The Heirs to the
Indian claims are thousands of Indian descendants of the original Indian
Allottees and Trust Patentees. The United States still has a trust
responsibility to these Indian Heirs just as it does to recognized tribes,
bands, or groups. The Indian claims have been ignored since the time Robert
Hamilton and Chief Rides-At-The-Door testified to the Senate Indian Committee in
1920 and Peter Tail Feathers claim is among those forced fee patent claims
thrown out by President Reagan in the 1980’s.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs blamed the fog of
history, missing Indian records and documents stained with rat shit. Assistant
Secretary for Indian Affairs Forrest Gerard waxed poetic in 1980 when requested
by the Congress to assess the extent of the problem: “You can hear stories that
there are thousands upon thousands of claims out in the misty mountains. On the
other hand, we knew of about 1,000 but we also knew there might be more. We did
have people who were trying to tell us. We also had problems with BIA records.
We had claims that had frankly grown stale, and to dig them up took a lot more
effort than if you were trying to find current claims. We have gone to the
extent, even, of hiring historians because we have found that their assistance
has been instrumental in helping to solve some of these problems.-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau
pg.172
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