The Puyallup Lands Went on Sale and Almost Nobody Bid
A congressional commission put 1,100 acres of Puyallup reservation land on the block outside Tacoma, appraised at $30,000. Two days in, roughly $3,000 had been taken — and the Indians on the land were already organising their own counter-sale.
TACOMA, May 2. — The sale of the Puyallup Indian reservation lands, now being conducted by the Puyallup Indian commission, is not going well at all. The first sale, at which a list of property amounting to 1,100 acres was offered, appraised at about $30,000, has been in progress two days, and only about $3,000 worth of property has been taken.
The commission is distrusted, and many say that after all the howl the people of Tacoma made to have the reservation opened up, they certainly ought to come out and buy more freely.
The commissioners, on the other hand, reply that the manner of sale, as provided by Congress, is not at all what was desired, and that it was never intended that the citizens of Tacoma should be expected to become the purchasers of the great tract. What many of the people desire is to have the land thrown open for individual sale, so that any may buy, and so that the Indians may join together and sell to private parties or corporations in large plats, and thus secure railroads and improvements.
The Indians themselves, who are now enjoying all the rights of citizens, voting and holding office, have formed a plan with the intention of handling the land for sale and conducting a big sale in Idaho or some other territory.
Among the lands offered at this first sale are about 500 acres of what is known as the school lands, reserved on the reservation for schools. It is vigorously contended that the Federal government has no right to sell these lands, and that if a sale is made no title can pass.
The selling of the Indian lands has been an expensive government experiment. Previous to the present session there was a commission that accomplished nothing and spent a small fortune. The cost of the present commission has been about $3,000. There are three commissioners, each of whom receives $10 a day and $3 for subsistence — a total expense of $39 a day. As a result of their labours a few thousand dollars' worth of land was sold, and little else. There is small activity about the sale, for it was poorly and indifferently advertised.
“It is vigorously contended that the Federal government has no right to sell these lands, and that if a sale is made no title can pass.”
The Puyallup reservation still sits inside the city of Tacoma, and the tribe is still in court over treaty rights, fishing grounds and the terms on which its land changed hands. This 1895 dispatch shows the entire machine in one paragraph: a congressional sale nobody wanted, school lands of contested title, and a federal commission billing $39 a day to move it all along. The Puyallup were not passive in it — the paper admits they had already formed a plan of their own.
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