The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau pg.73-74

The Blackfeet population was down to 2,085 from approximately 7,800 at contact, with a total of 50 births and 33 deaths in the preceding year. Agency traders had exchanged food rations for Indian cattle, while the basic cause of failure of the Indian cattle program was the Indians’ lack of “subsidy” of food and cash. The agent reported, “Their rations are properly being reduced, yet they must have something to eat, and must have it now and soon. If cattle are issued to them this summer, they will either eat them or sell them to the traders, or if they keep them and take good care of them, they will receive no return for three or four years. What do they do for food in the meantime?”

White stockmen had unloaded three trainloads of cattle just east of the reservation, which cattle the agent reported “were headed this way” to join the large number of white stockmen’s cattle herds already grazing the reservation.

Another small pox outbreak was reported in 1903 on the eastern part of the reserve, spread by the Great Northern Railroad train passengers for the past three years throughout Montana, while Inspector McConnell reported conditions at the unheated agency jail were appalling, where Indian prisoners had recently died from exposure.  

The Government Inspector described “places of confinement for refractory students” at the government boarding school. One such “cell” was an old meat refrigerator, with air holes, which was stored in the open shed where the boy’s bathed all year long. The second “place of confinement” was located in the cellar of the Willow Creek School itself, “It is approximately 3 ft. wide by 7 ft. long and 6 ft. high. The floor of this cell is raised about one foot or perhaps 18 inches above the cellar floor to prevent being flooded by water which much of the year stands to a depth sufficient to float dead mice, decayed vegetables, cabbage, potatoes, etc. Of course the place emits an odor which sometimes permeates even to the dormitories in the second story.”
-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau
pg.73-74