Show OSAGE TRIBE ONCE WEALTHY NOW BROKE 1 Made Poor as i ion on Oil Dwindle Oklahoma City Lo Lo the poor redskin red red- skin skin and and in this case the Osage who until recently belonged to the richest people In the world per capita wealth Is broke His last quarterly right head-right payment amounted to a r few w dollars more than the largest quarterly payment pay ment went ever er received before oil was developed In the timbered Osage hills hUls of northwestern Oklahoma but buta a considerable number of dollars less than the thousands that were common before beCore 1930 and the depres depres- sion And being broke Is hard on L Land Lo and his people Before he had tasted the savor of wealth before he knew the fullness of ot rich foods and fine clothing he ha was content on tent to live in his modish hut but on the scanty cash Income something like a n year provided by the government Never having bavIng known the jingle of gold In his pockets he did not miss the music sn says s the New York Herald Herald Her Her- ald Tribune Then came oil as the motion picture pIcture picture pic pIc- ture subtitles put It Came the big producers who put deep holes in the earth and by some magic Lo never understood but did not care about anyway sucked from the ground a thick black liquid that resulted in checks s for millions of dollars for forthe forthe forthe the Osage tribe Learned to Spend Big Checks The red man soon learned to spend the fat checks s he received each quarter quarter quarter ter year Big cars big houses and big meals cost cash The Osage found the old maxim easy come easy go only too true In the last three decades on the pay rolls those rolls those born before July 1 1907 1007 aft after r which the books were closed and tardy comers known as too lates have lates have received millions In bonuses and for tor oil and gas royalties A few lew were wise Ise and Invested their payments The government was discreet and held back some of the money from those who wanted It all aU and at once But for the most part the red men like many of their white brothers who also find that easy comes easy goes spent their checks as soon as If not ot before they received them Tribe Has Been Up and Down Today loday with f few w exceptions Lo is broke The history of the Osage nation has been a checkerboard of ups and downs First poor with only the rock soil soli of the present Osage reservation reservation reservation res res- In n northeastern astern Oklahoma as their Inheritance the tribe was catapulted to sudden and fabulous wealth by the discovery of oil on their lands and its subsequent development de de- de- de With so much money pouring Into the pockets of tribal members it Is no wonder that grafting white men found the nation a n fertile field for their endeavors The Jail jall at nt Pawhuska capital of the was and still sUll Is filled with whites who In one manner or r another tried to fleece rich of their birthrights birth birth- rights Perhaps with the disappearance disappear disappear- once ance of his huge hea rIght payments the will at nt least find peace from false friends |