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7h. naires) “4 : sete ran Fa “Phe ortminal atmosphere of the area at this: $i : Mustrated by the interview of a Special Agent with o nal several years after the murders. The bandtt, who w ‘ser@Bng tine, in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, recalled vag ear g the period of the murders he attended a gathering of. yo two nationally known bank bandits and train robbers ‘i: Yan the Gone Country where ne were in 7 there as pee aed E “, & ae is é. On June 28, 1906, the Federal Government enacted a “lew Pf wbhn Bae ee ll le lt ‘under whieh the 2, 228 members of the tribe were to receive on™ pequel number of shares known as head rights. This number of head. ees ‘greased or decreased. That ts, an Osage Indian born after June’ Be, “t, d906, would inherit only his proportionate share of his ancestar'a::: “head rights. Various Osage Indians drew revenue from or were... t, allotted tracts of Jand based upon thes® head rights. fhe originel: ‘ss: Gliotment of a homestead to each Osage Indian consisted of 160 ©: % acres. This was ljater supplemented by various Jand‘grants untél each head right allotment consisted of approrimately 657 acres. * ‘The Osage Indiak Agency, with headquarters ‘at Powhuska, Oklahoma, *: #. guperintended the affairs of the Osage Indians and attended to. po bhe. dtetribution of amounts due then. Sale O41 was later discovered on the Osage reservation and. an overnight the Osage tribe became the wealthiest people per capita tn the,world. The number of actual producing oil wells on the - reservation as of June 30, 1920, was 5,859. As of June 20, 1922,*.. _the number had increased to 8, 579. Practically all of the land 36-8 tn the reservation was leased for otl or natural gas production ETea’ PUTPOSES. - = var . Distributionof funds to the Osage Indians differed ° ‘ somewhat from other tribes, in that a common poo] was made of al2 . earnings derived from the territory and divided among @ll the: . 4 Indians of the tribe entitied to atlotment rights. dertipicates ‘S Of Competency were tssued to Indians deemed capable of handling ~ = : their own financial affairs and the recipients of these certificates... oS. gould dispose of their head rights and allotted land holdings as.) “4. they saw fit. Indians considered incompetent had a guardian : gppointed to guide them in their financial transactions. In 1880 the net per captta annual payment to each gee - ‘ The acguisittion of thie wealth, however, cannot be gai oO hdipe constituted a blessing either to the tribe or ts the “ae oe ols Meee rity, Vr wiece vee Creo ws to tie us a pendi mdual members. While bringing comfort it also brought ght Bisease, immorality, human parasites and an extravagance which 99 Sy appalling. It was not uncommon for the grocery bill of numerous = Dsages | to run between £500 and #2, 000 per month. cd Me