The Blackfeet Indians “sell the rocks”

The Blackfeet Chiefs held out for the reservation of timber and grazing lands in the 1896 Agreement, and “sold the rocks’ according to tribal oral history, but even this treaty concession would be taken from them in 1910 by the creation of Glacier National Park and the Lewis & Clark National Forest on the reserved lands which fenced them out.

The Agreement between the United States and the Blackfeet Indians was ratified by Congress on June 10, 1896 and Article Five provided “Since the situation of the Blackfeet Reservation renders it wholly unfit for agriculture, and since these Indians have shown within the past four years that they can successfully raise horned cattle, and there is every probability that they will become self-supporting by attention to this industry, it is agreed that during the existence of this agreement no allotments of land in severalty shall be made to them, but that this whole reservation shall continue to be held by these Indians as a communal grazing tract upon which their herds may feed undisturbed; and that after the expiration of this agreement the lands shall continue to be held until such time as a majority the adult males of the tribe shall request in writing that allotment in severalty shall be made of their lands; Provided, That any member of the tribe may, with the approval of the agent in charge, fence in such area of land as he and the members of the family would be entitled to under the allotment act, and may file with the agent a description of such land and of the improvements that he has made on the same, and the filing of such description shall give the said members of the tribe the right to take such land when allotments of the land in severalty shall be made.”
-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau  
pg.70 

The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau pg.69-70

Most of these Indians live in houses and have about twenty thousand acres under fence. Their principle source of revenue is from their cattle and from freight, cutting wood and selling hay for which they received during the past year, from the Government, about three thousand dollars. They own a sufficiency of farming implements for all needful purposes, they also own about sixty five hundred head of horses, forty five hundred of which are surplus and they would be better off if they could be induced to dispose of them as they are without value and injure the grazing for cattle. The Agency buildings are comparatively new and in need of repairs. The books and accounts I find correct, and all open market purchases supported by authority and proper vouchers, and such articles as have been bought have been secured at a fair market price. All of the employees connected with this Agency I find to be competent and in the discharge of their several duties all working in harmony, and for the best interests of the Government and Indians. The educational facilities of this reservation consist of one boarding school located near the agency with the capacity for one hundred and twenty five pupils, of this school I have made a special report. A Catholic Missionary contract school, located eighteen miles from the Agency, has sufficient capacity for two hundred pupils, but I understand this year only has a contract for fifty. I rather think that this contract should be increased as upon inspection I find the school well located, excellent buildings, and a full corps of teachers, and having heretofore done good work I think it should be continued.” The end of the open range in Montana Territory caused the Texas Cattle Kings to petition the government to reduce the Indian reservations once again, and they encroached upon reservation grazing lands in violation of existing Indian treaties.
-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau  
-pg.69-70 

The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau pg.68-69

Inspector C.C. Duncan had reported: “I have the honor to report that I have this day completed the inspection of this Agency. When here two years ago I had the pleasure of reporting this agency, then under Captain Cooke, as one of the best managed agencies under the Department, and I especially made mention of the system of irrigation which had been projected and almost completed by Captain Cooke, at very little expense to the Government. I find that the present Agent, Mr. Steell, has taken up where Captain Cooke left off, continued the work and with the present allowance of one thousand dollars will be able to build such lateral ditches as are necessary for the purpose of utilizing the lands alongside the main ditches, and there will be plenty of land and water to furnish a sufficiency of hay for all needful purposes. It is useless to expect any results from farming on any portion of this Agency except a few small valleys favorably located, and the results of farming the present year show that with about five hundred acres in cultivation only five or six hundred bushels of grain were secured. This is purely a grazing country, one of the best sections in the west for cattle, especially to fatten cattle. Some of the winters are rather hard on young cattle, but with proper attention and feed for two months in the year they will live through until spring. I find that the Indians here are doing well in cattle, seem to be impressed with the idea that it is important for them that they should raise good stock, and from cattle heretofore furnished by the Government and such as they owned themselves they were enabled to put in on the Government contract, during the present year, something near a half a million pounds of beef, besides shipping six hundred head to Chicago, they now own some few over twenty thousand head, or about ten head to each Indian. Under their recent treaty by the terms of which they are to receive from the Government one million five hundred thousand dollars for a portion of their reservation, ceded for that amount and really worth about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, they will for the next ten years be well provided for, and if they can be induced to continue their present effort in raising and caring for cattle they will be on a self-supporting basis.
-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau  
pg.68-69 

The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau pg.68

Treaty Commissioner Pollock then told the Indians the negotiations were ended, and the government would not force the Indians to sell, “The land is yours.” But, he knew the tribal land cession funds from the 1887 Agreement had been robbed by the agency ring and now the Chiefs negotiated for more cattle and exemption from allotment, which gave the Indians some hope for the future. Captain Cooke departed the reservation in 1895, and left under fire from his critics and the Blackfeet Indians who heartily disliked his military manner and racial prejudice, but he retained 27 mineral claims that might make him and his son Irvin richer for their tour of duty on the Blackfeet Reservation. The Blackfeet Chiefs reserved the buffalo grasses and timber reserves and water rights with which to rebuild the self-reliant tribal cattle industry in the 1896 Agreement/Article Five.

political resurrection of the “morphine eater”  

Agent George Steell, still “riding the dragon” made his triumphant return in 1895 to the scene of his cattle rustling in scattering the Blackfeet cattle herds toward his ranch on the reservation’s southern boundary. Tens of thousands of tribal dollars expended on the Willow Creek irrigation system by Captain Cooke were declared a waste by Agent Steell, but he expended thousands of more dollars to repair the system he had declared to be a waste, which irrigation system in turn was declared by Government Inspectors to be a waste of tribal funds. The ditches were built to transport tribal waters off-reservation to border-whites. The only successful irrigation systems on the Reservation were the short ditches built by Blackfeet ranchers off of the natural creeks which flowed through the reservation mountain meadows and valleys, which produced hay for sale and winter feed for the Indian’s cattle herds when the temperature reached 40 degrees below zero.
-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau  
pg.68 

The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau pg.67

During August and September of 1895 the Piegans were preparing to sell more land for a living, this time the tribal land cession would be the so-called “mineral belt” consisting of approximately 1,000,000 acres originally targeted by James J. Hill and Chief Clerk Garrett.

Little Bear Chief pointed out that the tribal funds received from the land cession of 1887 “has been wasted in large salaries or it would have lasted longer and that the cattle issued were weak and the Indians should be caring for them instead of farming and irrigation projects.”

Grinnell suggested to the Indians that in ten years of annual payments of $150,000 for equipment and livestock the Indians would get rich, “your cattle herds will fill this reservation with fat herds if you are helped for ten years more by another agreement, you will then not want anymore help. You will be able to walk alone like the white man; the only difference will be the color of your skin.”

The Chiefs held firm to their $3 million asking price with Four Horns noting “There is something that is worth money in the mountains. The metal that is in your watch chains is good without doubt. The same kind of metal is to be found in the mountains.”  Horace Clark, the half-breed son of Malcolm Clark, who was killed by his Piegan in-laws in 1869 boldly suggested that the government should help the Blackfeet Indians to develop the copper, gold and silver deposits thought to be in their land, but his “proposal” was summarily rejected by the United States Treaty Commissioners.
-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau
pg.67

The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau pg.66-67

Cooke wrote the Secretary of Interior Hoke Smith that his mineral claims were filed on mineral lands outside the reservation: “I naturally concluded that they did not begin and end here and not being of the genus of Kennerly, Baldwin et al, who sheep like, finding themselves all together in one meadow, are too lazy and indifferent to seek pastures fresher, I, as I had a perfect right to do, with others, ‘grub-staked’ two practical miners and sent them into Flathead County.”

George Bird Grinnell, soon to be appointed U.S. Treaty Commissioner for the 1896 Blackfeet land cession of the mineral belt, also came under Captain Cooke’s official criticism, “I have been aware for some time that Mr. Grinnell corresponds with some of the worst characters on the reservation, and as they believe him to be all powerful with the authorities in Washington, the effect is bad.”

Party politics and peculations paralyzed administration of the agency as Cooke reported, “Schultz, I may state here, speaks Piegan fluently and has a good English education. Last fall I learned that he had advised the Indians to ask for my removal. I sent for, and asked him, if it were true. He replied that it was. I then asked if I had not always treated him kindly, to which he made the answer in the affirmative. I then asked him why he committed so grave an offense. He replied, “because I would not permit him to prospect on the Reservation, when I had allowed Irvin (meaning my son) to do so.”

Agent Cooke recommended the sale of the mineral strip and suggested it would become increasingly difficult to keep mineral trespassers off the reservation and that he would need military support if a “gold stampede” developed, and that the Indians were willing to sell. The mining interests of the agency ring were becoming too widely known to hide, as even the Indian Office was aware that Cooke and his friends were prospecting and filing claims. The Commissioner of Indian Affairs issued a report to Secretary of the Interior Hoke Smith: “This office has been informed that the clerk, licensed trader, and other whites have been engaged in mining on the Blackfoot reservation in Montana. Whilst I am of the opinion that there are large gold deposits on that reservation, I do not consider it proper to engage in mining there as long as it is part of the reservation.”
-The Sacred Buffalo Visions by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau  
pg.66-67 

WHITE AMERICANS SUBJECT TO ECONOMIC SLAVERY SUFFERED BY INDIANS AND AFRICAN-AMERICANS

Economic-apartheid is a condition created by rich Americans to rob the labor and property of poor and politically impotent Americans of all races and ethnicity. President Lincoln wrote in 1865, "When we were the political slaves of King George and wanted to be free, we called the maxim that 'all men are created equal' a self-evident truth; but now that we have grown fat, and have lost all dread of being slaves ourselves, we have become so greedy to be masters that we call the same maxim a self-evident lie." Author Ruth Shinsel wrote the article in Mankind Magazine in 1967 and how right she is to point out the origins of the economic slavery laborers of all races find themselves in today. She wrote, "The Knights of the Golden Circle had at first been organized to uphold the ideal of a great golden empire. An aristocracy, a circle of noblemen, would hold perpetual titles to large plantations and numerous slaves. In the eyes of these feudal-minded knights, all laborers, black, brown, red, yellow, and white, were considered the mudsills of society. Improvident, poverty-stricken, and vicious, laborers the world over would be better off, they contended, and far less vicious if tenderly cared for and forced to labor by kind, wise, and benevolent masters." The rich 1% have accomplished their goal of economically enslaving the 99% of working poor over the world. John Wilkes Booth was a member of the golden knights who murdered President Lincoln, and some of the confederates were chased up the Missouri River by the Union Army in 1863 to Montana Territory and have bedeviled the Indian tribes along the Missouri and Columbia River tribes and brought the tribes to economic ruin by violating treaties made with the 'United States of America' since 1863 and illegally occupied tribal treaty lands. Nobody is safe from these slavers, who are known by the label of Conservative Republicans, the political party of the rich 1% and millions of Tea Party nabobs who fancy themselves an elite group in America. Please, you are not invited to the "Shining City on a Hill" of President Reagan unless you have the million dollar entry fee, and most of you don't but are slated for minimum wage slave jobs like the rest of us. What has befallen the African-Americans and Native-Americans is your situation today, although the Fox news shills of Rupert Murdock will gladly lie to you and be sure to purchase the "NO SPIN ZONE" and other junk that make you think you are in their golden circle. Not so! Most of you are ordinary Americans who are made to think you are better than the poor and ethnic Americans-they are coming for you next! They are a farce and an economic condition that began with enslaving Africans and robbing Indian lands and now it is your turn to be economically enslaved by the elite, rich 1% Americans to your sorrow.  Bob Juneau Sr.

The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau pg.65-66

By the winter of 1894 Captain Cooke’s peculations caught up with him and he was terminated in the spring along with Chief Clerk Garrett, and Irvin Cooke, the Captain’s son and fellow prospector on the reservation. Captain Cooke requested a short reprieve to clear his son’s name, and fired the half-breed assistant clerk, Richard Sanderville, and appointed his son as his replacement. Captain Cooke spent the rest of his term of office expelling squaw men and half-breeds from the reservation, and he claimed that several “drives” were underway to force trespassing cattle of white stockmen off the reservation, but did not succeed, and he did not levy any of the required penalties of the Interior Department. The last months of his tenure were spent defending himself against charges by the squaw men of arbitrary behavior, corruption, and illegal prospecting.

The angry squaw men struck back at Captain Cooke and sent letters to both the Commissioner of Indian Affairs and the Secretary of the Interior revealing Cooke’s conspiracy with E.C. Garrett and the agency trader Joe Kipp in prospecting on the reservation, and advised the Indian Office that Cooke had returned his son, Irvin, to the agency payroll. In January Agent Cooke ordered  three half breeds, and J.W. Schultz, squaw man, writer of Blackfoot tales, and illegal prospector on the Blackfeet Reservation to be expelled for making trouble among the Indians.

Captain Cooke and Joe Kipp had been warned of the discovery of their illegal mineral claims, but their defense was that the claims were not on the reservation, but filed in adjoining Flathead County. Joe Kipp swore to his Affidavit before a Notary Public from Teton County by the name of E.C. Garrett, and Cooke’s defense was to attack the character of his critics who he said were mainly lazy squaw men or applicants for his position as agent. When he learned one of his critics was Henry Kennerly, a rival of Kipp’s as licensed agency trader, he called him to account, “I summoned Kennerly to appear at my office, with a view of giving him an opportunity to explain his connection with the subject in discussion, but instead of appearing, he left the reservation and is still in hiding. I think I may ask here, if such a man is fit to hold so important a position as that of Indian Trader.”
-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau
pg.65-66 

The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau pg.64-65

When the white stockmen did remove their trespassing cattle they rounded up the Indians cattle with their own herds as Captain Cooke reported, “They are not particular about cutting out the Indian cattle, but would drive everything off that happened to be mixed with theirs.” Captain Cooke continued his irrigation project to force the Indian cattle ranchers into irrigated farming projects instead of re-building their destroyed cattle industry ideally suited to the reservation grazing lands and the Blackfeet cattle ranchers proven abilities. The irrigation ditches transported Indian water to white farmers.

In a reservation economy profitable to Cooke, Texas cattle kings, border-whites and the agency ring, Cooke wryly wrote in his monthly report to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs; “This reservation is well adapted to stock-raising, as is evidenced by the persistent encroachment of cattlemen, who drive their herds near the southern and eastern boundaries, with a view of their working on to the reserve, which they have done at times in great numbers. I found soon after taking charge from 10,000 to 15,000 head of trespassing cattle and horses, which I caused to be removed.” He noted that “a special report will be made later as to the course to be pursued to protect the Indians from the wanton inroads of vast herds accumulating near their southern and eastern boundaries.” Captain Cooke then “discovered” between four and five thousand head of cattle, accompanied by a cowboy camp, grazing on Cut Bank Creek on the reservation.

Yet another Government Inspector arrived on the reservation, Thomas Smith, nephew of the Secretary of the Interior Hoke Smith. Upon hearing of the bad deeds of the “breeds” and squaw men he warned them to obey Captain Cooke or leave, and granted Captain Cooke discretionary powers to expel them if they challenged his authority.         The agency physician had warned that the standing water in the basement of the school was a major health hazard, but the Captain had no funds for immediate repairs. The destitute Indians would have to patch up their old raggedy winter coats and trousers to withstand the 40 degree below zero weather as their issue of winter clothing wasn’t delivered by Fort Benton contractor T.C. Power once again for the second year.
-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau  
pg.64-65 

The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau pg.63-64

Meantime those people encamped on the reservation line awaiting to rush in and secure property, will be starved and frozen out and the “syndicate” will find clear sailing to wind up the schemes which will give them possession of the country. No poor man has any chance of securing anything of value there and he will waste both time and money if he makes the attempt. There will be one or two good towns there, but everything will be in the hands of the “jobbers” and themselves. I would like to see the conspiracy opened up, but it involves the names of a large number of influential men and the facts are pretty hard to get at just at present. Later on the “ringsters” will get fighting over the spoils and then perhaps the inside history of the rotten deal will be made public.”

                                    Captain Cooke, reservation prospector

T.C. Power’s associate Alex Johnson continued to build shoddy agency buildings that were swiftly condemned even as he captured rehabilitation contracts issued for repair of agency buildings only two years old. White stockmen trespassing on the reservation surpassed the Indian cattle ranchers for the control of the cattle industry on the Blackfeet reservation as Indian-owned cattle dropped to 6,000 head, while squaw men kept over 2,800 head on the reservation, which in turn competed for the grass against over 12,000 head of white stockmen’s cattle herds. Small pox had again appeared on the reservation in 1894. Agent Cooke requested 10,000 rounds of ammunition to eradicate packs of dogs which were destroying cattle.

Charles Conrad’s “Conrad-Valier Investment Company” on the southern reservation boundary at Birch Creek irrigated 108,000 acres of farm land and diverted all the water when they changed the channel of Birch Creek by damming the stream at the upper end to divert the creek further south to the ex-confederates irrigated lands and reservoirs near the border-towns of Valier and Conrad, leaving Indian farm lands dry. There was a persistent rustling of Indian cattle by white stockmen and commercial timber stolen from the tribal timber reserve by border-whites. Former Agent George Steell joined the cattle rustlers when he doubled the size of his herd by rounding up Indian cattle from the reservation and driving them across Birch Creek to his ranch.
-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau  
pg.63-64 

The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau pg.62-63

The district involved in the alleged scheme of the “ring” was ceded to the government in a treaty made with the Blackfeet tribe last year. It is known to contain valuable mineral deposits and wonderful stories are told of vast bodies of gold, silver, and copper deposits in the St. Mary’s Lake region. A gentleman thoroughly familiar with the country and more or less interested in the subject said to a Standard reporter today in discussing the question: “I tell you the richest mines ever found in Montana will be opened up within the next year in the mountains lying within the boundaries of the reservation. I have been all over that country and speak advisedly on the subject. There is not only valuable ore there but thousands of acres of good placer ground as well, with plenty of water to work the mines. That country was thoroughly prospected long before any commission was appointed to treat with the Indians for its purchase. In fact, if the country had not been rich in minerals it would never have been purchased from the Blackfeet. No bill would ever have been introduced in Congress looking to its acquisition had it not been known to a favored few that rich ore bodies were to be found all through the district. The strip of land covered by the treaty is about 50 miles long and from 10 to 30 miles in width. There are natural locations for town sites there and Swift Current falls offers advantages in the way of water power that can be used to advantage for mining and milling purposes. The better claims have all been located by men representing a syndicate and when the land is thrown open to the public the crowd of hungry prospectors will find little left in the way of desirable mining property to file on. It has been a clean cut case of jobbery from first to last. The favored few have been permitted to roam at will over the reservation, while those with no “pull” have been promptly ejected by the Indian police as soon as they stepped over the reservation line. The corps of surveyors were to have finished their work by Sept. 15, but the work has been purposely delayed and will not be completed until mid-winter or the early spring months.
-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau
pg.62-63 

The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau pg.61-62

Inspector McCormick reported on the Blackfeet Agency: “While I can’t substantiate it, yet, I have but little doubt that there has been what is called an “agency ring” at this place. Believing that the Agent, in the fight he is about to make with the cattlemen who are grazing on this reservation, will need men in his office that he can thoroughly rely upon, is the reason that I advised him to get rid of them and if my suspicions are correct as to their being members of what was an agency ring, it can readily be seen what damage can be done by them.”

A few days after McCormick left the reservation, Captain Cooke discovered that there were large herds of white stockmen’s cattle trespassing on the reservation, and he took out advertisements in the local papers to warn the trespassers he would penalize them $1 a head, which herds he estimated at 10,000 to 15,000 head. He fired the half breed agency interpreters, who he blamed for being “untrustworthy” and kept the agency prospector, and E.C. Garrett, the Chief Clerk. Captain Cooke spent his time eradicating the last vestiges of Indian culture of the Blackfeet Indians, even threatening Indian women with jail for beading, rather than pursuing his official duties in preventing cattle trespass and illegal mineral prospecting by the local squaw men. Captain Cooke had become leader of the “agency ring” in a short time, preventing mineral prospecting by “outsiders” while his son Irvin, employed as issue clerk, prospected with Chief Clerk Garrett in the mountain lands of the Blackfeet reservation targeted by James J. Hill.

“Jobbery” by Frontier Montana Society

The Anaconda Standard published an ‘expose’ on the opening of the Blackfeet Mineral Belt in 1896 with the headline-JOBBERY IS ALLEGED-sub-titled “A Rich Mineral Belt is said to be Under Covetous Eyes-In The Blackfoot Reserve-Rumor Has It That Influential Men Are Scheming to Gobble the Whole Tract When Congress Says the Word”: Great Falls, Sept. 11, “At different times during the past two years rumors of a sensational character have floated over the country regarding an alleged gigantic piece of jobbery and crookedness in connection with the opening up of what is known as the rich mineral belt of the Blackfoot reservation. These stories have been vigorously denied or cautiously suppressed only to be enlarged on and repeated a few months later in slightly different form or with more startling emphasis and elaborate details. Prominent politicians, alleged statesmen, members of Congress, federal officials, army officers, railway magnates, and well-known business men in and out of Montana have been charged with being members of a powerful “ring” which it is maintained, has been organized for the sole purpose of gobbling up the more valuable mineral properties and town site locations on the reserve, and utilizing the same to the personal advantage of members of the syndicate.
-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau  
pg.61-62 

The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau pg.60-61

President Grover Cleveland chose neither of the two political party candidates for the new Blackfeet Agent. Agent George Steell’s political support dissolved in the face of his cattle trespass and alleged failure of his administration to progress the Indians, although he had impressed Eastern “Indian Rights” Organizations with his wisdom in advocating that more implements be sent to the Indians; “Wagons are a great factor in the civilization of the Indians” which wagons were prized booty of agency crooks. The “mad hatter” Indian agent then scattered the Indians cattle toward his ranch on Birch Creek.

                        Captain Cooke, leader of the “agency ring”

Agent George Steell, the “Morphine eater” was replaced on July 22, 1893 by President Grover Cleveland’s choice, Captain Lorenzo Cooke. Inspector Province McCormick warned Captain Cooke that the Indians were still in the clutches of the “agency ring” which had been active for many years on the reservation. Cattle kings grazed their cattle on the reservation by the thousands without fee for many years. Chief Clerk Garrett had been conspiring with James J. Hill since 1892 to open up the western portion of the reservation to grab the mineral ores local squaw men like James Willard Schultz  had discovered; the gold and copper ores in the mountainous reservation lands.

Captain Cooke criticized the delivery methods of the Indian Service, and reported he was pursuing whiskey traders on the Reservation border, but failed to report the vast cattle herds of the white stockmen trespassing on the reservation.

 Inspector McCormick in September, 1893 reported: “This reserve, being fairly watered, is well adapted to stock raising. The cattle kings, appreciating the desirability and advantages of it for grazing purposes, have thrown their cattle on it for years, and have eaten and trampled the grass and hay meadows. Up to the time Agent Steell took charge of this agency, I am informed, the Indians received some remuneration from them; but since his incumbency, I fail to find that one cent was even paid them. At this writing fully twelve thousand head of cattle owned by these men are roaming at will over this reservation. During the round up seasons of spring and fall, when these cattle are driven off to be branded by their owners, they drive off cattle belonging to the Indians.”
-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau
pg.60-61 

The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau pg.59-60

railroad baron, Jim Hill, conspires with the agency ring

Former Blackfeet Agent Mark Baldwin wrote to James J. Hill about his discovery of deep coal deposits on the Blackfeet Reservation. He had discovered the coal deposits while prospecting near the town of Cut Bank on the eastern boundary, but, alas, the coal deposits were on the Blackfeet Indian reservation. Baldwin had a proposition: “It occurs to me that this coal might be of great benefit to your road. I am also satisfied that this part of the reserve could be obtained from these Indians if the proper effort was made. There is a good site for a town on the road at that point.”

James J. Hill was also carrying on conspiracy correspondence with E.C. Garrett, Chief Clerk at the Blackfeet Agency, who was doing some prospecting of his own. On November 7, 1892 Chief Clark Garrett made Hill an interesting proposition: “It is probable a rich and extensive mineral field exists on this Indian Reservation. If so could we reckon on your influence in getting a bill through Congress at its next session to have that portion of the reservation thrown open. Our Senators will stand in line with us, we are pretty sure, but we would like to know this early who else we may rely on when we think advisable to bring the matter to a focus.”

Hill responded to Garrett with his own plan for developing the Indian ores-to remove the Blackfeet to Dakota Territory. Garrett responded that this did not seem feasible for several reasons; that the Indians still had treaty monies owed to them, and while such funds lasted the Indians would not consent to removal, “Nor do I think they ever will, as they are much attached to their country and homes.”  Garrett explained to Hill that the government would soon allot lands to the Indians leaving the un-allotted lands open to public entry and these lands would likely contain the coveted mineral belt.

 “What we shall want, when the time is ripe, is the opening of the mountain country west of the north and south line drawn say through Midvale to the British Boundary, of course they will make a strong kick against giving up the mountain country, but I do not think it will be such a difficult matter if the right commissioners are selected to treat with them. We will depend on your aid and will probably write you further.”
-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau  
pg.59-60 

The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau pg.59

The Great Northern Railway is pushing rapidly westward from the Assiniboine and before long will reach the border of the Blackfeet reserve. Before work is begun on that reservation the Indian Bureau ought to see that a contract is made by which the railway company shall bind itself and those working for it to pay the Indians for their land, and in part at least for the damage done to the reservation. The Indians may growl out here, but no one pays any attention to their grumbling, and their rights ought to be looked out for by the Government at Washington. The Great Northern Railway is probably not anxious to pay for the lands it takes from this reservation. If it can get them for nothing so much the better. No doubt if it could find a philanthropic mill owner who would roll its rails without charge, it would accept them. When the Great Northern buys rails, however, it pays for them, and so when it takes land that does not belong to the public domain it must pay for that land. It is reported here that this matter has already been brought to the attention of the Indian Department, but if this be true, nothing appears to be known of the matter by the people in this State who have the best opportunity of learning about it. If any action is to be taken it should be known to at once, for the Piegans are being uneasy and dissatisfied over the approach of the railroad. These people for two or three years have been working hard and are making fairly good progress toward civilization, but the two last seasons have been so dry that their crops have failed, and they are now on short rations since the supplies have all run out, and no appropriations had been made by Congress for their support during the coming year. Before long there is likely to be much actual suffering from hunger.”
-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau  
pg.59

The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau pg.58-59

This building of the railroad will bring to the Blackfeet reservation several thousand horses employed by the contractors in their work, and these horses will eat up a great deal of the Indian’s grass. This grass the Indians need this year more than ever before. Besides their horses, of which they have a good many, and the agency beef herd, the Indians have had issued to them within the last year about a thousand heifers. They are extremely proud of these animals, and the men to whom they were issued are getting hay and building stables to keep them through the winter. If the grass on the reservation is to be eaten off by the livestock brought on by the railroad contractors, it may make it pretty “hard sledding” for some of the Indians to get their herds through the winter.

In view of all these circumstances it seems only fair that the Indians should have good pay for their land under the direction of the Secretary. The whole matter, therefore, rests in the hands of Mr. Noble, and his selection of persons to appraise the value of the lands taken and of the damages done will determine the question whether these Indians are to receive any adequate compensation for their lands. I have traveled all over the Blackfeet reserve, and I know that the land on Willow Creek is about the best on the reservation, where good land is extremely scarce. A fair price for this land would be six dollars an acre, and the contractors should pay a grazing fee for each horse brought on the reservation of not less than fifty cents or a dollar to pay for the grass that he will eat. This is little enough when we consider the damage that is sure to be done to the grazing by the horde of men and herd of animals that will invade the reservation.
-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau
pg.58-59 

The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau pg.58

The railway will run through the Blackfeet lands for about fifty miles, and as the route follows up Willow Creek, it will take some of the best farming lands on the reservation. The Blackfeet reservation lies in the arid belt, and, except in the lowest bottom lands of the valleys, no crops can be raised without irrigation. Hay land and farming land is doubly valuable by reason of its scarcity, and to-day not less than fifty Indians are cutting and putting up hay on Willow Creek. Moreover, a number of families have located their homes on this stream, and are now struggling in a way that any other people would be called heroic to master the problem of earning a living. If this road goes up Willow Creek, as it will, these homes will be confiscated. For all this these Indians should be paid. These and other Indians have had a bitter experience in making verbal contracts with corporations, and instances are numerous where tribes have leased their lands to cattle companies for grazing purposes on the faith of promises that they should be paid so much a head for the cattle put on the reservation, and then have in vain tried to collect what was due them. The Indian cannot sue or be sued; he can only grumble. The Government does not collect his debts for him.
-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau
pg.58

The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau pg.57

The building of this line means of course, the invasion of the Indian reservation by the whites. A very considerable tract of land belonging to the Piegan Indians will be taken from them; stores and saloons where whiskey will be freely dealt out will follow the line of the railroad, and a great number of laborers and teams will be engaged in the work of construction. The treaty with the Piegans, ratified by Congress May 1, 1888, provides that whenever in the opinion of the President the public interests shall require the construction of railway or telegraph lines across the reservation such lines may be constructed and a right of way shall be granted to them. The Secretary of the Interior is to fix the compensation for such right of way, and the money so received shall be expended under the direction of the Secretary. The whole matter therefore rests in the hands of Mr. Noble, and his selection of persons to appraise the value of the lands taken and of the damage done will determine the question whether these Indians are to receive any adequate compensation for their lands.
-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau
pg.57

The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau pg.56-57

Meanwhile Indian School Superintendent Dorchester declared that agency contractor Alex Johnson’s new school construction was a “farce” already in a dilapidated condition although it was only one year old. The Fort Benton contractors failure to deliver beef, annuity goods, and the failure of Indian crops once again caused Agent Steell to report, “We are in the dark here, having not yet received coal oil.”

Confederate gold miners, squaw men, and agency employees on the reservation placed Mrs. Steell’s name on a mining claim at St. Mary lake for “luck” and filed mining claims for other Montana “high society” members at Swift Current, as they testified later, when the illegal mineral claims became a matter of Official Congressional Investigations prior to the opening of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation “mineral strip” by the 1896 Agreement, but they retained their illegal mineral claims through it all.  Sadly, for the perpetrators no gold was found in paying quantities, but they were not done exploiting Indians, as George Bird Grinnell and James J. Hill sold tall tales and scenery to tourists.

Great Northern Railroad “threatened incursion”

John Nicholas Brown of Newport R.I. wrote Commissioner of Indian Affairs Thomas Jefferson Morgan on Sept. 16^th, 1890 informing him of the news article from the New York Tribune of Monday Sept. 15^th; “That is worthy, I think, of being brought to your attention. I feel you will do what you can in the matter in the threatened incursion of the Blackfeet Res. by whites.”

The Article was entitled-Encroaching On The Indians-The Blackfeet Reserve Menaced; Protection Needed Against the Thrift of the Great Northern Railway: [From An Occasional Correspondent of the Tribune] Helena, Mont., Aug. 29-“Much dissatisfaction is felt by the Indians of the Blackfeet Agency, north of Helena, over the prospect that the Great Northern Railway will seize a right of way through this reservation without making any arrangements to pay the Indians through whose land they must pass. It is stated that the lines of this railroad have been actually located through the Blackfeet reservation on the east side of the mountains, that grading will begin this month, and that contracts have been let for the completion of the line from Great Falls to the summit of the main range of the Rocky Mountains by January 1, 1891.
-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau
pg.56-57 

The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau pg.55-56

The Assistant Commissioner of Indian Affairs responded oxymoronically, “No white man has any right to put stock on that reservation unless he belongs to the Tribe. The President of the United States would not put stock on your reservation for his own benefit, nor would the Secretary of the Interior, nor would the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, nor should the Agent. The Agent has no right to put stock on your reservation for his own benefit, and it is the duty of the Agent to see that stock is not allowed to trespass.”  The Commissioner of Indian Affairs orders meant nothing to Agent Steell, who grazed his cattle herd on the reservation for the remainder of his tenure, as well as allowing trespass of other white stockmen’s cattle herds.  

The Great Northern Railroad admitted it took more right-of-way than the law allowed, but was not ordered by the Secretary to return the excess Indian lands taken for its railroad stations. Joe Kipp kept the agency sawmill while the Indians homes and buildings were left to rot. The Agent tried to force the Indians to provide “free” labor on agency projects while he pocketed the money budgeted to pay for their labor out of tribal funds, and claimed the Indians had to pay for their rations and annuities already paid for by land cessions to the United States.

Agent Steell allowed large sheep corporations to graze on the reservation, while the Blackfeet chiefs complained “The Agent makes us talk to him through a little hole in the door, and even then tells us to go away.” The Blackfeet Chiefs asked for the removal of Agent Steell, chief clerk, school superintendent, and agency farmer. The Indian Office   sent two inspectors to investigate the problems, who reported that Steell, under the name of his wife, ran two hundred head of cattle on the reservation, but said the damage was slight because of the abundant grazing lands of the Indians.

Inspector Gardner recommended Steell pay one dollar per head in compensation to the Indians, and admitted he and Steell were old friends, having come to Montana together in 1857, “his character for honesty, integrity, and veracity is above reproach and comment.” He called Steell’s Piegan critics “shiftless coffee coolers, who hung around the agency,” and excused Steell’s use of agency employees to herd his cows, which was minimized because Steel promised to make compensation, and defended Steell’s meeting with the Blackfeet chiefs through “a hole in the door,” it was understandable because the Piegans smoke a peculiar leaf from a weed growing in this country; “it is very noxious and no one can do business in a room partly filled with offensive smoke.”
-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau  
pg.55-56

OVERSEAS TAX CHEATS OWE $32 TRILLION WHILE U.S. OWES INDIANS $650 BILLION IN UNPAID CLAIMS

President Obama is pursuing American tax cheats who keep their profits off-shore to avoid paying their fair share of the tax burden. These rich 1% corporate tax cheats were offered a tax amnesty to come clean and pay their taxes, but no! These corporate deadbeats owe the United States Government an estimated $32 trillion dollars, more than double the amount of the national debt! In the past century many of these corporations robbed the Indians of their land, oil, coal, water, and any other thing of value with the complicity of the federal trustees-partners-in-crime. Conservative Republicans decry the poor, and measure the amount of poor children's free lunch at public school and caused a national embarrassment when President Reagan tried to count "ketchup" as a vegetable to give the children less of a "free meal." President Reagan created corporate welfare programs and "gave" the federal budget to corporations to function as quasi-federal programs in health, education, welfare and military to profit trillions of dollars carrying out government mandates, and Congress passed laws to keep the prisons full, and the military in endless wars. Bush Jr. took to it like a "fire-bug" starting two wars and spending two trillion dollars of taxpayer dollars on corporate war contracts. Halliburton, V.P. Cheney's former company got no-bid military contracts and he got $35,000,000 in profits on his Halliburton stock. Overseas corporate tax cheats owe the United States an estimated $32 trillion dollars in past due taxes, while the United States Government owes the Indians an estimated $650 billion dollars in past due "Indian Money Damage Claims" that are proven but not yet paid and it is obvious that the Congress has no idea to pay up! My grandma was robbed in 1914 of 14,000 sheep and her land allotment of 400 acres, and her name is on the list of Eligible Indian Money Damage Claimants published in the Federal Register in 1980 along with an estimated 17,000 Indian landowners who were robbed of an estimated 100 million acres on Indian Reservations across the United States.In 1983 President Reagan refused to pay up and stonewalled the Indian claims, and cut Indian funds by 40% causing many deaths on the reservation. Border-whites are a class of Americans who build their ranches and businesses near and on reservations with the sole purpose of robbing the Indians. Border-whites include corporations, and state politicians who conspired to build "white-apartheid territory" on Indian reservations called "reservation/counties" enacted by state legislatures in 1919 in direct violation of Indian treaties that guaranteed tribal sovereignty. Federal trustees, corporations and politicians robbed the Indians, it seems that politicians ought to separate themselves from corporations before all United States citizens are as poor as Indians on the reservation, or else we are a nation of  King George Republicans and American serfs. I am but one of hundreds of thousands of dispossessed Indian heirs living in poverty on the reservation.  Bob Juneau Sr.

The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau pg.54-55

Inspector Miller informed the Indian Office that he did not think the charges were valid as only Dr. Jenkins testified to them, although he admitted Dr. Jenkins was the only one at the agency qualified to discuss Steell’s physical health and morphine addiction.

Chief White Calf was permitted to travel to Washington by Agent Steell, and praised Steell for his approval of the trip, but complained about the continuing white stockmen’s cattle trespass on the reservation: “We wish you would give us some key there to lock up the reservation; we think Congress or somebody else will cut this reservation down again. We want to lock it, so nobody can get in there. There have been stock people running their stock cattle on our reservation, and they get mixed up with ours, and we don’t like that. Our stock frequently get mixed up with other parties living off the reservation. We don’t care much about herding any one else’s stock but our own. We haven’t much more land than we can utilize ourselves.”

Bear Chief said “The Piegans wish to keep our own ground. It is not large now. We ask you to keep the envious whites away. The whites are always bothering us. They drive their herds on to our land and steal our grass. We wish this to cease. Did you tell our agent that he might graze his herd of cattle on our land? He has some there. He has no Indian blood in his veins. If his cattle are allowed to remain there, other white men will claim the same right.” He listed his complaints about the quality of the annuity goods, the missing sawmill, theft of their wagons and dishonesty of the agency clerks. He told of the abuses of the Great Northern Railroad taking hay, timber, gravel, coal, and causing prairie fires and complained of the stupidity of the Inspectors sent to the reservation: “They seem to be regular old women. That is why we don’t talk much to them.”
-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau  
pg.54-55 

The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau pg.54

Agent Steell immediately came under investigation for serious mismanagement of the agency and the Indian’s money, but the examinations were conducted with the agent present during the questioning of the witnesses and they made no serious charges against Steell. The questions put to them were limited to Steell’s dealings with employees but none related to his management of reservation resources or tribal monies. A few agency employees did muster the courage to complain about his “irascible” temperament. Dr. John E. Jenkins, the agency physician had claimed Steell was no longer fit to run the agency, and he was one of the few doctors to enjoy any popularity with the Indians.

According to Dr. Jenkins, Steell began asking for morphine from the doctor within two weeks of the agent’s arrival and by 1891 Steell was under the influence of the drug three-fourths of the time and regularly took a dose of ½ gram to a full gram. Dr. Jenkins testified “When he first came I asked him why he did not use morphine for his headaches. I was told he had acquired the habit formerly and was advised not to give it to him. Believe he needs it all the time as a drunkard needs whiskey.” 

Dr. Jenkins admitted under cross examination that he had been friendly with Steell ever since the agent arrived, but that Steell’s changing temperament culminating in a sharp and abusive argument with the physician had convinced Jenkins that he had to report Steell: “Our relations are not pleasant, but were continuously pleasant until a month ago; during that time thought his habit injurious to the service, sufficiently so to call the attention of the Dept. to them, but did not want to injure him. My desire to protect the agent was stronger than my allegiance to Dept. I regret that I made the charges, not because of developments during the inquiry, but that I would rather have left without trouble.” He related his efforts to provide Steell with substitutes, including nerve tonic (Steell complained of headaches and neuralgia), and claimed Steell never did his paperwork without a dose of morphine, “he wanted to stop, but was confirmed in habit and could not, both will power and physical strength were lacking.”
-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau
pg.54 

The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau pg.53

Catlin completed his brief, but notorious tenure as agent in October of 1890 in a muddle of confusion, mismanagement, and complicity in peculations of the Indians property, cattle, hay, wagons, water rights, jobs, wages, rations and land cession funds.

                                    The reign of the “morphine eater”

Agent George Steell served his first term at Blackfeet Agency between 1890 and 1893 even though the agency doctor confirmed Steell to be a narcotics addict, “a morphine eater” in Dr. Jenkins words. The Blackfeet Chiefs complained that Steell would only talk to them through a hole cut in the door to his office, while they sat outside in a separate room. Steell grazed 200 head of cattle on the reservation and was building up his ranch property just outside the southern reservation boundary at Birch Creek.

Chief Clerk E. C. Garrett was conspiring with James J. Hill, owner of the Great Northern Railroad, who was cutting his rail lines through the reservation taking tribal land and resources without any compensation to the Indians, albeit sanctioned by the Secretary of the Interior who waived fees and payments to the Indians.

 Chief Clerk Garrett was enlisting Hill’s support for grabbing the western reservation mineral strip, the gold and copper ores, which he and the reservation squaw men had discovered illegally prospecting in the mountainous portion of the reservation.
-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau  
pg.53

The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau pg.52-53

Another inspection revealed Joe Kipp, the licensed trader had been using the agency sawmill for 18 months while constructing the new Jesuit mission school, “Holy Family Mission” on Two Medicine Creek while the favored Fort Benton contractor T.C. Power’s business associate Alex Johnson had been competing against Joe Kipp for the construction contract to build the new agency boarding school. Kipp had underbid Johnson, who was cashier of the bank Power owned and headed as president, but as it turned out T.C. Power had more powerful friends in Washington City than Catlin.

The law firm of Clum and Dingman had examined T.C. Power’s contracts for years, and recommended that Kipp’s bid be rejected though it was lower than Johnsons and Agent Catlin had recommended and approved Kipp’s contract bid. Another inspection of agency beef contracts led to Catlin’s resignation, who had also allowed Kipp’s personal use of the agency sawmill and had let the survey crews of the Great Northern Railroad on the reservation without reporting it to the Indian Office.

Bear Chief complained that white men were cutting hay and selling it to the railroad crew for their work horses, while Mr. Clough, Second Vice-President of the Great Northern Railroad informed the Indian Office that right-of-way maps were being prepared and that the railroad would be glad to cooperate with the government in agreeing upon compensation to the Indians. He urged the progress of the railroad not be hampered by “any disturbance of the Indians.”
-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau  
pg.52-53 

The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau pg.52

Inspector James H. Cisney arrived on the reservation to investigate Agent Catlin, and described the despair of the Indians and warned that farming would never succeed on the reservation. He noted that the beef cattle purchased for the Indians had been badly neglected during the winter despite abundant hay available for winter feed, and that cattle were improperly butchered with axes and issued to the Indians in a mangled condition. Cisney found no specific examples of fraud, but confirmed Chief Clerk Livingstone’s drunken habits, who responded by attacking the character of the witnesses against him.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Thomas Jefferson Morgan reprimanded Agent Catlin for employing his brother Pope Catlin and ordered his brother off the reservation, and dismissed Chief Clerk Livingstone from the Indian Service, but recommended Catlin’s Senate nomination as Indian Agent should not be postponed, and he warned Catlin not to repeat the “pinchbeck” jewelry sales to the Indians. Catlin apologized for the nepotism and jewelry frauds, and declared “my reputation in Montana is sufficient to offset any charges that may be brought against me affecting my character” and requested the return of the vouchers he submitted previously to the Indian Office.
-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau  
pg.52  

The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau pg.51-52

Agent John B. Catlin became the new agent in 1889, the choice of Montana’s Republicans, who had criticized the conditions at the agency and reported that Baldwin had failed to take a proper census of the Piegans and he had attempted to charge tribal accounts for doing so. Agent Catlin fired the agency farmer and replaced him with his brother, Pope Catlin. Catlin asked the Indian Commissioner if it were proper to pay the Indians for their labor on agency projects with annuity goods purchased by tribal land cession funds. In 1889 Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Thomas Jefferson Morgan Proclaimed, “The logic of events demands the absorption of the Indians into our national life, not as Indians, but as American citizens.” Commissioner Morgan’s Indian Assimilation Program recommended an intense and extensive Indian Education system staffed by capable Indian educators which was essential to the task at hand.

 School Superintendent Coe reported that the Blackfeet Agency School was a disaster. Agent Catlin saw the agency boarding school as inadequate, but he did not inform the Commissioner that the School Principal and Chief Clerk at the agency had serious drinking problems. Local justice of the peace George Magee informed the Indian Office that the Piegans were greatly dissatisfied with Catlin, and that Chief Clerk Livingstone was frequently drunk. Agent Catlin and Livingstone had profited from a sale of cheap “pinchbeck” jewelry to the squaws displayed in the agent’s office. The drunken clerk was urging the Indian women to buy, while their “squaw-man” husbands were afraid to protest because of their fear of the agent expelling them from the reservation.

The agency “pimp” trader C.L. Bristol confirmed and expanded Magee’s charges, and claimed that Catlin had placed his brother-in-law in the position of agency carpenter; had swindled the Indians on their beef issue and had received payment from “himself” for flour purchased out of Great Falls. Joe Kipp, the licensed agency trader complained, “I have got to sell out and leave, they are getting away with all the police money and everything in sight.” C. L. Bristol warned the Indian Office that an inspector could not expect to uncover evidence by carrying on an investigation in front of Catlin, whose power intimidated witnesses, especially the vulnerable squaw men. George Bird Grinnell wrote the Indian Office regarding the whiskey trade in the border-towns surrounding the reservation and even on the reservation, and offered Commissioner Morgan the names of reliable witnesses, but admitted it would be impossible to get frightened squaw men and corrupt agency employees to testify in court before a cattlemen jury and judge.
-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau
pg.51-52  

The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau pg.50-51

The inspector reported "The excessive number of employees used at this place, by referring to the list of employees, it will be seen that five laborers are continuously employed-this is outside of regular employees and I can see no necessity for this unusual number.  Two should be an abundance for this kind of help-one at the stable, and the other for general agency work-besides these five there is a janitor at the hospital.  An engineer is employed to draw a map, from hearsay, not a very reliable map.  These Indians are in need of a horse rake and mowers; hay being their crop.  They should have enough of these machines.  These Indians sold to the agency trader four hundred head of beef cattle, but I recommend they should be given the beef contracts themselves to supply the agency beef contracts, say 500,000 lbs. of beef sold to the government, where they will get cash and a fair price.  It will also be an encouragement to them in cattle raising.  This Indian trader runs two stores on this reservation; that is the Clarke and Dawson outfit of half-breeds-they have been trying to run reservation matters their way, but have been called down by the full-bloods and the agent." Agent Baldwin reported, "It may be of some interest to you to be informed that about forty miles northwest from this agency is found the wonderland of this Reservation, a chain of lakes, the largest of which is known as St. Mary Lake, all fed by a number of glaciers, one of which is said to be from two to three miles in width, and from fifteen hundred feet in thickness, swift streams flowing from all of these glaciers, above which tower the snow crested peaks of the great divide, that gives us the Atlantic and Pacific slopes.  The grandeur of which being unique, excels in wonder the enchanting scenery of the Great National Park.  I am unaware that Glaciers exist elsewhere in the United States, and believe these to be the only ones thus far discovered."  He reported,"A Mr. Grinnell of New York City has visited St. Mary's Lake neither asked for nor received permission to hunt or fish on reservation; was understood to have carried credentials from Indian Office and was in company with J.W. Schultz.  Grinnell and Schultz held council with several irresponsible Indians-the purpose of said council is considered malicious, vindictive and calculated to reflect unfairly and misrepresent the condition of affairs at this agency.  J.W. Schultz, who has been living on reservation for six years, a lazy, shiftless life sharing the rations issued to his Indian wife.  Past year has lived on border of Canada- has taken out of St. Mary's Lake more than 9 tons of fish, which he has sold in Canada."
-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau  
pg.50-51

The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau pg.49-50

Big Plume went to the agent and requested help to get his squaw, who he said was confined in the stable at the trading post by S.P. Horr.  The agent sent two of the agency police who found the woman had been released Horr saying, "she could have got out anytime," which the agency police said likely was true.  The next day the agent made special inquiries as to the facts, and "Horr's habits" and found he had been in the practice of admitting squaws to the store at night, and to use the words of his partner, C.L. Bristol, "was making a brothel of the store", Horr dismissed.  No other traders on reservation, although several on the borders." Confined to the reservation under the supervision of crooks of the agency ring the Indians were getting decimated by the "slow death measures" of tribal malnutrition, disease, whiskey, illiteracy, demoralization, forced prostitution, and embezzlement of tribal land cession funds by the agent.  Inspector Thomas wrote, "They are nearer barbarians than anything I have ever seen." Reservation plunder became party spoils as new Indian Agents were nominated by competing political parties.  Montana Territorial Governor Martin Magginnis, and the Commissioner of Indian Affairs nominations for Indian agents were made, but the Indian Commissioner trumped the Montana Governor with his choice of Mark Baldwin of the Ohio political machine.  The old agent, Major Allen, was charged with a serious drinking problem, while the agency cattle herd was scattered all over the reservation and the agency school had only 18 scholars with 4 agency school employees plus his daughter.  Agent Baldwin refused to receipt Agent Allen for the agency cattle herd because it was scattered all over the reservation and an exact count was impossible.  Baldwin requested new carpeting for his office as well as personal expenses for his trip out to the Blackfeet Agency.  He questioned the unrestricted use of the reservation grazing lands by white stockmen's cattle herds trespassing by the thousands along Birch Creek, the reservation's southern boundary.  He surmised the cattle had been driven to the edge of the reservation with "the intent of their grazing thereon" and reported that the drought had increased the demand by white stock owners for the grass and hay lands of the Blackfeet Indians.  Over 30,000 head of white stockmen's cattle were grazing on the reservation, and as many as 265,000 head of cattle of the Texas Cattle Kings had crossed the Blackfeet reservation to reach Canadian markets.  Agent Baldwin deposited $979 in the U.S. Treasury for grazing fees he collected for allowing the white stockmen's cattle herds to pass over the reservation and for their "pasturage."
The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau  
pg.49-50

The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau pg.48-49

agency pimps, drunken doctors, and crooked agents  
The "agency ring" a criminal conspiracy made of the agent, trader, Fort Benton merchants and Texas cattlemen now controlled the Indians funds and reservation lands and resources.  The Indian Department Inspector reported "The Blackfeet Indians are active, intelligent, progressive people, anxious to learn and follow the ways of the whites.  They are unusually polite and sociable people, and as far as manners and politeness go, have very little to learn from their white brothers.  As is well known to the Department this is not an agricultural country, being adapted essentially to stock raising, and hay.  All attempts at agricultural will prove abortive.  It is but a waste of time and muscle to attempt agriculture in a country where the frost will kill at any season of the year grains or vegetables at both ends.  The Indians recognize this, and are devoting their time and energy to making hay and raising cattle." During the 1880's and 1890's the Blackfeet Indians were confined to the reduced reservation land base and introduced to the racketeering of the "agency ring," a criminal conspiracy of agency employees, government contractors, Texas cattlemen and "squaw men" who are ex-confederates married to Blackfeet women, and claiming reservation occupancy and treaty rights for themselves.  The criminals of the Blackfeet agency ring are pimps, crooked traders, drunken doctors, drug addicts and government employee thieves in every position and office robbing Indian treaty money.  Thieves were so commonplace around the Blackfeet agency that a church minister noted that, "The government and the Indians, were both, looked upon as legitimate prey by employees." Dr. Hughey was charged with public drunkenness, adultery, sexual abuse of Indian women and medical mal-practice.  The agent was called to the traders store to prevent Dr. Hughey, being drunk, from performing an operation on a boy's hand.  The agent found the doctor in the condition described hacking at the struggling boy's hand, and rescued the boy and had his hand dressed.  The agent later saw the doctor quite drunk amongst a number of Indians outside the stockade.  The Indians were making jeering remarks on his condition, and with the help of the clerk he was brought inside and confined to his room.  On the night of July, 26th, an Indian woman was concealed in the doctor's room, her husband and father came over the pickets, the gate being closed, and noisily using threats, demanded her.  She had been hurried from the doctor's room on the first alarm, but was taken from her hiding place and given to her husband.
-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau    
pg.48-49

THE BLACKFEET NATION NEEDS A WORD OF SUPPORT FROM WORLD NATIONS

The political history of the Blackfeet Nation and the United States has been the Indians trying get the Congress to live up to treaty obligations by exposing venal western congressmen providing legal loopholes that allow corporate interests to "usurp" Indian property owners treaty rights and resources. The Blackfeet people were slaughtered and starved into tribal land cessions in 1881, 1887, and 1896 which left a reservation of 1.5 million acres for the tribe to rebuild their shattered lifestyle centered on the buffalo economy. By 1893 the Blackfeet people had overcome 30 years of massacre, starvation, small-pox and whiskey trade by Montana border-whites genocides that depopulated the tribe from 7,800 in 1860 to 1,811 Blackfeet left alive in 1890 and developed a cattle industry that put the Indian ranchers in complete economic self-sufficiency by 1893, and their success is guaranteed in the 1896 Agreement/Article Five. Here is where the corporate-congress axis of fraud or just plain criminals put into play the law, allotment act, that broke up tribal lands into land allotments of 400 acres to each Indian which allowed the criminals to target individual Indians land allotments in the interests of the "Indian ring" a criminal conspiracy. Mrs. Mabel Monroe Bond, a Blackfoot woman was robbed as a child by Joe Sherburne, agency trader, of her land allotment which is adjacent to the eastern entrance to Glacier Park, an exceptionally valuable piece of real estate where hotels and businesses cater to two million tourists generating $160,000,000 each summer. She wrote the Commissioner of Indian Affairs John Collier many times informing him of the conspiracy, and telling him of the "Tammany Hall" clique on the reservation of Joe Sherburne, agency trader, Swift & Armor, Great Northern Railway, and the county attorney and Indian agent's land frauds on the Indians. The Blackfeet Indian land claims are to recover 1,400 of these 400 acre allotments of land on the reservation and the billions of dollars generated from oil wells and grazing lands stolen by white men and corporations. Today, in 2015, the state of Montana, border-whites, and the Federal Reclamation Service are in the process of usurping Blackfeet water resources in a state-tribal water compact that will end the land claims of the dispossessed heirs of the original allottees, and give up title and water rights to the void patent-in-fee white landowners living on the stolen allotments of the original land frauds which are the subject of the unresolved Indian claims we are still working after a century. It would help the Indians for foreign leaders and people to speak up for the Indians in world courts and in the United Nations Genocide Convention. Please give us a voice, who cannot speak freely without being attacked by the white-supremacists and corporations. Bob Juneau Sr.

The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau pg.47

Martin Magginnis requests Blackfeet deported to Canada
"The Blackfeet will be more difficult to deal with-all their blood and kindred are in the British America where they really belong themselves, and there have been most of the Indians on one side of the line; but I have the belief that if intelligently approached they would consent to a consolidation with some of the other tribes, or if they desired to be consolidated with their kindred, whom the authorities have now moved north from the boundary line, with the best results, perhaps it might be made a matter of international arrangement-this is but a suggestion, although if it would be carried out it would afford the most satisfactory solution of the matter of this tribe.  In order that appropriations might begin early in the season, so that Congress could act on them at its next session and the money is made immediately available, I respectfully request that the Department should lose no time in organizing a communication to hold these negotiations.  The natural territory of the officials, traders, and employees about the agencies which may be abolished by the consolidation of the tribes will be adverse to such action.  Their antagonism with have to be overcome by strict orders from the Department for its officials and employees to support the wishes of the Government and to support the Commissioner in the endeavor to effect such a consolidation.  This with proper commission members who understand the situation and the tendencies of the Indians, would I not doubt be able to carry out the desire of the government to settle these Indians permanently and greatly reduce the amount of the annual appropriations for their support." The Indian removals caused the Blackfeet Tribe to retreat before the onslaught of Montana settlers several times until the Indians backs were literally against the Rocky Mountains and the province of Alberta, Canada, and the whites invaded the reservation.  
-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau
pg.47

The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau pg.46-47

The 1888 Blackfeet Agreement implemented the United States Indian policy of purchase of Indian lands and a promise of tribal sovereignty in America.  The policy made by Congress is that Indian Reservations established by treaty and ratified by Congress are to be governed under the Indian Trade and Non-Intercourse Acts passed by Congress beginning in 1790 and ending in 1834.  The Congressional acts made it illegal for States or citizens to purchase Indian property absent the prior approval of Congress and consent of the Indians.  The intent of the Indian Trade and Non-Intercourse Acts introduced by President George Washington are to prohibit white citizens in introducing alcohol in Indian Country and prevent land speculators robbing title to Indian property.  Rules and Regulations of the Indian Department stated the Blackfoot Indians possessed sole rights of occupancy to the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, and could "alienate" Blackfeet lands only by sale to the United States:  "The fee to the reservation is in the United States, the right of the Indians to their use and occupancy is as sacred as that to the Government to the fee." The Indians have the treaty right to apply to their own use and benefit the entire products of the Reservation, whether the result of their own labor or of natural growth, so they do not commit waste.  Department of the Interior Indian Department Regulations provided penalties for grazing trespass upon Indian reservations and introducing whiskey on Indian lands.  Item No.529 stated that no one could graze stock on an Indian reservation without the permission of the Indians and their agent, and a grazing fee had to be approved by both the Agent and the Indian Office.  It is illegal even to drive stock across and Indian reservation unless there was an approved cattle trail subject to the approval of the agent.  By 1865 there were hundreds of thousands of head of white stockmen's cattle, sheep, and horses driven across the Blackfeet reservation to Canada.  The official opening of Blackfoot Confederacy lands hardly seemed necessary, given the open use of Blackfeet Indian grazing lands by Montana stockmen since the 1860's.  Old time cowboy John Hall told senate Indian committee investigator Walter W. Liggitt that he estimated there were upwards of 265,000 head of cattle on the Blackfeet reservation by the 1860's, twenty five years before the Indian lands were ceded to the United States.  In the years 1884-1885 the Texas cattle herds increased in number and size until an agitation was started to divide the Blackfeet reservation north of the Marias and Missouri rivers, and open this large area to the white stockmen.  Cattle herds continued to arrive by the tens of thousands and were thrown on the already overstocked and depleted range.  Millions of acres of fine grazing lands including the Marias and Milk River Valleys were added to the public domain but the cattlemen had already moved in.
-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau    
pg.46-47

The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau pg.45-46

On February 7, 1887, in forty degree below zero weather in deep snow, United States Indian Treaty Commissioners John W. Knight, Dr. Daniels, and Major Larrabee arrived at the Blackfeet Agency to treat with Indians for reduction of their reservation; remained one week and consummated treaty which, if ratified by Congress, will open to public 17,000,000 acres of Blackfoot Confederacy lands, leaving the Indians a strip of land 40 miles wide.  Indians will receive $150,000 per year for ten years in cattle, horses, implements, and assistance by the Indian Office in farming and stock raising for their land cession, but were disallowed any cash to be paid to them.  All Indian Service employee's salaries and improvements at agency to be paid from Indian land cession funds.  The Blackfoot Indians have for the first time since the famine years in 1881-1885, received adequate food.  Past winter unparalleled in severity, almost daily blizzards during December, January, and February, causing enormous stock losses, hay supply reduced agency losses, forty degrees below zero weather throughout the winter.  Congress ratified the 1887 Agreement, and the Blackfoot Indians ceded 17,000,000 acres to the United States, which Public Lands of the United States were opened to settlement of Montana Territory after May 1, 1888, but the 30,000 emigrants from the States; confederate gold miners, Texas cattle barons, Fort Benton merchants and Montana settlers had never left the Blackfoot Confederacy lands.  In April, 1888 the Agent reported, "Indians experience much uneasiness as to the near approach of the small pox.  These Indians are acquainted with this disease-it having decimated their numbers by about one half during the spring and summer of 1864 and another outbreak in 1870.  The agency physician being out of vaccine madder, I ordered from Helena at his request one thousand vaccine points.  The Indians all being anxious to be vaccinated.  The approach of Rail Road, and traveling of so many people near and through reservation, renders infectious and contagious diseases more frequent, and such assume their most malignant form here where people live so closely together, and utterly disregard many rules of health and comfort."
-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau  
pg.45-46

The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau pg.44-45

This is what we want and the committee on conference of the two Houses has consented to the amendment.  When the bill shall have passed I will insist upon someone being appointed at once to make these negotiations so that at the next session the bill can be passed to carry out the same."  Benton River Press, November 24, 1886, article, SOME OF OUR WANTS.  "Man wants but little here below, nor wants that little long." The people of northern Montana Congress is about to resume business at the old stand and Delegate Toole is already at the national capital looking after the requirements of his territory and constituents, it is the proper time to make known our legislative wants.  The first and most urgent of these is the opening of the great northern Indian reservation, and with the accomplishment of this many other blessings will follow.  We have learned that Major Maginnis goes to Washington again this winter to assist in the good work, and as most important issues and enterprises are involved we are confident success will attend the efforts of the friends of this measure.  Millions of dollars have been expended by the Manitoba Railroad Company in constructing a railroad to both the eastern and western extremity of this reservation, which, unless the reservation is reduced, or a right of way through it secured, is an absolute waste of capital; is equivalent to money thrown away.  With such mammoth interests at stake, involving even the construction of a trans-continental line of railway, upon which millions of money have already been expended, it seems that there ought to be no doubt about the accomplishment of this object, in which Benton and northern Montana is so much interested.  If we depended solely upon a just cause, as in the past, though "thrice armed" thereby, the prospect would not be so pleasing, but backed by the power and the influence of the Manitoba Railroad and so great an organizer and successful worker as J.J. Hill, together with the heartiest co-operation of Delegate Toole- the opening of the reservation this winter is hardly anything less than a certainty.  Just how it is to be accomplished we cannot state, but we have unbounded confidence that the measure, in some way, will be brought to a successful issue this session of Congress, and before many weeks pass by.  That Delegate Toole will devote his best efforts to accomplish this purpose is an assurance, and there is nothing else he could do that would be one-hundredth part as important to the territory, and particularly this potion of it.  With the reservation opened, a new land district, with Benton as the headquarters, would be an absolute necessity, and the fact should not be overlooked by our delegate.  This being the headquarters of a customs district."  
-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau
pg.44-45

Letter to the Editor of the Glacier Reporter sent 1-21-15

To the Editor:  
I saw a report by a State of Montana consultant who called the status of early childhood education of Indian children in Montana Public Schools from kindergarten to the fourth grade "education genocide." He explained that Indian children outperform white children until the fourth grade, and then they just shut down and begin to fall behind the norm. He was quite emotional as he described the situation as a tragedy and a form of "education genocide" for Indian children statewide. It was on state t.v. and a whole bunch of educators were in the audience who showed little reaction, and why should they, being "white" and immune from such ill treatment. In Browning Public Schools the drop-out rate is 50% and that is a tragedy for our children and the parents who will have to look for help for their psychologically damaged children caused by their experiences in Browning Public Schools. Browning schools pump up the graduation rate with remedial last minute classes to raise this failing grade in the eyes of the public, but it is yet another indicator of institutional failure and cover-up. This is institutional racism much like the voting rights issues or police brutality against the African-American citizens in the cities that has gone on for generations and are still unresolved today. Psychologists who certified former Browning Public School students [adults] for Social Security Disability claims traced their psychological problems with anxiety, depression, and other self-destructive behaviors directly to their experiences from white racist teachers, alcoholic teachers, disciplinary policy that resemble prison, isolation from their parents and community, racist curriculum that teaches the "savage" Indian history.  Over a century ago a noted anthropologist said, Education is not deculturation-education should be constructive, using as a basis the spirit of tribal life, which every race should possess for its own strengthening." Another educator said in 1905, "I like the child for what is Indian in him." All of these problems were incurred at the public school and are the root cause of premature deaths and lives of substance abuse. These injuries are real and cause real lifetime problems for the abused and damaged children of Browning Schools. The Federal Office of Civil Rights and the Department of Education will investigate our longstanding problems ignored by the state of Montana and School District No. Nine for decades; it will never change from within as the "institution" always protects itself instead of resolving the problem. The damaged children will never be able to function as competent adults due to the damages like anxiety which make them fearful and unable to work at a job or even train for a career because they hate school after their traumas. The fearful factor is that it is Blackfeet/Cree/White superintendents and school boards that have caused the massive psychological problems in our children and they are directly responsible. I am the parent of a damaged former student of Browning Public Schools.  Please get your child certified and get help for them before they commit suicide or car wrecks or alcohol and drug abuse or hate school or exhibit other self-destructive behaviors that lead to premature deaths and a life of poverty and hopelessness not their fault. Let us eliminate the education genocide in Browning Public Schools that has put our children at risk for adult psychological damages. 

The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau pg.43-44

The Christian priests were reluctant to protest too much since the dying Indians could blame Confederate slavers and Texas Cattle Kings for their famine and the rapacity of Indian Agents and Fort Benton contractors for their poverty, all of whom got rich on the buffalo grasses, gold mines and sale of the treaty rations for the starving Indians.  The introduction of liquor by the Fort Benton whiskey traders worked in concert with the starvation:  "It is needless to dilate upon the disastrous and demoralizing effects to the Indian of the whiskey trade, Robes, blankets, horses-everything-is sacrificed to whiskey, and when reduced to utter poverty the Indian steals, and the result is war with the whites." The consequences of the massacre, famine years, whiskey trade and small pox brought by the white man were Blackfoot land cessions to the United States, likely the intent of western Congressmen and Union Army Generals in sending captured ex-Confederate soldiers up the Missouri River to Blackfoot Confederacy lands.
Selling land for a living
The confederate gold miners and confederate Texas Cattle Kings made their fortunes based upon Indian genocide, and economic apartheid causing Indian removals further back into the Rocky Mountains.  Confederate gold miners invaded the Sweet Grass Hills even after being ordered out of
Blackfoot Treaty lands by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.  Miners sent back word they would not leave until forced to do so; Indian Agent has insufficient force to enforce order by Commissioner- last fall they were given 30 days to leave; at end of thirty days they went across Canadian Border for a week-then returned.  The River Press of Fort Benton article in 1885 stated:  SWEET GRASS GOLD-"We have been informed on good authority that no very stringent effort will be made to keep the miners out of the Sweet Grass.  The agent will follow his instructions and notify them to go-and that will probably be the end of it."  J.K. Toole, Montana Territorial Delegate, wrote Montana Governor S.T. Hauser, Helena, Montana, April, 1886, "I have had a great deal of trouble of formulating a bill that would meet the views of the Indian Department and the Indian Committee.  The Ind. Dept. changed its views so often that it seemed impossible to get anything from them that could be relied on.  I finally abandoned the scheme of getting any legislation opening the Black Foot Reservation this time and secured an amendment to the Indian Appropriation Bill in the Senate which authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to negotiate with the Indians in northern Montana for a reduction of their reservation or a removal to other reservations.
-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau    
pg.43-44

The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau pg.42

Father Prando wrote "The injustice of the white man is the cause of the suffering among the Indians." He could not bear to hear the incessant cries of the babies and children for food, which he had not the power to supply, "We pen up these helpless Indians on gameless reservations and bid them live on their arid plains, whose boundaries they are forbidden to cross." In the summer of 1881 Father Prando wrote:  "The Blackfeet are sunk in want and misery, and, in my opinion, they will have trouble getting through the winter without dying of hunger." He wrote in February, 1884:  "There was so much talk and so much noise in the newspapers about the deplorable condition of these poor creatures, but till now they received no help.  And this year the effects of the famine are making themselves felt so horribly and the savages are dying rapidly.  There is in addition a contagious sickness called erysipelas, which makes the throat and face swell up and in four or five days they die.  There have been about twenty cases at this place.  And between those that die of hunger and those who die of erysipelas, each day there is someone dead, some days there are as many as four.  One would have to have a heart of stone, or none at all, not to have compassion on them in entering their dwellings.  Indeed, we can say that two-thirds of the tribe are diseased now.  What a pity it is to see little boys and girls, with their small faces pale and emaciated, with languid eyes, and at an age when they should be happy, experiencing sorrow and consumption.
-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau    
pg.42

The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau pg.41-42

Estimate of supplies needed was for meat only one fourth of quantity required and for flour only one third has been purchased, less than one fifth rations, or less than five ounces per day for each person.
On such an allowance, having nothing else, how could they avoid starving?  At present there is an abundance of berries, but they will soon be gone, and then there will be nothing but meat and flour.  It should be borne in mind that at no time since I assumed charge of this agency has there been a single pound of rice, beans, hominy, oatmeal, or anything of that kind to give to the Indians.  Do you wonder that it is reported that they are starving?  In May and June there were times when they stripped the trees and ate the inner bark to keep their souls and bodies together.  Just now they are not suffering, but in a very short time the berries will be gone and supplies will run low and the carpenter will again be kept busy making burial boxes unless something can be done in the way of getting them additional food.  The Indians vital forces are so weakened by the famine of the past three years that the winter now approaching will find them unable to endure its severity, and still more dreadful suffering and death will occur.  The Piegans are slowly starving to death, but in order to convince the government than an unnatural and inhuman state of things exists, it would seem necessary that these Indians should break out in open revolt and all die at once.  The Indians have discussed in council whether to take the field and be killed quickly rather than to die slowly by degrees of starvation.  The Texas cattlemen wonder at their forbearance and say they would not blame the Indians if they broke out and started a war, but refuse to sell any beef."
-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau    
pg.41-42