The Rich Lands in Gage County Vacated by the Indians

A Clear and Concise Description of Their Situation and Resources

The Law Under Which They Will Be Sold for the Indians’ Benefit

The following letter received by a gentleman in Chicago we have been permitted to publish, descriptive of a portion of our state:

Fort Omaha, Nebraska, January 10, 1882

Dear Colonel:

Referring to your letter of the 28th ult., which reached me while at the Otoe and Missouri Indian Reservation in Nebraska, from which place I have but recently returned, it affords me pleasure to furnish you with all the information I possess relating to the land in question.

As no doubt known to you, the Indians removed to the Indian Territory last fall, and at the last session of Congress an act was passed providing for the sale of their land. 

There being some imperfections and omissions in the bill it has become necessary before placing the land in market, to have the bill amended or a new one passed, which is likely to soon occur as many prominent persons are urging on congress the necessity of immediate action in the promises, as a matter of justice to the Indians and of advantage to this state.

The area of the reserve is about 43,000 acres, or about six by ten miles square, located in the northern portion of Gage County, Nebraska, two miles of the reserve running into the northern portion of Marshall County, Kansas.

The B. & M. R. R. in Nebraska, crosses the northern edge of the reserve, but has not station on it, connecting east with the A. & N. R. R.

The St. Joseph and Western R. R., a branch of the Union Pacific railway company traverses the reserve from the north to south, closely to the central line of division, and has a station, Otoe, at the agency.

The reserve is hemmed in by the farms of a thrifty class of persons, while more distant, eight and ten miles respectively, are young vigorous towns, that are rapidly developing into large communities.

The trace is well watered, in fact, it is said, the best of any in Gage County.  The Big Blue River, a stream of pure clear water, running in width from 100 to 200 feet, an din depth from one to three feet, offering excellent water power for mills, meanders across the western half of the reserve from north to south, while the eastern half is drained by four medium sized living streams of good pure water, tributaries of the Blue.

A fair growth of Cottonwood, Oak, Elm, Spruce and a meager quantity of Walnut trees now border the creeks and river.  Much of the timber that once framed the streams has been out and used; more will be stolen before the land is placed in market.

Excellent bay, containing some blue joint grass, unaided is gown in large quantities.  The tract offers to the farmer rich agricultural land, and to others beautiful sites for western homes, of a town location or otherwise.

The soil in the main is that productive black loam characteristic of the eastern portion of Nebraska.

Crops of corn, rye and barley are abundant and remunucrative.  Wheat, I have been told, is profitably grown, but the section is not specially adapted to its cultivation.  Why, I know not.  The only objections I heard offered to the section as a farming country, was that portion of Nebraska is visited often times in spring and summer by very hot winds which seriously if not very materially injure the crops; on the other hand, this objection was pooh-poohed by old time residents.  I traveled over nearly every square of the reserve and found but little if any land unsuited for farming purposes.

A quarry of stone, adapted for building material, solidifying by exposure to the air, is found on the reserve.

The agency building still remain and are to be sold with the land; they consist of a $9,000 Industrial School House, Store Houses, and dwelling of the agent and the employees, and about six miserable shells of other houses, dilapidated and tumbling down, wherein Indian families recently resided and which furnished, no doubt, the foundation for the worn and stereotyped reports on the so called advancement in civilization of the Indians.

The Industrial School, Agent’s and employees’ houses, compared with the few, (all there was), dwellings of the Indians referred to, reminded me, by comparison, of the hovel of a charity patient and the usual dwelling house of a salaried shepherd of the fold, especially as the Otoe Indians, about 459 in number, are rich.

The government holds in trust for them over $300.000, and to a amount will be nearly doubled when this reserve is sold.

The reserve has been surveyed, sectionized and platted.

The title of the land is in the Indians, the land is to be sold for cash, not time payment allowed, for their benefit.

The bill provides that these apertures, one by the Indians, two by the Interior Department, shall be appointed to sale the land, at which appraise it shall be sold, and then only the actual settlers, in total of not over 160 acres to one person, and that none of the land shall be appraised for less than $250 per acre.  The improvements on each section or piece of land to be valued separately from the land, and added to the appraised value of the land, both being sold together.

Not over a thousand acres of the virgin soil have been desecrated by the plow, none other has been under cultivation by the Indians, unless the agent considers the unaided growth, but by nature, of hay grass on an unbroken prairie, such.

The modes of reaching the reserve from several points, from Omaha or St. Joseph, right to the agency by railroad.  It is thought by those qualified to form an opinion, that the land will be appraised at a valuation ranging from $5.00 to $10.00 per acre, to which the value to the improvements, where they occur on the land will have to be added. 

The and is too high priced, and perhaps limited in extent, for even a farm of highly graded stock, let alone for anything like large herds.  A range would be meager to comparison to such as you have on the broad plains of Wyoming by the forges and fasthen the Big Horn Mountains

For a spot whereon to rear a home, that will offer to the eye a never ending ever changing pleasant view, and to the heart contentment, to the mind freedom and to life independence, which comes from a farm life, the Otoe reserve presents special inducements; and then you could join the “Farmers Alliance,” the new political craze, as others have done, and peradventure stand honored among men as a United States Senator.

Accept the assurance of my best wishes and believe me.

Very Truly,

Jno. A. Baldwin, U.S.A.

0maha Herald –January 20, 1882