Investigator Liggitt
reported that most of these patents were issued from the period of 1918 to
1921, when F.C. Campbell, T.C. Power, and H.G. Wilson acted as superintendents
in rapid succession when the Indians lost 312,250 acres of their best lands.
Peter Tail Feathers told Investigator Liggitt, “Mr. Campbell, (Red Hair) forced
me to accept a patent in 1919. I had an allotment near Heart Butte Agency. I
didn’t want the patent, but they forced me to take it.”
Liggitt reported,
“He had some papers, (a promissory note), but it disappeared when his father
died. He complained to the agency, but got no relief. It developed from
questioning others present that the Pondera County Attorney, Horace W. Judson,
prepared the papers and handed $300 in cash to this feebleminded boy and got
his mark on a deed of sale; Joe Tatsey was a witness. The land in question is
located in Township 29, Range 9, and is not only exceptionally good hay land,
but is almost in the center of the oil pool revealed by geological survey maps
of the reservation.”
In July, 1929
the SubCommittee of the Committee on Indian Affairs of the United States Senate
came to the reservation to hold hearings on the condition of the Indians: By
Senator Wheeler-What do you know about forced patents being urged upon these
Indians here? By Robert Hamilton-“Patents-In-Fee were forced upon the Indians
in this way. They were either mailed to them, or they were called into the
office and asked to receive them and they were told that if they did not
receive the patent, they would have to pay taxes on them anyway, whether they
took them out of the office or not.-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau
pg.126-127
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