Saturday, February 28, 2015

The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau pg.154-155

Louis Hill “bedevils” the Blackfeet Indians

The newly formed Blackfeet Tribal Business Council was organized in 1935 under the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act; the Blackfeet Constitution and Corporate Charter. The Interior Department and Montana border-whites were frustrated by traditional Blackfeet leadership in opposing tribal land cessions and exposing corrupt Indian Service practices and by the Blackfeet Chief’s ability to bring the peculations of Indian affairs to the attention of Congress, sparking investigations of misconduct and criminal racketeering on the reservation and outrage in the newspapers of the nation.

 On September 25, 1944 Chairman John Sharp wrote the Hon. James F. O’Conner, Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Indian Affairs; on the subject of better administration and development of Blackfeet Indian Resources and Economic Welfare. Blackfeet Chairman John Sharp reported on several points of contention relating to the “dictatorial powers of the Indian Bureau which does not work for the Indians but for outside interests. Members of the tribe who cater to these dictatorial powers receive special privileges and they in turn, protect the officials in their nefarious activities. Any members of the tribe who, recognizing these corrupt practices and nefarious activities, attempts to expose such conditions to the tribe and tries to correct them are persecuted by these Indian Bureau officials, denied many privileges granted in the Wheeler-Howard Act, such as loans, leases, issuance of cattle; rehabilitation benefits and employment.” 
-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau  
pg.154-155

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