The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau pg.145-146

Report of Percy E. Melis, Assistant Forester for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 1931: “called to the special attention of the reader certain facts and conditions which so involve the problem as to make it largely one of business administration. The questions of technical administration from the standpoint of forage production and use are to a great extent obscured by the very pressing problem of the unified administration of a block of land which is divided by ownership into 3,600 separate parcels. The Blackfeet Reservation, with a gross area of 1,492,042.44 acres, contains 1,440,000 acres of allotted land, approximately 20% of which has been alienated through the process of issuing Patents in Fee to the Indian Allottees and through the sale of Indian Heirship Allotments.

The situation is further complicated by the fact that the 285,000 acres of alienated land, to an extent far out of proportion to the acreage involved, control the watering places for stock. This control of water is the most important factor in the stock business in relation to the utilization of range. In the livestock wars of the early west, the control of watering places was the principle point at issue and this control of water today is just as important and as essential to the efficient utilization of range lands. The Indian Service as an administrative organization has largely lost jurisdiction over the most potent natural factor [water rights] in the control of the use of the range.
-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau
pg.145-146