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