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-37- and should there be
any pine lands you will receive for them the price
provided by that act. As soon as that
is accomplished the white men will flock into the country as thick as
mosquitoes, and if you are prepared to meet that condition, well and
good. I am simply telling you what the
outcome
will be. I
am now going to make you
an offer for your land. No person was
authorized to speak for me as to the price I was going to offer you for
this
tract of land. No one knew my mind
regarding it. Before making my offer I want to explain the price of
land, the different
classes of land. There is what is
called a minimum price and a double minimum price. The minimum price is
$1.25
per acre, and that is for land that is outside of railroad limits. The
double minimum
price is $2.50 per acre, and that is for land that is within railroad
limits. That is the Government price
for land, what the Government charges the white man who files upon such
lands,
and if secured under the homestead law, which requires five years
residence and
certain improvements, they are free to the homesteader. Now my friends the
offer that I am going to make
you is the largest offer that I ever made Indians for any lands, and I
have
made every agreement in the past six years with the Indians of the
United States,
except two. Remember the lands that I am going to make you an offer for
do not
contain any pine timber, they are essentially agricultural lands.
Those lands
if owned out and out by the Government, that is with full title in the
government, they would be sold for $1.25 per acre, to actual settlers. Now I am going to offer you three times that
much, I am going to offer you $3.75 per acre, which means that you will
receive
$960,670. for that tract, of which amount $260,670 will be a cash per
capita
payment within 90 days after the agreement is ratified by Congress, and
$70,000
a year for ten years thereafter. There
are 1332 Indians now belonging on your |
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