The tribal council ambushes trust landowners and heirs of stolen Blackfeet land allotments by the water compact "extinguishing all past, present, and future" Blackfeet allotted and tribal land claims, "forever!" Does it mean there is no longer any trust responsibility for the federal government in the protection of Blackfeet allotted landowners and water rights in the future? The water compact also subordinates the superior allotted water rights vested to individual Blackfeet trust landowners to a tribal-federal-state water board that will determine individual allottee water rights. Blackfeet cattle ranchers treaty right to graze their cattle on tribal reserved grazing lands is also extinguished in the water compact as is their water rights to reservation streams and reservoirs which are leased to white cattle ranchers for $5 per acre. The white cattle ranchers "fatten" their cattle on the reservation for $5 per acre which produces $67,000,000 in profits for white livestock owners and practically zero dollars for Blackfeet allotted landowners and tribal grazing lands which cash goes to third-party Blackfeet leasers who sub-lease tribal and allotted lands to white ranchers. That is collusion-"An agreement between two or more persons to defraud a person of his rights by the forms of law, or to obtain an object forbidden by law. It implies the existence of fraud of some kind, the employment of fraudulent means or of unlawful means for the accomplishment of an unlawful purpose. A secret combination, conspiracy, or concert of action between two or more persons for fraudulent or deceitful purpose." The water compact not only extinguishes lawful claims of hundreds of Blackfeet original allottees robbed by white men but also bars legal action for the heirs of original allottees to pursue their family land claims. For instance, in 1928 Chief Wolf Plume and Robert Hamilton petitioned the Senate Indian Committee to investigate the forced patents land frauds of the Blackfeet allottees. Senator Wheeler of Montana informed the Blackfeet Indians in Browning on October 8, 1928 of investigations to be conducted by the Senate Sub-Committee on Indian Affairs on the conditions of Indians in the United States. The Great Falls Tribune article said, "Indians from every part of the Blackfeet reservation gathered here to confer with United States Senator B.K. Wheeler and to assure him of support of the Blackfeet Tribe. Senator Wheeler reported, "Many cases have been brought to my attention which reveal wholesale frauds and gross injustices in the handling of Indian property. It is established beyond all reasonable doubt that the Indian Bureau has neglected the health of its Indian wards until the death rate is abnormally high and rapidly growing higher. I happen to be a member of the subcommittee of the senate Indian affairs committee which is now conducting a nationwide survey of conditions of Indians in the United States. An investigator has been in Montana for several months and a hearing will be held as soon as possible." Blackfeet Agency superintendent Forrest R. Stone wrote Commissioner of Indian Affairs Charles E. Burke to give him a warning on the senate investigation of the Blackfeet Agency handling of Blackfeet allotted lands, "I do not know of course what the ultimate purpose of the Senate Investigating Committee is. The investigator that the senator referred to is doubtless Mr. Walter W. Liggett who came to our reservation in the early part of August and spent three weeks with Robert Hamilton and his particular faction [Chief Wolf Plume]. The Indian Office will realize that Mr. Liggett's position as representative of the United States Senate entitled him to pretty near all information that he desired from our office. Senator Wheeler spoke at Browning last night and he mentioned in his address that the Indians had been denied the privilege of presenting their claims before the Senate, and he also highly commended the efforts of Robert Hamilton in behalf of the Blackfeet Indians." Senate Investigator Walter W. Liggett's report was headlined, "INDIANS DEFRAUDED BY DELIBERATE CONSPIRACY!".
In Washington D.C. above the National Archives Building is the inscription, "Past is Prologue" which is a reminder that if we do not remember our past, it will repeat itself. In 2006 we requested the records of the hundreds of forced patents from the Blackfeet Agency Bureau of Indian Affairs and were told the BIA "does not have a list of Forced Fee Patents per your request. The Agency has on file in the original allotment folders, copies of fee patents for individuals completed at their own request, but the Agency has no records of Forced Fee Patents or information as to what would be defined as a Forced Fee Patent." A very short time later a Bureau of Indian Affairs employee came to my house and handed me a copy of a document that was entitled "Forced Fee Patents Cases on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation" which we published and gave copies to chairman Old Person and the tribal council. BIA superintendent Stephen W. Pollock offered to provide the tribal council with copies of original allotment folders 1-3497 of Blackfeet allottees for the fee of $6,591.93 for copying expenses, a great opportunity for all tribal members to get copies of their family allotted lands records history. These allotted land records would have been stored at the tribal office under the tribal government and provided the legal basis for individual Blackfeet Heirs of the original allottees to regain their trust land titles forged by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, white men and Glacier and Pondera county attorneys during 1918-1922. But, collusion between the tribal council and BIA stopped us from getting the information to pursue our allotted land claims, and now in the water compact all of the allotted land claims are extinguished, forever." And, that's all I have to say about the water compact and collusion between tribal, state and federal governments to extinguish our allotted claims. Vote no on the water compact, it is an ambush of Blackfeet trust landowners and Blackfeet forced patent claimants. There is no "guarantee" in the water compact for $470 million-it is a bum check from the government. We were promised our allotted land titles restored, the void patent-in-fee landowners removed from the reservation and $1.6 billion in just compensation. The senate lawyer told us Congress has a Indian claims fund to compensate the Indians and to remove the void patent-in-fee landowners by paying the white men market value for their land and improvements so nobody would be hurt by the restoration of Blackfeet allotted lands. There is the solution to the land and water rights claims-we own all of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation including all waters. If we go to state court the United States Government will represent us as in U.S. v. Glacier County.
Bob Juneau Sr. Blackfeet patriot
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