Book Synopsis
In July 1895, the Wah-Shah-She News, a reservation newspaper published at Pawhuska, reported that over the past twenty years, sales of the Osage Reservation in Kansas and deposited into the Osage Trust held by the U.S. Treasury had exceeded $8 million, earning annually five percent interest. The same amount had been distributed quarterly from interest to the Indians in the same period. Coincidentally, these distributions had fallen into the hands of reservation traders. This had been due to how Indian agents had allowed the Indians to establish credit with reservation traders for purchases of food, supplies, personal loans, and even construction of homes and other structures. Traders were known to have charged exorbitant prices for their goods and services, and the Indians held very little opportunity of ever paying off their indebtedness. This is an unfortunate chapter in the history of the Osage people of Oklahoma.