ANOTHER "CENTURY OF DISHONOR" BREAKING INDIAN TREATY PROMISES

Mrs. Helen Hunt Jackson was a tireless reformer for Indian Affairs who documented the murders and robberies of Indian people in her book published in 1885, "A Century of Dishonor" which caused national shame in the ill-treatment of the Indian people and failure of the United States Government to uphold treaty promises made to Indians. Mrs. Jackson wrote, "The story of one tribe is the story of all, varied only by differences of time and place; but neither time nor place makes any difference in the main facts, Colorado is as greedy, and unjust in 1880, as was Georgia in 1830, and Ohio in 1795; and the United States Government breaks promises now as deftly as then, and with an added ingenuity from long practice. Cheating, robbing, breaking promises-these three are clearly things which must cease to be done. One more thing also, and that is the refusal of the protection of the laws, to the Indian's rights of property; "Of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The book of ours called "The Sacred Buffalo Vision" documents the frontier genocide of Montana border-whites in massacre, starvation, small pox outbreaks, whiskey trade, and land frauds of the private-property of the Blackfeet Indians, the usurpation of the reservation by white squatters on the stolen Blackfeet allotted lands under federal trusteeship, the rustling of 25,000 cattle owned by successful, self-reliant Blackfeet cattle ranchers who developed the Blackfeet cattle industry robbed by Texas Cattle Kings, Swift & Co. and United States Indian Agent complicity who built his ranch on stolen Indian cattle. The land frauds of 17,000 original Indian allottees covering 100 million acres on Indian reservations across the United States are still unresolved although well documented by the Congress. Blackfeet Chiefs brought the forced patents claims to Congress since 1919, the date of the illegal incorporation of Montana law on the reservation to usurp tribal sovereignty and cover up property crimes. In 1983 we brought our claims to Washington to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee but President Reagan had tossed our claims in the trash can, and there they sit till today, a victim of the century-old denial of Indian property rights held by treaty with the United States. The little known fact is that Chicago Crime boss Al Capone got in on the racketeering by funding a local bank that foreclosed on Indian cattle ranchers before they could market their cattle to Chicago Stockyards, while the Blackfeet landowners were murdered by the agent starving the Indians. Al Capone killed the senate investigator in Chicago where he was trailed from the reservation. The method of murdering today is to deny federal funding like President Reagan did in 1983; to end national Indian protests by cutting treaty obligation funds by 40% causing many deaths on Indian reservations under his control. Diabetes is slowly killing this generation of Blackfeet children due to poor diets caused by poverty inflicted by depriving the Indians of their private-property and let the despair and hopelessness kill in place of the Indian massacres of Mrs. Jackson's day. Her hope was that the American people would rise up and demand justice for a helpless people should they know the truth. Our book was tossed out of public schools in Montana because the Indians do not know their history, it is not taught in public schools. My hope is to raise public awareness via our book and the internet to generate calls for justice for all.

Bob Juneau Sr.