BLACKFEET PETITION FOR A CORRECT SURVEY OF THE WESTERN RESERVATION BOUNDARY

July 1, 1931 the Blackfeet Tribal Council led by Chief Wolf Plume and Robert Hamilton requested the Secretary of the Interior for a correct survey of the western boundary of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation between Glacier National Park and the Lewis & Clark National Forest containing 43,020 acres of tribal lands which would be part of the Blackfeet Reservation had a correct survey of the western reservation boundary been completed as follows according to the agreement between the United States and the Blackfeet Tribe ratified by Congress on June 10, 1896 (29 Stat. L. 354). The correct survey is as follows: "Beginning at a point on the northern boundary of the reservation due north of the summit of Chief Mountain; and running thence south to said summit; thence in a straight line to the most northeasterly point of Flat Top Crag; thence to the most westerly of the mouths of Divide Creek; thence up said Creek to a point where a line drawn from the said northeasterly point of Flat Top Crag to the summit of Divide Mountain intersecting Divide Creek; thence in a straight line to the western extremity of the lower Two Medicine Lake; thence in a straight line to a point on the southern line of the right of way of the Great Northern Railway Company four miles west of the western end of the railway bridge across the North Fork of the Two Medicine River; thence in a direct line to Heart Butte Mountain; and thence due south to the southern boundary line of the present reservation." This is another tribal land claim that will be "extinguished, forever" in the water compact should the Blackfeet voters approve it without any knowledge of what is in it or how it will affect the Blackfeet Indians. Chairman Barnes confessed publicly he didn't read or understand the most important document ever presented to the Blackfeet people. The short, fat lady NARF lawyer yelled at us in the water compact meeting, "YOU PEOPLE DON'T OWN ANY WATER RIGHTS!"
Do we really want to trust these people to protect our landowners or water rights? If we go to state court our federal trustee, the Secretary of the Interior and Attorney General have to sue themselves on behalf of the government wards-that is us trust landowners. I want to be a treaty Indian and protect my trust lands. I want to stay "under the blanket" of federal trust responsibility established by the 1896 Agreement because the white people are hiding in the weeds awaiting to take over our reservation as soon as the water compact is approved. Bob Juneau Sr. Vote No on the water compact!