Book Synopsis
Osage Nation Traders: Impropriety, Fraud & Wrongdoing presents the methodical approach licensed reservation traders used to fleece the Osage Indians over the period 1874--1900. The traders were successful on two occasions to bypass Congress to withdraw funds from the Osage Trust. The so-called "dead money fund" contained funds from sales of the former Osage Reservation in Kansas. The Osage Fund was held in trust by the U.S. Treasury, earning five percent interest. The interest from this account was distributed quarterly to Osage Tribal members and used by the recipients to pay debt accumulating from credit purchases made at reservation licensed trading stores. Between 1874 and 1900, the Osage Fund earned about $8 million in interest and nearly every cent went directly to reservation traders to pay for food, supplies, and merchandise sold to the Osages at exorbitantly high prices.