THE INDIAN NO PROBLEM. 9 



payment to them per capita of large sums for lands ceded by 

 them as among the most fruitful and disastrous. 



This system was adopted early in our intercourse with 

 them, and has grown in volume through the years, until now 

 it is not uncommon to pay to one tribe millions of dollars. 



In 1722 the lower half of Berkshire County, Massachu- 

 setts, was purchased from the Stockbridge Indians for ^460, 

 three barrels of cider and thirty quarts of rum, and the Stock- 

 bridges were moved over into the wilds of central New York, 

 and when our people closed in upon them in their new home, 

 they were again bought out and sent to Wisconsin. 



In 1894 a piece of land along the northern border of the 

 Indian Territory, called the Cherokee Strip, was purchased from 

 the Cherokee Indians for eight million dollars. As time goes 

 on you see it pays more and more, in money, to be an Indian. 



Of the tribes which receive large regular annual payments, 

 the Osages are a glaring example. 



The sale of their lands in Kansas under a treaty agreement 

 brought them about nine millions of dollars in the United 

 States Treasury, the interest of which at five per cent, has 

 been paid to them per capita for a third of a century. 



When the treaty was made they numbered over 4200 ; 

 to-day the}' number a bare 1500. 



The payment of this money has stifled all energy and 

 industry and been the fruitful cause of their destruction. 



An agent who had charge of them at an early day and 

 then again years afterwards, told me that notwithstanding 

 the law and all the protection he could give, the amount of 

 whiskey consumed by them in two weeks during his later 

 administration was more than equal to that which they got 

 in a whole year in his first administration. 



The dissipation, idleness, disease and crime which has 

 thus reduced this tribe, composed originally of fine specimens 

 of physical manhood, capable of greatest endurance, are all the 

 direct result of our grossly injudicious system and mistaken 

 liberality. 



