In 1893 Inspector C.C. Duncan reported, "I have the honor to report that I have this day completed the inspection of this Agency. I made mention of the system of irrigation which has been completed at very little expense to build lateral ditches, and there will be plenty of land and water to furnish a sufficiency of hay for all needful purposes. This is purely a grazing country, one of the best sections in the west for cattle, especially to fatten cattle. I find the Indians are doing well in cattle, and were able to put on the Government contract something near a half million pounds of beef, besides shipping six hundred head to Chicago, they now own about twenty five thousand head and if they continue their present effort in raising and caring for cattle they will be on a self-supporting basis. Most of these Indians live in houses and have about twenty thousand acres under fence. Their principle source of revenue is cattle and freight, cutting wood and selling hay. They also own a sufficiency of farm implements." In 1896 the Blackfeet "sold the rocks" and reserved grazing rights in the ceded strip which later became Glacier Park and the Lewis & Clark National Forest after gold was not discovered. President Teddy Roosevelt vetoed Montana Senator Walsh's surplus land bill on the grounds that, "The Indians will derive no funds from the sale of their surplus lands, I think a large part of the waters of the reservation will be appropriated by white settlers, and when the time comes for the Indian allottee to use his land the water will be completely appropriated and fully used by white settlers." Congress passed a bill that included a provision for total allotment of the reservation leaving the white man on the reservation borders looking in; "The Secretary of the Interior shall make allotments under existing laws to any living children of said Blackfeet Tribe, who have not heretofore been allotted, so long as there remains any un-allotted lands." HOW DID THE WHITE MAN GET ON THE BLACKFEET RESERVATION? There are 1,200 Forced Fee Patents Cases on the Blackfeet Reservation covering 312,250 acres of the reservation robbed from the Indian allottees. The latest robbery occurred in 1985 when a BIA employee got away with Annie Rides At The Door's allotment. The BIA employee got 320 acres and the family got her 80 acre homestead allotment. We got the tribal council to pass resolution #224-2001 in August of 2001 but Chairman Old Person told the senate lawyer the Indians did not want to pursue their land claims, a lie of course. So, there it is, the only business that ever worked for the people, the cattle industry, robbed along with 1,200 Blackfeet allotments. I wonder if "Chief" Old Person whispered to Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewel in Browning last week to keep the stolen Blackfeet allotted land and give our claims money of $600,000,000 to the council. That is what is in the Blackfeet Water Compact, the whites get our stolen allotted land and the council gets our money, and our forced patent claims are extinguished forever! Earl has never testified in Congress for the 1,200 Blackfeet familes who had their land stolen like Mrs. Rides At The Door, and if he is re-elected to the tribal council things will stay the same for the rest of us, more poverty and ruin. We cannot win our just claims when our elected politicians sell us out to the white man for money for themselves. Earl Old Person will never help us get our family lands returned with compensation of $600 million to be paid directly to the original allottee heirs.
I am an heir to my great-grandmothers allotted lands robbed by white men in Glacier County.
Bob Juneau Sr.
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