In 1913 members of the Blackfeet Indian Tribal Council and members of the Blackfeet Tribe sent a delegation to Washington D.C. to the Secretary of the Interior "To explain to you the deplorable conditions of our reservation and the destitute and starving conditions of the Indians. It has since been brought to our attention an effort made by our agent to discredit the statements of our delegates in this respect; and his reports convey in substance that idea, that our people are not in a destitute and starving condition, but prosperous. We believe that if a representative of the Indian Office would make a tour of the homes of these Indians and a personal inspection of their present deplorable condition, a more truthful report of such conditions would be obtained by your office. We most urgently request some action be taken at once which will relieve our present pitiable conditions."
My understanding of the water compact and the land settlements ended all tribal and allotted claims forever, so we had better have a plan to bring the Indians to self-support. This is the settlement of all times and forever ends our claims to get paid for our stolen lands and billion dollar oil industry robbed by Glacier County border-whites on the Blackfeet Reservation. To end tribal poverty forever, we must look back to see what helped us and what destroyed us in past economic systems to bring the Indians to self-support. The Blackfeet cattle industry brought prosperity to all tribal members and it created a class of Indians who could and did bring us out of poverty. It was the border-whites who robbed the cattle industry owned by the Blackfeet Indians. I propose to spend the claims money on purchasing cattle for all tribal cattle ranchers, and that the tribal council concentrate upon the cattle industry as the vehicle of tribal prosperity as our ancestors have shown us. We are good at ranching and have family traditions of cattle ranchers that go back to 1890 when the cattle ranchers brought the tribe to self-support ending the tribal famine of 1881-1890 when thousands of Indians starved to death. Our reservation was literally created for cattle ranching in the 1896 Agreement and we own grazing rights in the Lewis & Clark National Forest for cattle owned by the Blackfeet Indians. We have a treaty right to take lodge pole pine for domestic uses of the tribe and collecting and gathering plants. Our ancestors are telling us to follow their moccasin tracks for success. We are the dumb ones who do not know or use our existing treaty rights to bring us to self-support. The tribal council is addicted to welfare funds and cannot see anything but more federal funds to bring themselves to self-support so long as they are re-elected to the council, and have to settle for $10,000 severance pay, a long drop from a king's ransom of $500,000 for a four year term. What do you think they are going to do with $100,000,000 in settlements? The last tribal land purchase program employed tribal council relatives until the money is gone and leased the land purchased to themselves, a preference right in the tribal constitution. Do we know what happened to $35,000,000 in tribal claims money? A cattle purchase program giving at least 100 cattle to each rancher as a starter herd will bring back our only successful industry, the cattle industry which the reservation was made for by Blackfeet chiefs in 1896. The whites took the gold and the Blackfeet took the grass and timber with which to build a new tribal buffalo, the cattle industry! Money is gone in an instant, but cattle will bring you money forever, to pass on to your children and to keep your family lands forever. The land contains rich buffalo grasses that will raise beef cattle on grass-fed and clean waters of the reservation. It is only a short step to processing our own beef and other livestock for sale on global markets. I was in the tribal council meeting a few years ago when Chinese Government Purchasers were asking the tribal council what products China could purchase and they called us their "relatives" and were very friendly. Why not get a Blackfeet Tribal Trade Mission to China to offer our products to the Chinese Government? A few years ago the Montana Governor and the senator from Browning took a trade mission to China on behalf of Montana farmers and ranchers but no Indian products were offered and the governor returned with a stink bomb-a pork plant which pollutes and nobody wants on their lands. We have to promote our own business interests! At the boarding school I had many ranch kids who know how to take care of cattle and have family lands to manage cattle but they have zero support in getting cattle to run on their own lands. They are adults now with families of their own but are having a hard time like the rest of us. Using our ranges to produce superior beef steaks that the Chinese said cost $100 in China. When we are using our land & water for processing beef, bottled water, beverage and food processing plants that will produce high paying jobs for tribal members instead of the slave wages in existing tribal businesses. Think big and think prosperity! Otherwise, there are no more claims forever and existing on tribal poverty grants only addict tribal council members to lazy and dumb existence until we kick them back into the street where they came from prior to council elections where any old fool can rule us. Tribal landowners and cattle ranchers unite! This reservation was made for cattle ranchers. our only hope and all we have left to bring us to self-support as our ancestors have done showing us the way back in 1893. Our only successful business people were cattle ranchers! Tribal council members in 1913 were Robert Hamilton, Curley Bear, Little Dog, John White Calf, Medicine Owl, Long Time Asleep, Lazy Boy, Wolf Plume, John G. Ground, Dick Kipp, Virginia Billedeaux, Chief White Calf, Black Weasel, West Wolf, Joe Bull Shoe, First Shoot.
I appeal to the Blackfeet people to speak up now and demand the settlement money to bring us all to self-support instead of foolish tribal enterprises that enslave tribal members in slave wages for profit.
Bob Juneau Sr. Blackfeet Patriot, I care about our people and know how to bring us out of poverty.
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