Page:The Indian Dispossessed.pdf/293

Uncle Sam, Trustee dollars and fifty cents per acre," and to deliver it to the State of South Dakota for school purposes. These sections—two in every thirty-six—were all that the Government was to pay for.

All the remaining land—some 382,000 acres—"shall be opened to settlement and entry by proclamation of the President," the price to be, "upon all land entered or filed upon within three months after the same shall be opened for settlement and entry, four dollars per acre, to be paid as follows: one dollar per acre when entry is made; seventy-five cents per acre within two years after entry;" and seventy-five cents each year thereafter until paid for. This delivered to the land-grabbers the entire body of agricultural land, worth four, ten, fifteen, and in some instances twenty-five dollars, at the bargain-store price of four dollars, and on terms so easy as to suit the most vociferous.

Then, as to the lands below the four-dollar mark—comprising about one-half of the entire tract—"Upon all land entered or filed upon after the expiration of three months and within six months after the same shall be opened for settlement and entry, three dollars per acre," with the same dollar paid down, and fifty cents annually after two years. Of course, very little land not taken at four dollars would go for three dollars: this provision was a

271