Buck—The Settlement of Oklahoma. 
377 
usually people who, having changed their location several times, 
have finally become so imbued with the “boom-fever” that they 
find it impossible to settle down. Numbers of these who were 
wandering aimlessly around the Southwest turned their steps 
toward Oklahoma when the opening was announced, and took 
part in the first rush and in every succeeding rush thereafter. If 
they succeeded in getting a claim, they seldom lived on it long, 
but soon sold out and were up and moving again. Like the 
gypsies of the northern states, they often move about in small 
bands with two or three wagons and a small collection of horses, 
camp for a week or two along a stream near to some town, where 
they eke out a precarious existence by fishing and horse-trading, 
and then move on to another location. 
One class of people has been left out so far in this discussion, 
namely the ranchmen on the western plains. As has been 
shown, a large part of western Oklahoma is suitable only to 
grazing, and here the herds of the cattle companies roam over 
the prairies under the care of the cow-punchers, much as they 
did in the rest of Oklahoma before the opening. 
No discussion of Oklahoma’s population is complete without 
some mention of the Indians, who in 1902 numbered 12,893, a 
decrease of twenty-six over the preceding year. 1 This does not 
include the three hundred Arizona Apaches held at Fort Sill 
as prisoners of war. The Indians of the territory are divided 
into six different agencies, the Osage, White Eagle and Pawnee 
agencies having charge of the Indians in the northeast comer 
of the territory. 2 Most of these Indians except the Osages have 
taken land in severalty and are cultivating it to some extent, 
although many lease part or all of their allotments to white cul¬ 
tivators. The Oisage tribe still holds its land in common and 
leases the most of it to cattlemen. The Indian agents all agree 
that the principal thing which hinders the development of these 
Indians into industrious farmers is their wealth, which is suf¬ 
ficient to allow them to live without work in a manner satisfac¬ 
tory to themselves, and thus all incentive to work is taken away. 
1 Int. Dept., Misc. Repts'., 1902, pt. 2, p. 452. 
2 Ibid., pp. 452-56. 
