BLACKFEET WATER
COMPACT IS THE END OF ALL BLACKFEET LAND CLAIMS
The Blackfeet
Water Compact forever ends past,
pending and future Blackfeet land claims including 1,200 Forced Fee Patents Cases on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation-of
Blackfeet landowners robbed by Glacier
County
This claim is valued @ $600 million
to be paid in just compensation to Heirs of Original Blackfeet Allottees and
trust land titles restored to heirs of Original Allottees to 312,250 acres. Glacier County
The
Blackfeet Chiefs fought in Congress many times to save our reservation from
white encroachment and won many times or we would not exist today as a
Sovereign Reservation, we would be state citizens living in Glacier County St.
Mary Lake ,
Milk River ,
and St. Mary
River
INDIAN CLAIMS ATTORNEY
ARTHUR LAZARUS JR. MEMORANDUM IN 1982 CHALLENGES CONSTITUTIONALITY OF “RETROACTIVE
VALIDATION OF INDIAN LAND TRANSFERS” EXTINGUISHING INDIAN CLAIMS ARISING FROM TRANSFERS NOT
PREVIOUSLY APPROVED BY EITHER CONGRESS OR THE APPROPRIATE EXECUTIVE OFFICIAL
WITHOUT ANY DETERMINATION THAT THE DEED WAS ACQUIRED WITHOUT FRAUD OR
IMPOSITION ON THE INDIAN.
The
Blackfeet Water Compact approved by the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council EXTINGUISHES ALLOTTED LANDOWNERS HEIRS
CLAIMS to Blackfeet forced fee patents without any prior determination that
“NO FRAUD” or imposition had been
practiced upon the Blackfeet Indians from whom the deed was originally
purchased.
The President of the United States
Indian Title obtained for less than
just compensation is not “just and equitable title.” Blackfeet land at East
Glacier given to James J. Hill by an act of Congress, is itself an illegal act,
under vested property rights in U.S.
v. Glacier County
These Hill properties were valued in 1980 for $130 to be
paid for just compensation.
The teenage Monroe sisters land
allotments robbed by Agent Horace Wilson, Joe Sherburne, licensed agency
trader, Glacier County Attorney, and Great Northern Railway owner James J. Hill,
have not been restored to their heirs or just compensation provided. There are
approximately 1,200 Original Blackfeet land allotments listed by the Blackfeet
Agency, Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1980 as ‘Eligible Indian Claimants for
Indian Money Damage Claims’. The tribal council insists our forced patents
claims are dead and gone.
THE TRIBAL COUNCIL IS WRONG TO KILL OUR FORCED PATENTS CLAIMS
Mr. Arthur Lazarus Jr. a nationally
known Indian claims attorney cites Supreme Court Decisions that “Retroactive Validation
of such tainted title is not, therefore, merely curative, designed to remedy
mistakes and defects in the administration of government where the remedy can
be applied without injustice; RATHER,
RETROACTIVE VALIDATION OF TAINTED TITLE IS DESTRUCTIVE, PERPETUATING AN
INJUSTICE AND DEFEATING INDIAN CLAIMS WHICH, LIKE THE CLAIMS OF THE SWINDLED
INDIANS, IN KENDALL, HAVE A “FOUNDATION IN EQUITY.” The wholesale rejection
of Blackfeet allotted land claims “forever” agreed to in the Blackfeet Water Compact
is perpetuating a well-known historical injustice by the unanimous votes of the
Blackfeet Tribal Business Council approving the water compact. Another
injustice inflicted upon Blackfeet claimants is denial of “Institutional
Equity” a requirement by Congress to insure that all parties to settlements are
represented and heard on an equal basis. We, the Blackfeet landowners, were
tossed out of the water compact meeting held in Browning by the Blackfeet
Tribal Business Council. Yet, I watched long lines of white landowners
testifying in state water compact meetings on state t.v. against the
Salish-Kootenai Tribes water compact settlement which provides $2.5 billion
dollars for development of Indian farmers and ranchers, ownership of one half
of Flathead Lake, ownership of Kerr Dam and Hydro-Electric Facility, and tribal
sovereignty protections. We still do not know why the tribal council approved
the Blackfeet water compact without any testimony from Blackfeet landowners,
ranchers, farmers or water users.
How
did the White Man get on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation?
Economic-apartheid systems
developed by Texas Cattle Kings, Great Northern Railway, Swift
& Armor , Montana confederates and Chicago Montana
President Grant’s Peace Policy to
Christianize and civilize the Indians with a massive dose of Christian religion
to “advance the metamorphosis of the savages” was his dog-whistle signal to Montana
From 1881-1887 the Blackfeet starved
due to destruction of millions of tribal buffalo and the Blackfeet tribal
population decimation from 7,800 in 1860 down to 1,811 Blackfeet left alive by
1890. Massacre, famine, small-pox epidemics, whiskey trade, and Indian removals
were the weapons of frontier Montana
White Historians do not recall settlement
of the West as genocidal attacks upon treaty Indians. Border-whites and border-states
in the West are Civil War Southern plantation slave owners dispossessed of their
“Negro and Hoe” economy. Confederates immigrated to Blackfeet Indian Country
and established “southern plantations on Indian Reservations” like Glacier and Pondera Counties
ORIGINS
OF BORDER WHITES CALAMITY ON BLACKFEET INDIANS
Lieutenant John H. Beacom, a
soldier stationed at Fort Shaw, Montana Territory, recorded Blackfeet Napi stories
in his book, “How the Buffalo Lost His Crown.” The Napi stories learned from
Blackfoot Orator Nis-su kai-yo provided insight into the
calamity that had befallen the Blackfoot Indians caused by conquest
of white men, printed in MONTANA
“The Blackfeet held sway over a vast domain
extending from the Yellowstone to the Saskatchewan and from the Rocky Mountains
to the Eastward; but before Nis-su kai-yo had passed his prime Blackfeet
fortunes had begun to recede before the pitiless advance of another race, and
he lived to see the Blackfoot driven gradually Northward and then Westward
further and further towards the great rocky barrier until, as he expressed it,
they were forced to “lean against the mountains.”
Nis-su kai-yo fully realized the
extent of the disasters that had come upon his people, but he seldom spoke of
them in the presence of white men. The great battles and the famous buffalo
hunts, in which, as a young warrior and hunter, he had taken an honorable part,
were the themes he loved to dwell upon. He was familiar also with the folklore
of his people and often while sitting at my campfire of an autumn evening, he
told me these quaint tales of the ancient time.
Nis-su kai-yo could readily recall
the time when the buffalo roamed over the prairie in vast herds, and deer,
antelope, and other game abounded everywhere. He remembered also that in those
days his people were rich and powerful. Now, however, the buffalo was almost
extinct and other species were terribly decimated, and, as a result, the Indian
was reduced to beggary and utter helplessness. Few realize that the sudden
extermination of the buffalo was a genuine calamity to the Plains Indian than
has ever fallen to the lot of any other people, but such is the fact.
The buffalo was the source of his
wealth and power. Upon it he was dependent for the material for his teepee or
house, for his clothing, for his food, and for all the luxuries of life. No
other people have been deprived in a moment of their accustomed food and
stripped of their means of shelter or have been forced to adjust themselves to
such new and strange environment. Nis-su kai-yo was too proud to give this
painful sequel to his story or to lament over his change of fortune, but as he
slowly uttered the words,
“Ai-ik-si-sum-mo”-that was long ago” there was a solemnity
in the old man’s manner that contrasted strangely with his look of exultation
but a moment before.
My race had mastered his and had
dealt harshly with him and with all the other dwellers on the plains. Few of
the great brotherhood were left alive and his dear prairie land, once so full
of life and happiness, had become a lonely desert. As his mind wandered back over
the past, it doubtless occurred to him, as it did to me, that if the countless
dead could rise again and meet in council as they had done in the long ago,
they would choose the Indian and not the white man for their Chief. But what
Nis-su kai-yo thought is mere
conjecture, for he sat there calm and impenetrable as became one of his race
and dignity.” Lt. John H. Beacom, Fort
Shaw , Montana
Blackfeet Chiefs fight
to the end to restore the Blackfeet people to prosperity
The ‘Sacred
Buffalo Vision’ is my Blackfeet history book written to bring tribal awareness
to genocides of the Blackfeet people by Montana Montana
In 1980, Blackfeet Traditional Chiefs
Joe Bear Medicine and Willie Running Crane requested me to bring Blackfeet
Forced Fee Patents Claims to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee such as
Blackfeet Chiefs did for a century prior to the Indian Reorganization Act that
deprived the Traditional Chiefs of their governing powers.
Blackfeet Tribal Business Council members
Leonard Mountain Chief and Leland Ground like their forefathers had done, joined
us, and we negotiated an agreement with the expert assistance of National
Congress of American Indians lobbyist Wayne Juneau, and Pete Taylor, lawyer for
the Senate Indian Affairs Committee to resolve century-old Blackfeet Claims by
the Senate Indian Affairs Committee to restore Blackfeet trust land titles and Pete
Taylor estimated just compensation for the Heirs of Original Allottees at $300
million in 1980 grown with 4% interest to an estimated $600 million in 2016.
In 1980, we came home triumphant
like Blackfeet Chiefs Wolf Plume, Young Man Chief, Black Weasel, White
Antelope, Curley Bear, and tribal lawyer Bob Hamilton did in 1922, by defeating
the Blackfeet Surplus Land Bill of Senator Walsh of Montana to sever the
reservation line at Seville and give away 156,000 acres of Blackfeet land to
Commercial Clubs in Cut Bank, Conrad, and Valier for white settlement.
In 1907, Blackfeet Chiefs were
thrown in the agency jail by Superintendant McFatridge and agency employee Joe
Brown until the train passed Browning and held in the agency jail overnight.
Bob Hamilton boarded the eastbound train to Washington D. C. in Cut Bank, a
railroad town, and sent a letter to the chiefs from Washington
D.C. ”The victory is ours, and you men who have stood by the right and by your
own people will always be highly respected by members of Congress who have been
with us in this fight. And, those of you who have stood by the right may justly
consider themselves the leaders of their tribe and not among those who are
controlled by the agent.”
Covelo Indian
Community defeats President Reagan and Interior Secretary James Watt
Congress enacted Public Law 96-217,
Section 2, “Not later than June 30,
1981, the Secretary of the Interior, after consultation with the Attorney
General, shall submit to the Congress legislative proposals to resolve those
Indian claims subject to the amendments made by the first section of this act
[extending the statute of limitations period] that the Secretary of the
Interior or the Attorney General believes are not appropriate to resolve by
litigation.”
In November of 1982, the Covelo
Indian Community sued Secretary of the Interior James Watt in the United States
District Court for the District of
Columbia
The Indian plaintiffs’ complaint
alleges that federal defendants violated the mandate of Public Law 96-217,
Section 2. Plaintiffs contend as a class, all Indians and Indian tribes pre-1966
Indian Money Damage Claims affecting lands held in trust or restricted status,
have been materially injured by wrongful, unlawful agency action.
Blackfeet Original
Allottees Forced Fee Patents Cases included in Class Action Suit
Plaintiffs number 30 in the Covelo Indian
Community Class Action Lawsuit are members of the Blackfeet Tribe in a number
of claims identified as 1,200 Forced Fee Patents Cases, 37 Secretarial Sales of
Deceased Indian Lands, Old Age Assistance Claims defrauding elderly Indians of
their property, and century old rights-of-way, trespass, harmful use of Indian
property, breach of contract, wrongful transfer or alienation of Indian
property, usurpation of Indian water rights, and property damages.
James Watt, Secretary of the
Interior determined that none of these Indian claims presented any basis for
litigation or resolution by legislative proposals to be sent to Congress by the
Secretary of the Interior and the United States Attorney General.
The Blackfeet Tribal Business
Council has met directly with President Obama annually for eight years and
never brought up the unresolved Blackfeet claims won in the class action
lawsuit. We have brought these claims to the attention of Chairman Old Person
many times since 1980 and he laughed at us, mocked us, and said nothing can be
done about the massive land frauds. Is it any wonder we are beggars in our own
land?
President Reagan
contends ”constitutional infirmity” in Section 2 of P.L. 96-217
Defendants’ contention that the
Executive branch’s discretion as to whether or not to propose legislation can
never be constitutionally limited in light of Article II, Section 3, is simply
erroneous. By signing P.L. 96-217, the President authorized and approved the
requirements of Section 2. If the Executive’s discretion was thereby
restricted, it was done by his own hand, and is, therefore, beyond a charge of
constitutional infirmity.
See Nixon v. Administrator of
General Services, 433 U.S.
Federal Defendants Cite Laches for Dismissal of all Pre-1966
Indian claims
President Reagan’s Attorney General and
Secretary of the Interior contend, as a final argument for dismissal, that plaintiffs’
action is barred by laches. They claim
that plaintiffs had enough knowledge concerning their decisions not to litigate
and not to propose legislation, to institute a lawsuit much earlier in time.
This argument lacks merit since defendants did not make public many of their
final decisions until the Congressional Oversight Hearings held September 16
and 23, 1982.
Moreover, the Sampsel Report [throwing
out 17,000 Indian Money Damage Claims], which defendants contend satisfies
their obligations under Section 2 of P. L. 96-217, was not submitted until
October 21, 1982, making this case truly ripe at that time. If anyone has been
guilty of foot-dragging in pursuing this matter, it has been defendants. Their
equitable defense must, therefore fail.
5 U.S.C. 702 provides: A person
suffering legal wrong because of agency action, or adversely affected or
aggrieved by agency action within the meaning of a relevant statute, is
entitled to judicial review thereof.
President Reagan Slams the Door
of Justice for all Pre-1966 Indian Claims
Judge: “In the
course of the hearing it was brought out that plaintiffs intend to press the
upcoming lame-duck Congress for an extension of the statute of limitations.
Defendants, on the other hand,
stated that they will not join in that effort-that the letter of October 21,
1982 expresses their final position.
We fully expect that an expedited
appeal will be taken by federal defendants from our ruling today. We would not
presume to predict the outcome, but in light of the fact that December 31, 1982
is the present cut-off date, we do foresee difficulties if litigation is
carried forward for any substantial period, and if our ruling is ultimately
affirmed.
We cannot, of course, order a
change in attitude but, considering the pressures of time, we do not deem it
inappropriate to suggest that, to avoid chaotic conditions at years end, it
might be prudent for all parties to join in an urgent request to Congress to
extend the statute of limitations for a reasonable period beyond the date of
ultimate decision in this litigation. If the federal defendants prevail, no
prejudice will result to them; if plaintiffs prevail the federal defendants
will have ample time to formulate reasonable, workable proposals, keyed to due
process, for the consideration of Congress.
CONCLUSION AND ORDER
Judge: “Defendants’
wholesale disposition of thousands of Indian claims through the Sampsel Report,
after more than 10 years and countless dollars have been spent identifying and
evaluating pre-1966 Indian claims, does not comport with the statute. The
statute imposed a mandatory duty owing to plaintiffs and to Congress.
We hold that defendants have
breached that duty. Our review of the plain language of Section 2 of P. L.
96-217, the relevant legislative history and the factual record herein,
convinces us that defendants have both unlawfully failed to carry out a duty
imposed on them by Congress and the President, as well as unreasonably delayed submitting
the only legislative proposal contained in the Sampsel Report [Three Old Age
Assistance claims]. Due to this conduct, plaintiffs’ chances of getting
favorable resolutions of their claims have been seriously prejudiced.
For the foregoing reasons, we
conclude that mandatory injunctive relief is appropriate in this case.
Accordingly, it is, this 17th day of November, 1982,
ORDERED that this case be, and
hereby is, certified as a class action on behalf of all Indians and tribes with
pre-1966 claims subject to 28 U.S.C. 2415 that have been identified by the BIA
[Bureau of Indian Affairs], the federal defendants, or any of their
contractors, and that have not been or will not be litigated prior to December
31, 1982, and that have not been the subject of legislative proposals submitted
to Congress; and it is
FURTHER ORDERED that defendants
shall submit legislative proposals to Congress designed to resolve all those
claims held by the plaintiff-class, that defendants will not litigate before
December 31, 1982, and it is
FURTHER ORDERED that if defendants
cannot make the necessary legislative submissions by that date, they shall
institute protective legislation to cover those claims not the subject of
legislative submissions, and it is
FURTHER ORDERED that, to the extent
not already accomplished as evidenced in the record herein, defendants shall
notify members of the plaintiff class, individual or tribal where appropriate,
as to the current status of their claims and the nature of the forthcoming
statutory deadline of December 31, 1982 for the institution of litigation.”
JUDGE, UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Civil
Action No. 82-2725
Filed
November 17th, 1982
James F. Davey,
Clerk
ARTHUR LAZARUS Jr. ASSOCIATION
OF AMERICAN INDIAN AFFAIRS, LEGAL MEMORANDUM ON H.R. 5494 and S. 2089,
identical bills titled the ‘Ancient Indian Land Claims Settlement Act of 1982,
CONTENDS: “Retroactive Validation” of Indian land transfers and for
extinguishment of claims arising from transfers not previously approved by
either Congress or the appropriate Executive official may be Constitutionally Invalid.
The Supreme Court emphasized retroactive validation should be preceded by a
determination “no fraud” had been practiced upon the Indians from whom the deed
was originally purchased.”
Blackfeet Water Compact “Constitutionally Invalid” by
“Determination of No Fraud”
The BLACKFEET WATER COMPACT
SETTLEMENT ACT ENACTED BY THE BLACKFEET TRIBAL BUSINESS COUNCIL, STATE OF
MONTANA, AND THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR HAS ILLEGALLY APPROVED RETROACTIVE VALIDATION OF “FEE PATENT
TITLES” IN TRANSFERS OF RESTRICTED BLACKFEET ALLOTTED TRUST TITLES OWNED BY BLACKFEET LANDOWNERS.
THE BLACKFEET WATER COMPACT
SETTLEMENT APPROVED “EXTINGUISHMENT OF
ALL PAST AND FUTURE BLACKFEET CLAIMS” WITHOUT ANY LEGAL DETERMINATION THAT ‘NO
FRAUD” HAD BEEN PRACTICED UPON THE BLACKFEET INDIAN ORIGINAL ALLOTTEES FROM
WHOM THE DEED WAS TAKEN FOR TAXES AND LIENS IN GLACIER AND PONDERA COUNTY COURT JURISDICTIONS AND TRANSFERRED TO
WHITE MEN UNDER STATE OF MONTANA JURISDICTION ON THE RESERVATION;
THEREFORE PRIOR TRANSFERS OF BLACKFEET TRUST LANDS WERE ACCOMPLISHED
BY MASSIVE LAND FRAUDS.
THE BLACKFEET WATER COMPACT SETTLEMENT
APPROVED BY THE BLACKFEET TRIBAL BUSINESS COUNCIL IGNORES PROVEN FACTS THAT ALL
OF THE BLACKFEET ALLOTTED LAND FRAUD TRANSACTIONS INCLUDING 1,200 FORCED FEE
PATENTS WERE MADE WITHOUT ANY DETERMINATION THAT “NO FRAUD” HAD BEEN PRACTICED
UPON THE BLACKFEET ORIGINAL ALLOTTEES DESPITE MOUNTAINS OF EVIDENCE PRESENTED
TO CHAIRMAN EARL OLD PERSON AND VICE-CHAIRMAN SASSY RUNNING CRANE AND PRESENT
CHAIRMAN HARRY BARNES THAT THE BLACKFEET INDIANS ARE VICTIMS OF “FRAUD” IN HUNDREDS
OF BLACKFEET LAND THEFTS BY WHITE MEN IN GLACIER AND PONDERA COUNTY ACCOMPLISHED
IN COMPLICITY WITH THE UNITED STATES INDIAN AGENTS TO FORCE BLACKFEET
SIGNATURES ON FEE PATENTS.
TRIBAL COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVES
OF THE BLACKFEET INDIANS HAVE COMMITTED A FRAUD OF SUCH MAGNITUDE DESPITE AN OATH
OF OFFICE SWEARING TO PROTECT BLACKFEET
TRIBAL MEMBERS AND TO MAINTAIN SOVEREIGNTY OF THE BLACKFEET INDIAN RESERVATION.
How do we calculate
the losses of Blackfeet Original Allottees and Blackfeet Tribe
Mr. Ray
Cross, University of Montana Law School Professor won three Supreme Court
Decisions on behalf of the Mandan North Dakota
Mr. Cross proved that it was the
tribes who suffered devastating social, cultural and economic losses due to the
federal government’s taking of their most productive agricultural lands, and
that the Indians were not compensated for their losses. Congress directed the
Indian’s trustee, the Secretary of the Interior to hold administrative hearings
to determine just compensation for social and economic losses in tribal claims
concerning the loss of the successful, self-reliant tribal cattle ranching
industry.
Secretary of the Interior Donald
Hodel of the Reagan administration in 1985 established the ‘Joint Tribal Advisory
Commission’ [JTAC] by secretarial charter to hear and evaluate the Indian’s
claims arising from the takings of their reservation lands. The hearings before
the JTAC provided the organizational catalyst for tribal members to join
together and present personal testimony and other evidence regarding the
devastating effects of the 1949 taking on tribal culture, economy and cattle
ranching industry.
Testimony by natural resource
economists and related experts aided the JTAC in its examination of the Indians
claims. The natural resource economists provided the JTAC with a “Valuation
Theory” of Indian lands that fulfilled the “make whole” command of the Just
Compensation Clause. Other expert testimony provided historical and
sociological evidence of the taking’s devastating effects on the social and
cultural life of the Indian people. The Bureau of Indian Affairs strenuously
opposed the Indians “claims in equity” of the Indians just compensation claims
for their losses.
The JTAC hired Dr. Ronald Cummings,
a leading natural resource economist to do an assessment of the Indians
economic losses imposed by the taking, and to use the valuation standards as
the means to capitalize the stream of income the Indians would have received
from the lands, and to provide “lieu lands” in comparative quality and
sufficient in area to compensate the tribes for tribal land flooded by Garrison
Dam and reservoir. In addition, the tribes were awarded a share in the revenues
produced by Garrison Dam and reservoir and hydro-power receipts paid into
accounts in the Treasury Department on behalf of the tribes. The award of $149
million could not be spent by the tribal council, only the accumulated interest
from the principal could be drawn down but only after a social and economic
recovery plan was developed and approved. Tribal members now governed the
expenditures by the tribal council. The Mandan
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