"A few of the Chiefs of the Blackfeet tribe called recently to see me and expressed a strong desire to remain in peace their own nation and the white race. They are, however, strongly opposed to visiting Fort Benton to see their agent, owing to the heavy white settlement around the town, and as there has been no provision made by the late Congress for a new treaty on the part of the government with them, by reason of the treaty of the Judith River of 1855 expiring by limitation, and the non-satisfaction of the treaty of 1865. I am apprehensive of not seeing any of the Indians until next spring. As I have frequently stated my reasons for a change of agency from this place, I respectfully again urge its necessity upon the government and herewith transmit my reasons therefore. Then again, the authority of the agent is questioned regarding the sale of liquors at open bar on the various steamboats which arrive at certain portions of the year at Fort Benton, it having become a port of entry for steamboats of the heaviest tonnage, and who bring with them contraband articles for the various merchants throughout the territory, thereby again operating against that clause [1855 treaty] which reads as follows: "Or shall introduce or attempt to introduce any spiritous liquor or wine into the Indian country; such persons, on conviction thereof before the proper district court of the United States, shall be imprisoned for a period not to exceed two years and shall be fined not more than three hundred dollars."
-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau
pg.12
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