Profit

The ruthless march of civilization, the dispossession of the red man from his fertile hunting grounds, the assignment of Indians to Western lands that no one wanted, have been productive of an ironic situation. A memorandum from the Department of the Interior last week furnished a reminder of that fact.

In 1871 the Osages were assigned to a reservation in the then Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. Their enrollment was 2,229. Oil was found on their lands in 1901. Since that time the descendants of those Indians have received more than $140,000,000 in royalties from oil and gas. The royalties now aggregate between $1,250,000 and $1,500,000 a month. The share of each Indian for three months, April, May and June of this year, was more than $4,000. The red man literally rides in a limousine.