"Agent Young protested the land reduction by pointing out the reservation had little arable lands, it's main feature is the Rocky Mountains and their wide spreading spurs, good grazing in parts, but nothing capable of cultivation, except strips of bottom land on the margin of streams, and these only by irrigation or skilled farming. He reported,"Entire reservation needed for grazing, which should be Indians main support. More soldiers would be required to keep these Indians on the proposed reduced reservation than there are now in all Montana. I earnestly trust in the cause of justice, humanity, and economy that it may not pass." Tragically for the starving Piegans, while Agent Young was attempting to remove thousands of Texas stockmen's cattle trespassing on the reservation, he was also trying to purchase beef on the hoof for the Indians, which the Texas cattlemen refused to sell him. Agent Young became alarmed when he thought the Blackfeet people were becoming hostile over lack of food, and called the Army to the reservation. The Army found no signs of an Indian uprising, but supported the agent's claims the rations were inadequate, and reported the Indians were beginning to kill off the agency herd in search of food. T.C. Power continued to short weight the rations while thousands of white stockmen's cattle trespassed on the reservation.
-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau
pg.33
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