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-38- reservation, but
calculating that births will increase that number
to 1340 it would be $195.00 for each man, woman and child for the first
payment. A family of five persons would
thus receive
$975.00 for the first payment, and the ten annual payments of $70,000
each
would give every man, woman and child a little over $52.00 each year
for ten
years. My friends when I left
Washington it was generally believed that I could procure those lands
for about
$2.50 per acre, but I came through the tract and observed it closely
and have
also made inquiry regarding the value of land in that section of
country, and I
hove concluded to make you a good liberal offer in the beginning rather
than to
start at a low price and come up to that amount. That
tract of land is not all good, but it is good average land
and I regard it worth $3.75 per acre, taken as a whole.
I make this offer so that the Government is
on record as having made you a very liberal offer for that tract of
land and I
hope that you will see the wisdom of accepting it.
If you reject this liberal offer with the payment all in
cash,
in eleven installments, which period of annual payments are believed to
be best
for you, you certainly will regret it. If you would rather
take
your chances and receive only $1.25 per acre for your surplus lands,
such as
the act of 1889 will give you, than to accept the $3.75 per acre which
I offer
you, well and good, it is for you to determine. My friends, when I was leaving
Washington, just a
few minutes before I started, I had a talk with the Commissioner of
Indian
Affairs in relation to this matter, and he told me to be liberal in the
price
allowed you for the land and that he would approve it; that he was
desirous of
seeing you people of Red Lake Agency protected in every way
possible.
And he told me that I might have the
agreement provide that you receive double the amount of land for
allotments
that you |
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