Photo from C. J. Blanchard 



BIvACKFEET INDIAN AND FAMILY : MONTANA 



"The political conditions of the world will make the next few years a period of great 

 prosperity for the American farmer. Let us see that the Indian, with his broad acres, is m 

 truth an American farmer, and that he properly participates m this unusual opportunity." 



MUST TH]i INDIAN REMAIN A WARD OF 

 THP: GOVERNMENT EOREVER? 



The function which this government is 

 performing for these Indians is to care 

 for their personal welfare, supervise their 

 business affairs, improve their property, 

 hold their moneys, give education to their 

 children, care for their sick, protect them 

 from their enemies, and insure them 

 against starvation. 



average allottable lands, valued originally at 

 $325.60. The average Cherokee family may be 

 said to number four persons, which would give 

 to it 440 acres of land. The Choctaws and 

 Chickasaws, the Creeks and the Seminoles, 

 have also received allotments and their tribal 

 funds are being divided. 



The Osages are probably the wealthiest peo- 

 ple in the world. The average v/ealth of the 

 Osage Indian is $9,579.85, and 2,230 Osages 

 each received approximately 657 acres of land 

 as allotments. The average income of the 

 Osages from oil and gas royalties is $690.89. 



This surely is doing much for a people 

 who are richer on the average than the 

 majority of our own people. And, we 

 ask, must this governmental activity per- 

 sist ? Must this burden always rest upon 

 the people of this country? Is it for the 

 benefit of the Indian himself that it 

 should continue? 



There are those who say that it should 

 not last a single day. The American con- 

 science, however, our sense of justice, 



For an average family of four this would 

 make an annual income of approximately 

 $2,700, to say nothing of the large income from 

 the lands allotted to them.. Some few families 

 have an income of $12,000 per year. 



The individual wealth of the Indian neces- 

 sarily depends upon the value of his individual 

 allotment; as, for instance, in the Creek Na- 

 tion, one of the Five Civilized Tribes, the 

 great oil fields have brought wealth to those 

 Indians so fortunate as to hold allotments 

 within the oil territory. The following cases 

 are examples of the royalties for 1914 received 



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