The Conquest: The Story of a Negro PioneerMicheaux, Oscar
General
The Conquest: The Story of a Negro Pioneer
Micheaux, Oscar
African American pioneers -- Fiction; Autobiographical fiction; South Dakota -- Fiction; Western stories
Now and then Nicholson Brothers had invited the Cutschalls to some of
their social doings, which made the Cutschalls feel exalted, and higher
still, when Ernest suggested he could get them a patent for their land
and then would buy it. This suited Cutschalls dandy. Ernest offered
seven thousand dollars for the section, and they accepted. At that time,
by recommending the Indian to be a competent citizen and able to care
for himself, a patent would be granted on proper recommendation, and
Nicholson Brothers attended to that and got Mrs. Cutschall the patent.
Tom, her husband, being a white man, could not be allotted, and she had
been given the section as the head of the family. It is said they spent
the seven thousand dollars in one year. The company of which the father
of the Nicholson Brothers was president made a loan of eight thousand
dollars on the land, and shortly afterward they sold it for twenty-three
thousand dollars. The lots had brought more than one hundred thousand
dollars in Calias and were still selling, so this placed the "Windy
Nicholsons," as they had been called by jealous Megoryites, in a
position of much importance, and they were by this time recognized as
men of no small ability.
Years before Megory county was opened to settlement, many white men had
drifted onto the reservation and had engaged in ranching, and had in
the meantime married squaws. This appears to have been done more by the
French than any other nationality, judging by the many French names
among the mixed-bloods. Among these were a family by the name of
Amoureaux, consisting of four boys and several girls. The girls had all
married white men, and the little while Old Calias was in existence, two
of the boys, William and George, used to go there often and were
entertained by the Nicholson Brothers with as much splendor as Calias
could afford. The Amoureaux were high moguls in Little Crow society
during the first two years and everybody took off their hats to them.
They were called the "rich mixed-bloods," and were engaged in ranching
and owned great herds in Tipp county. When they shipped it was by the
trainloads. The Amoureaux and the Colones, another family of wealthy
breeds, were married to white women, and the husbands, as heads of
families, held a section of land and the children each held one hundred
and sixty acres.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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