Show CAPTAIN MERGER WILL REMAIN AT WHITE ROCKS Will Continue in Charge of the Agency THIS COMMISSIONERS VIEW Is to Stay Until Opening Reserve Re-serve Occurs 1 I > t Department Feels That Ho Is Jutrt tho Man to Handle the TTintoh Business TRIBUNE BUREAU 13 Postal Telegraph Bldg Washington D C June 22 I Capt W A Mercer will remain In charge of the Ulntah Indian reservation i reserva-tion until the matters relating to theo the-o nlng of that reservation aro carried car-ried out as provided by the recent legislation leg-islation At least this Is the idea of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs When asked today If It was true as reported In a Salt Lake paper recently that Capt Mercer was to be ordered to Carlisle Indian school the Commissioner Commis-sioner said he hoped It was true Capt Mercer Is the best man for the position of superintendent of the Carlisle Car-lisle school l that could possibly be selected l se-lected and the position IB about the I I most Important one In the Indian scr 1 vice I but there Is little prospect of our sending him there for some time because i be-cause the department feels also that he Is just the man to handle the Uin tab business which Is of very great Importance just now IS OLD IN SERVICE Capt W A Mercer belongs to the Seventh United States cavalry but he has boen acting as an Indian agent a great many years Why he has been In the service longer than I have They generally sent him where there was I trouble brewing Leech Lake Mlnno oiqnoa ponpqns 3H SIJOAY iaoq sp JO OIUOS JO 9UODS atu BtJAV UOrHJAJOSBJ VJ03 i Continued on Pago 3 CAPT1 MERGER STAYS Continued From Page L there Pie was at La Point Vlsr and WJnnebago places Neb and several other IS A DIPLOMAT In the earlier days all agents were arm officers the Indians requiring masters who could use force with them but as the red men became tamer the policy was changed and Instead of tryIng try-Ing to drive them the Government sought to put leaders over them men to teach nnd lead them Into civilized pursuits and habits Capt Mercer was one of the few army officers who fitted in with both policies and ho has done a great deal for his country and for the Indians I should like to see hjm at the head of tho great school at Carlisle Car-lisle Pa There are over a thousand Indian boys and girls at that school every year It Is n great work OPENING IMPORTANT But the opening of the Uintah reservation res-ervation is also very Important and It Is hardly likely that Capt Mercer will I be taken away from that work before It Is completed The contracts are about to be let for the surveying of the land and there will be many difficult diffi-cult problems to meet and solve before be-fore the affairs are all adjusted properly prop-erly RED MEN NOT DYING OUT There are 202000 Indians in the United States now and they are not dying out as Is popularly supposed On the contrary the number Is and has been for some time gradually increasing In-creasing The 202000 referred to arc both fullbloods and mixedbloods and it Is the mlxedbloOus that are Increasing Increas-ing though a being with a white father fa-ther and Indian mother is after all pretty much of an Indian SOLVING INDIAN PROBLEM This intermarrying will probably solve the remaining Indian problems yet I should be encouraged I Is I no real disgrace for ft white man to marry an Indian maiden though he practice has been held In such great contempt on account of the goodfor nothing white trash who first began taking squaws as wives FULLBLOODED AMERICANS Why fullblooded Indians are full blooded Americans thing to be proud of Even their color Is a distinction distinc-tion I isnt like the negro blood There are man half white negroes here in Washington They are a relic of slave days when masters cohabited with slaves bedsides these there are many Instances of the marriage of colored men to white women but the mixing of white blood with Indian blood In I not at all objectionable Where any mixture between white and black Is objectionable Indian able White men marry maidens few Indian men marry while women though there aresome Instances of lime latter 0 S AS TO MIXED MARRIAGES The result o these mixed marriages would be much better of course If better bet-ter white men were concerned In it but still the result is not as bad as might be supposed because an Indian wo mans baby may and often does make a better man than the childs father was before WARDS PRETTY WELL FIXED Yes concluded the Commissioner as he signed the last ofllclal document before him some of Undo Sams Indian In-dian wards are pretty well llxed There Is the Osage tribe for Instance In Oklahoma They have more money per capita than any other people on the face of the earth something like 6000 There are about 1600 In the tribe half of them malesand half females half of them also full bloods and half mixed bloods They have 1570000 acres oi the best land In Oklahoma In the northeastern north-eastern corner of It From the part of this land which they leas their income in-come Is about 150000 per year they have 0000000 In the United States treasury drawing 6 per cent Interest or 450000 per year How Is that for wealth Any one of those Indian maids would make a good wife for you young man She would have money HAD FRIEND IN PRIEST I seems that In the early days this tribe had a good friend In a Catholic priest named Shoemaker This was when they lived In eastern Kansas and the Government wanted them to move to the Indian Territory Shoemaker made a treaty for them and wisely provided pro-vided therein that the great sum of J9000000 to be paid for their lands was to be placed to their credit In the United States treasury and draw 5 per cent Interest In-terest So the money has been there ever since and they draw the Interest and live on It The trlUc has decreased In numbers so there are only IfiOO now left to share In the wealth Moat of these are civilized and educated I Is a proud thing to belong to that Osage tribe |