska, Wyoming and Mon
tana. Gradually their territory had
been reduced by series of treaties
until they held only their choicest
hunting grounds in the Black Hills,
the Powder river country and the
Big Horn mountains.
That was guaranteed to them, by
the Fort Laramie treaty of 1868, as
a permanent reservation" and, be-
sides, they we're granted, for as long
as there were buffalo on the plains,
"the right to hunt on any land north
of the Platte" This reservation was
to be considered "unceded Indian
territory" in which mo white per-
son or perSonS shall he pernitte1 70
settle or occupy any portion of the
same or, without the consent of the
Indians first had and obtained, to
pass through the same" Moreover,
it was agreed that no subsequent
treaty should be considered valid
"unless executed and signed by at
least three-fourths of all the adult
male Indians occupying and inter-
ested in the same"
The government kept its promise