Speech #540111190

I spent some time this summer among the people who have settled upon these lands. and the statement made by this gentleman is a statement of the facts. The people of the Dakotas did not occupy these reservations. The inducement held out to bring settlement were made by transportation companies and by immigration agents. and the settlers came from the other great Western States. Of course the people of the Dakotas wanted the reservations opened to settlement. because. until their areas were occupied by people. they did not help to support by taxation the burdens of government. but the people of the Dakotas themselves have their homesteads. they ave their lands. When a new reservation is opened. it is not our people who go upon it. The people of other States who are landless are the people who have been in advance and taken homesteads. So the settlers who came. as this gentleman says. from the other States of the Union. came induced by the rosy representations of transportation companies. immigration agents. claim agents. surveyors. etc.. supposing that because it was an Indian reservation .it must be exceedingly fertile. and therefore it would be easy to make payment. After struggling for from four to eight years. they find the crops are not more than sufficient to sustain life. to say nothing about gaining a profit with which to pay the Government for the land. Further than that. these lands are open to settlement and settlers are required to pay $400 for a quarter section. while they can go into the Cane River Valley. adjoining this reservation. and buy land from the Eastern mortgage companies for $1.25 an acre. or $200 for a quarter section.