CHRISTMAS A "HUM-BUG" FOR THE BLACKFEET INDIANS-$50 PAYMENT AN INSULT

Was it the mean old scrooges, dumb politicians, or just plain old greed that brought financial ruin to the tribe, or maybe it was the $2,000,000 race track, $7,000,000 casino in a cornfield, or 85 room luxury hotel in Browning, where the winos and bums run off any customers. No, it wasn't just those tribal council disasters, they had help with the "casino council" chairman Earl Old Person, who set up his tribal office in the log house given him by the tribe to go along with his house on government square, or the sordid history of his rule for 30 years when the tribe sank under a mountain of debt and slothful work record as chairman. Shakespeare said "The evil that men do. lives after them." We will pay forever for his disasters because the white man is his hero, and he blocked our last chance the Blackfeet had to recover their allotted lands, by doing nothing! The past three years of non-compliance with federal grant funds will mean a lot of hardship and poverty for our children and old folks this winter once again. NO HARDSHIP! is the sign of the times at the tribal office. Old Person told the tribal council that we, the Blackfeet claimants for the forced patents claims are a "bureau problem." I guess if you are a tribal leader who is proud of never going against the "bureau" it is a viable response, but what tribal leader would throw his own people out and welcome the white man to stay on our reservation by blocking our claims with his powers as chairman. The Senate Indian Affairs Committee welcomed us in 1980 to bring our allotted land claims but we needed a tribal council resolution to bring the senators to Browning to hold field hearings and take testimony from the dispossessed heirs of the original Blackfeet Allottees. The dispossessed heirs are this generation of Blackfeet Indians. All of us have a relative who was robbed of their family lands. I get requests from tribal members, descendants, and heirs all the time on the forced patent claims status, and I have to tell them the truth-Earl Old Person killed your claims. The statute of limitations did not run out as our tribal lawyer contends as we got the claims filed in court and in Congress prior to the deadline of December 31, 1982. Tribal political families do not want the senate Indian committee on the reservation. In 2001 we got a tribal resolution passed requesting a senate investigation of our allotted land claims, removal of white-fee land owners on the reservation, and Glacier-Pondera County refund of all taxes to tribal government and $600 million dollars to be paid to tribal heirs of the original allottees plus restoring all trust land titles to the Blackfeet landowners. There is no white man in Glacier or Pondera County that can prove he owns anything on the Blackfeet Reservation. Isn't the claim a better Christmas payment than chump change of $50 and the tribe bankrupt? Do not approve the water compact unless we get our land and money back from border-whites. Bob Juneau Sr.