Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 October 1907 — BOSH TO GET LANDS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

BOSH TO GET LANDS.

LOWER BRULE RESERVATION THROWN OPEN. Uncle Sam Gives Away 35,000 Farms la South Dakota-—Five Million Acrea More Await Homewekeri In Indian Reservation*. Uncle ~St.un Is planning to distribute during the coming year nearly 5,000,000 acres of land among about 35.000 homeseekers. This will be the biggest distribution made by the United States government since Oklahoma was opened for settlement The land Is situated on eight different Indian reservations In four States. Nearly all of it Is regarded as first-class for farming purposes. It has been decided to open all of the tracts by the lottery system. The reservations, with their acreage, follow: Lower Brule, South Dakota, 835,000 acres; Flathead, Montana, 1,000,000 acres; Blackfeet, Montana, 500,000 acres; Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, 310,000 acres; Semhl, Idaho, 64,000 acres; Ya-kima,-Washington, 1,145,000 acres; Colville, Washington, 1,000,000 acrea Divided into tracts of 160 acres the total would provide 30,691 homesteads. But the homesteads in some of the reservations will be limited to forty acres each, so' this will bring the total dumber of farms close to 35,000. The forty-acre homesteads will be in reclamation districts, and will be under government Irrigation. The first reservation opened was the lower Brule, and hundreds of homeseekers filed applications for lottery tickets in the big drawing, which took place at Pierre, S. D. The land has been appraised at from $1.25 to $4 an acre, to be paid in annual Installments. A feature of the Brule Reservation is that it already is surrounded by cities and farms of modern civilization, being within ten miles of Pierre, capital of the State. The Missouri River runs through the center of the district, with Sioux City and Omaha 150 miles to the south and Minneapolis and St. Paul a short distance to the northeast To the west are Deadwood and Lead, the great mining cities of the Black Hills.

Former difficulties and dangers in securing Uncle Sam’s lands have been eliminated and it is now rather a pleasant experience to take a chance on a quarter section farm. The method of registration and allotment by drawing instead of the old pell-mell “rush” gives everybody a show. Under this deal an unaccompanied woman may register without embarrassment and has the same chance as a man in securing the best prizes in the reservation. In some of the recent openings women have drawn splendid lands near the sites of towns which made their quarter sections worth small fortunes. The Brule Is a member of the great Sioux tribe, the most numerous and powerful of the Western nations. While the Sioux may not have been as fierce individually as the Apache or Ute, he was collectively stronger and was the last to be subdued.,. In spite of this condition the Sioux has in recent years shown probably more of a disposition to make his living out of the land given him than many of the other tribes. j The Brule reservation contains 56,560 acres. School facilities are provided In withholding certain sections by the government. With Its opening another Swan song was sung by the original American. This marks an additional act in the process of elimination of the Indian and Is one of the last of his plots of land to be given over to civilization. Government surveyors are now busy In other reservations, but it will require some time to complete the work.

LOCATION OF LANDS WHICH WILL BE OPENED TO SETTLEMENT.