To say the least shall it not make
good to them its own promise given in the treaty of 1855? So, gentlemen of the
committee, we strongly protest the opening up of any part of our reservation,
because we know it would be a mistake. Therefore we ask that the Blackfeet be
permitted to hold the lands intact, and these agricultural possibilities, the
coal lands, the oil and gas-those three put together-are things that will bring
enough revenue to the tribe so that they will not have to part with the lands.
Then they will have lands for the coming generations.”
Chief Charles Reevis spoke to the senate committee:
“You look at the audience out here. The biggest part of them have not got their
land anymore, and that the only way you can do to see that these people get
back on their feet again is to get their land back. Give their land back to
them. When the President issued these patents here, when they issued them, I
think he was very wrong and I think he was very crooked at the same time for
doing that. Where you are sitting if I ask you to become an Indian there, and
then I can go ahead and beat you out of everything you got because you do not
know what I am talking about. The people sitting here cannot even write their
names.-The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau
pg.176-177
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