Show uncle sam reports on his real estate deals with his hi s red children he bought square miles at average of 48 cents an acre by SCOTT WATSON itel released ased by western newspaper union RECENTLY the department of the inheritor interi tor issued a n new ev colored map the first of its kind which shows how uncle sam since 1790 has acquired the nations public domain from 66 principal indian tribes by some treaties and numerous acts of congress A study of this map shows that these cessions sessions ces by the red man constitute about 95 of the public domain or something like eke square miles in so far as the aggregate cost of this land was approximately e ay that means a little more than 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 ti time me 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 records show that except in a very few cases where military duress was present the prices were such as to satisfy the indians discussions of of land prices from original costs to the present estimated value of nearly 40 billion dollars only lead to idle speculation there is no equitable basis of value 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 a fixed policy based upon the principle of f free ree purchase and sale in dealings between the native inhabitants of the land and the white immigrants in no other continent has any serious attempt ever been made to deal with a weak aboriginal population on these terms while the 15 million dollars that we paid to napoleon in the louisiana purchase was merely in compensation for his cession of political authority tho rity we proceeded to pay the indian tribes of the ceded territory 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 the their ir cessions sessions ces sufficient land to bri bring in 9 them an income that each year exceeds the amount of our payment to napoleon it is true as secretary ickes says that in the majority of cases the indians probably received a fair I 1 price for their lands since there is no equitable basis of value comparison but it is doubtful if the sioux the nez perces the bodocs and the doncas to name only a few would agree with mr ickes that the principle of free purchase and sale had been observed in their dealings with the great white father certainly they have reason to regard his treatment of them as some of the bla black ck pages which the secretary mentions in which military duress was very definitely present louisiana territory since mr ickes mentions the louisiana 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 including most of the present states of north and south dakota and parts of nebraska wyoming and montana gradually their territory had been reduced by a series of treat treaties Ls 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 besides they were 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 indian territory in which no white person or persons shall be permitted to 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 interested in the same the government kept its promise I 1 less than a year four months after the president had proclaimed the fort laramie treaty general sherman noted for his only good indian is a dead indian philosophy issued an order that all indians not actually on their reservations were to be under the jurisdiction of the army and as a rule will be considered hostile then came the announcement that the northern pacific railroad was to be built across the northern part of the sioux hunting lands and soon afterwards the great white father sent surveyors protected by soldiers into this region without taking the trouble to ask the sioux for permission to pass through the same in 1874 gen george A custer and his seventh cavalry were sent to explore the black hills again without asking permission of the sioux to V a q CALICO IN perpetuity an important provision of the treaty of 1791 1794 whereby the united states acquired lands from the iroquois confederacy was that there should be an annual distribution of calico among members of the six nations this provision is still carried out each year with appropriate ceremonies in ia observance of perpetual peace and friendship with the iroquois shown here at a typical ceremony is florence a descendant of old iroquois chiefs who received the rolls of calico for distribution whom pah sah sab pah the black hills was almost sacred soil then a newspaper man who accompanied custer flashed to the world the electrifying ying news that gold had been discovered in the hills and custers official report not only confirmed this but it was also an ecstatic description of the beauties of that region the result was inevitable justified treaty breach prospectors and miners flocked to the new el dorado for a time the government went through the motions of expelling the intruders then gave it up as a hopeless job having failed to keep the whites out of the black hills the governments next step was to find some way to justify this violation of the laramie treaty A good excuse came when several bands of the sioux notably sitting silting bulls Hunk papas and crazy horses Og lalas who were hunting in the powder river country as they had a perfect right to do failed to return to their reservations within the time limit set by the indian bureau january 31 1876 the fact that it was almost physically impossible for the sioux to obey this order within the time allowed make any difference to the indian bureau on february 1 I the indian commissioner proclaimed all sioux who were not on the reservation reserva tiem hos tiles and called on the army to round them up then followed the campaigns of generals crook terry gibbon and miles against these thes e hostile sioux and in in 1876 77 which either compelled the surrender of the indians or drove them across the border into canada even bedorf before the campaign was over a commission was sent to treat with the sioux and arrange for the cession of lands which the fort laramie treat treaty had guaranteed to them forever concerning this commission which began its work in august 1876 doane robinson in his history of the sioux indians south dakota historical collections writes the commission says while the indians received us as friends and listened with kind attention to our proposition we were painfully impressed with their lack ot of confidence in the pledges ot of the government at times they told their story ot of wrongs with such impressive earnestness that our cheeks crimsoned crim with shame in their speeches and recitals ol of wrongs which their people had suffered at the hands of the whites the arraignment lor for gross acts ot of injustice and fraud the description of treaties made only to be broken the doubts and distrusts ot of our present profession ot of friendship and good will were portrayed in co colors lors so vivid and language so terse that admiration and aad surprise would have kept us silent had not shame and humilia humiliation Uon done so 50 th that a t which made this arraignment more telling was that it often cl came ame from the lips of men who are our friends and who had hoped against hope that the day might come when their wrongs would be redressed sioux had to like it since the sioux have much choice in the matter they signed the treaty offered them heres what another historian says about it not an indian historian but a white historian george E hyde author of red clouds folk A history of the oglala sioux indians writes but the object had been attained at last and under the cloud of war the government had taken the black hills the powder river lands and the bighorn country the pretense of formal agreement and fair payment which congress had devised to veil this act of robbery did not evert deceive the indians 7 the t chiefs knew that they were being abb robbed e and that they were forced to sign away their lands here are beet beef lour flour and blankets said the united states tor for your lands in laramie plains and between the forks of the platte which we took from you before 1865 2865 and here said the united states are the same beet beef lour flour and blankets tor for your lands in nebraska which we took before 1870 2870 and said the united states with an air of vast gene generosity here are the same beel beef flour and blankets tor for the black hills the powder river and the bighorn lands which we are now taking from you in all fairness that Is very near the true meaning of the agreement of 0 1876 by means of which these last lands were taken from the sioux so the sioux were finally settled on a great reduced reservation within the present states of north and south dakota but even then the great white father through with them in 1888 1883 another commission went to the standing rock reservation to swing the cession of 11 million acres of sioux lands at a fixed price of 50 cents an acre an outrageous robbery stanley vestal biographer of sitting bull calls it and break up the great sioux reservation into smaller ones sitting bull lined up the chiefs against it then went to washington where he succeeded in getting the price raised to an acre the next year another commission came to standing rock to bargain with the sioux at the new price but found themselves blocked at every turn by sitting bull finally by making various promises many of which were never kept incidentally they managed to get enough chiefs to agree to the sale so in the words of vestal the cession was signed the great sioux reservation was only a memory it was the death of a nation among the promises that were not kept was one about supplying rations to the sioux penned up on their reduced reservations and in the winter of 1890 91 that broken promise bore bitter fruit for the sioux suffering from hunger and disillusionment beca became me easy victims to the apostles of the ghost dance and before that excitement was over the shameful story of the massacre at wounded knee had been written on one of the black pages which secretary ickes mentions As indicated previously some of the other black pages bear the stories of our dealings with the nez perces the bodocs and the doncas that is why it is likely that any member of those tribes as well as the sioux who reads the secre statement about a fixed policy based upon the principle of free purchase and sale in dealings between the native inhabitants of the land and the white immigrants will probably smile and there wont be much humor in that |