The only successful industry on the Blackfeet Reservation is cattle ranching! In 1893 Blackfeet cattle ranchers brought the people out of a tribal famine from 1881-1893 by negotiating a treaty to sell land for a living, meaning we traded 17,000,000 acres for $1.5 million to be spent on purchasing cattle, horses, equipment, material, and support for cattle ranchers. By 1893 the Blackfeet people were self-supporting meaning that we had developed an economy that brought enough money for all to prosper in the new economy. The Blackfeet cattle industry had hundreds of Blackfeet cattle ranchers and 25,000 cattle, and ranch homes, barns, fences, and improvements that the inspector reported the Indians were self-supporting by the cattle industry. What happened to the successful Blackfeet cattle industry? Glacier county and white men coveted the successful Blackfeet cattle industry and were in a position to trespass on reservation grazing lands by bribing the Blackfeet agent and the Secretary of the Interior and the President. That is a powerful coalition of thievery! Everything the white man and Glacier county has on the reservation is stolen from the Blackfeet Indians. The claims to recover those stolen lands were killed by Chairman Old Person and Vice-Chairman Sassy Running Crane in the water compact as they sold the Indian heirs down the river to receive the money from the water compact which kills all Blackfeet claims, forever! The white man and Glacier county got a free pass by the tribal council in approving the water compact and they now have clear titles to the stolen Blackfeet allotments denying the heirs any chance of recovering their family lands. That is the situation concerning our allotted land claims, and you, the voters, will either approve or reject the water compact by a tribal referendum after Congress approves it or rejects it, but the tribal council is like a meth addict needing that MONEY! What about us? The cattle industry and water is our only industry left but once again Chairman Old Person sold the Indians to the white man for a gob of money for his personal use and entourage. The enemy is hiding in plain sight and if you re-elect him it will be more of the same for his 60 years on the tribal council-poverty for you and cash for him. The 1896 Agreement/Article Five is the law of the tribe though violated by the tribal council in usurping the treaty rights of Blackfeet cattle ranchers to tribal grazing lands and water rights to build up cattle herds of Blackfeet landowners. The third-party Blackfeet "middlemen" who lease allotted land for a pittance and sub-lease the same land for cash or cattle from white men are the enemy and the BIA is complicit in their exploitation of Blackfeet allotted landowners. Get rich on the Indians land is the history of the white man, Glacier county, tribal council, and third-party front men for white men. This is a critical time for the next generation of Blackfeet heirs to allotted lands. Do you want to be the next victims of the tribal council and white men? Cattle ranching will bring many Blackfeet out of poverty and get rid of white men and their Blackfeet middlemen who exploit the Indians and their lands. The water compact also takes your individual water rights to your land and subordinates your water to tribal water rights under the control of the tribal council. In the reign of Old Person the tribe has gotten impoverished as even the poverty grants do not reach the poor and every attempt by the tribal members for reform of tribal council failed because the council tossed it in the trash can and laughed at you. Our only hope is a new beginning and to do what we are good at, and that is cattle ranching! Back to the future for the Blackfeet landowners and cattle ranchers!
Bob Juneau Sr. Blackfeet Patriot
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