Agent Monteath implemented his
innovations in ending “the practice of giving something for nothing into which
we had drifted” and his doctrine of “if you don’t work you don’t eat” initiated
by striking seven hundred “part-bloods” off the ration rolls. He announced grandiose
plans to construct irrigation ditches which will water a tract of land sufficient
to give each of the 100 Indian “farmers” about 160 acres of irrigated lands,
but which ditches would in reality transport tribal water to border-towns and
border-whites.
He maintained the Indian
farmers suffering and hardship would not be any greater than that endured by
the white pioneers of this western country and proudly reported that most of
the younger Blackfeet now had short hair, but he cautioned, “It was inadvisable
to get after the old men-they would soon pass away.”
Agent Monteath’s reduced Indian rations-farm program
soon ran into the realities of Rocky Mountain weather; the Blackfeet Reservation being the
northernmost Indian reservation in the United States. The rains washed
away the seeds, the farm lands were alkaline, but Monteath claimed the lands
would improve with more planting and irrigation. George Bird Grinnell warned
Commissioner Jones that his pet project was certain to fail, “There appears to
be a general impression on the reservation that his ditch project is
endeavoring to get the Indians closer to the mountains in order to leave vacant
the eastern portion of the reservation, which he may then lease or sell to
cattlemen. It is evident to anyone familiar with the Blackfeet Reservation that
these Indians, if they are ever to support themselves by cattle-require the
whole of the territory which they now hold.” The Great Falls Tribune published
an editorial with the headline, THE BLACKFEET TROUBLE stating “Probably ever
since the foundation of the United
States, Indian Agencies have been productive
of more trouble and scandal than any other branch of the government. It is
likely that this is partially so, because the agent is a sort of king on his
reservation; he is far from the central authority and his opportunities for
“making a little on the side” are greater than those of most other government
officials. The Blackfeet Agency in Montana
has been no exception to the rule.
-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau
pg.78-79
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