Page:The Indian Dispossessed.pdf/294

The Indian Dispossessed mere pretentious showing of a sliding scale of prices, designed to cover the main attack on the left-over lands.

This final steal was a clever piece of work. The value of these grazing lands was not much below two dollars and a half per acre, even under the handicap of the homestead law, which required a nominal residence of at least fourteen months upon the land; another wave of speculation, or a couple of good cattle years, would double, perhaps treble, their value—and such a turn in the market might come at any time.

So, in anticipation of the happy day, the plotters decreed that all land left over from the first two sales was to remain open to homestead entry at two dollars and a half per acre for a period of three and one-half years more; and finally, any land "remaining undisposed of at the expiration of four years from the taking effect of this act, shall be sold and disposed of for cash, under rules and regulations to be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior."

Thus, if the grazing lands should advance to five dollars, the Indians would get two dollars and a half; if prices should remain stationary, or decline, the lands were to be sold for whatever they would bring. The land-grabbers were to take the gain in values, and the Indians the loss.

And the last words of this precious act carefully 272