“THE SACRED BUFFALO VISION” BLACKFEET HISTORY BOOK EXPOSES
ECONOMIC-APARTHEID SYSTEMS “The Sacred Buffalo Vision” @Amazon.Com:
“The [savage Indian] curriculum problem is one that has affected white schools
as well as reservation schools. It becomes even more accentuated on an Indian
reservation where there is less relatedness between the usual subjects of
instruction and Indian cultural background. While a primer dealing with the
“savagery” [a man of brutal cruelty] of the Indian may have little or no effect
on the culture of a white community, it has all kinds of psychological
reverberations on an Indian reservation, where most of the children are still
linked psychologically with the old Indian culture. Under such conditions, this
type of public instruction becomes more than absurd.” Most Indians do not know
tribal political/economic history because it is not taught in public schools or
colleges. My history book exposed over a century of an “underground economy”
operating “extra-legally” on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. During the
conquest of Blackfeet Country by trespassing border-whites a campaign of
physical genocide killed thousands of Indians, but the “Baker Massacre” caused
a national protest against the army killing whole Indian villages. The Montana
Legislature created an economic-apartheid-structure, called a “reservation/county”
jurisdiction enacted by the Montana Legislature on stolen Indian trust lands in
1919. My research uncovered a “political-mercantile” system of “Slow Death
Measures” genocide in Montana that used mass starvation and institutional
violence by state and federal officials on the Blackfeet Indians to force Indian
landowners to give up trust lands [non-taxable].
PHYSICAL GENOCIDES
AND MASSACRES OF BLACKFEET TREATY INDIANS BY MONTANA CONFEDERATES [Excerpt,
The Sacred Buffalo Vision] United States Indian Service Report of Blackfeet Agent,
Henry Reed, 1862, “On Tuesday we distributed to the Bloods, and on Wednesday to
the Blackfeet, all in the same manner, apparently to their great satisfaction.
It was certainly gratifying to see the Indians conduct themselves with so much
decorum during the time of their visit and the [1855 Treaty] Payment,
especially as there were so many of them together, and so many conflicting
interests; and then during the stay of a week to have nothing occur but what
would accord with the best organized society was certainly surprising as well
as highly gratifying. There are many whites who are here and through the
mountains because they cannot be tolerated in any civilized society. They need
care and attention. We refer especially to the introduction and sale of liquor.
In the selection of the force we have at the farm, we have tried to get such as
would present a proper example to the Indians of morals, industry, and economy,
so that example and precept might go together in the lesson given to the
Indians at all times.” Monthly Report of George B. Wright, United States Indian
Agent, 1866, “Soon after my arrival at Fort Benton and on the 18th
day of September, 1866, there was seen on the opposite bank of the Missouri
River a party of eleven Piegan Indians [Blackfeet] desirous of crossing over to
the Benton side, whereupon a body of some twenty whites [confederate soldiers],
residents of Fort Benton, and returning [trespassing confederate gold] miners
to the States, ran up to the bend in the river and as the Indians touched the
shore, these men fired into them, wounding some and killing six. The balance of
the Indians, with the wounded, ran back to the opposite shore, leaving the dead
ones in the hands of the whites, who immediately scalped them. On the following
day, another party of Indians was seen some six miles above Fort Benton, on
that side of the river, whereupon the same class of persons who killed the
abovementioned Indians started on horseback after them, they overtook the
Indians and fired into them, killing six, bringing the Indian scalps into the
town. I endeavored to secure the scalps but was refused. A few of the Chiefs of
the Blackfeet and Bloods called recently to see me, and expressed a strong
desire to remain in peace their own nation and the white race. They are,
however, strongly opposed to visiting Fort Benton to see their agent, owing to
the heavy white settlement around the town; and as there has been no provision
made by the late Congress for a new treaty on the part of the government for
them, by reason of treaty of the Judith river of 1855 expiring by limitation,
and the non-satisfaction of the treaty of 1865. It is well known that in thickly
settled countries the citizens thereof carry with them more or less hostility
towards the Indians, and spare no efforts when success seems certain, in
obliterating them from existence. Therefore, is it not better that by removal
of this agency further back into the interior there could be effected a more
permanent peace in the country and a more general safety to both races? It
might be argued that if there should be a repetition of the Indian wars, the
race would then be, not only in name but in fact, exterminated, and there would
be no further use for agents or agency buildings. This theory may be, in
contemplation, pleasant, yet practically it would meet with embarrassments, for
experience has thus far proven, unless there be a general uprising of the
people, sanctioned by the United States Congress, the Indian would maintain his
existence, and the tradition of his death in Montana Territory would seem an
absurdity. This government is too humane to annihilate those who, from wrongs
inflicted upon them, justly punished the white aggressor, and the Old World has
yet to be taught that the United States, having purchased land by treaty, would
possess and occupy other lands through force and power. The genius of our
institutions, although differing with many minds regarding territorial
occupancy, agrees in the main that the Indian should be removed from
encroachments of the white race and honestly compensated for the relinquishment
of their lands. By their removal there would be no occasion for hostility; each
party could attend to their own business, for history and experience in this
Territory have proven that the introduction of so many emigrants, having such a
diversity of character and hatred toward the Indians, having rendered travel
unsafe, and the highways of today are attractively different from those of
yesterday. In this separation that I so earnestly urge (between white and
Indian races) the government would be benefitted and all mankind could move on
without meeting in any danger. There are many of the Indians who are anxious to
become the rivals of the white race, and will, as soon as suitable grounds are
established for them, adopt the order of civilization, and will equalize their
ability for their own interests as well as that of the government. I have just
arrived home from the Flathead Agency, Montana Territory, while on my trip I
was in the camps of the Kootenay, Pen d’Orielle, Flathead, Piegan (Blackfeet),
Gros Ventre, Assiniboine, Ree and Crow, Mandan, and Arickaree tribes of
Indians. I packed across the country from Hell Gate to Fort Benton, and thence
took steamer for St. Louis, and did not see a hostile Indian during the entire
trip. I saw and conversed with many persons who have been among the above-named
tribes during the last six months and know their feelings toward the government
and the whites, and am satisfied beyond a doubt that the Indians of Montana
generally, and from those residing along the Missouri River, were never
behaving better than at present, than they have been for some time past, (say
seven to nine months) and they are as a general thing peaceably disposed toward
our government. Governor Meagher’s Indian War in Montana is the biggest humbug
of the age, got up to advance his political interest, and to enable a lot of
bummers who surround and hang on to him to make a big raid on the United States
treasury. Parties (and hundreds of them) are traveling from Helena to Fort
Benton, some mounted, some on foot, and some in wagons, in squads of two, four,
six and eight persons-some armed, and some unarmed. None appeared to apprehend
any more danger from hostile Indians than they would in Washington City. The
boat I came down the river on (the Yorktown) did not even load the guns
furnished them by the War Department during the round trip, but allowed Indians
to come on board the boat when they wished to do so, (that is when we were
lying to). Neither did I hear of a single boat that had been disturbed by
Indians on the Missouri river, the many statements made in newspapers notwithstanding.
I am satisfied no trouble need be apprehended from the above-named tribes,
unless the same is brought on by acts of General Meagher and the troops under
his orders.” Colonel Sully, Army Superintendent of Indian Affairs wrote, “I
intend to do all I can to arrest some of the citizens, who about ten days ago,
committed the cowardly murder of a harmless old man and a boy about fourteen
years old, at Fort Benton. They were Piegans (a part of the Blackfeet tribe).
These Indians were shot in broad daylight in the streets of the town. I think I
can arrest the [confederate] murderers, but I doubt very much if I can convict
them in any [confederate] court. Nothing can be done to insure the peace and
order till there is a military force here strong enough to clear out the roughs
and whiskey sellers in the country, but I will do all I can, with the limited
means in my power to prevent a war or any serious difficulties between the
whites and the Indians.” The “Baker Massacre” of 174 old men, women, children
and infants of Piegans, in the winter camp of Chief Heavy Runners Band, attacked
while the warriors were away on a winter buffalo hunt to feed the starving
camp, while another small pox outbreak found many Indians dying in their beds
covered with scabs, pus, and boils, slowly dying from the dreaded disease.
Drunken army troops fired into Heavy Runner’s camp from a ridge and collapsed lodge
poles upon camp fires on dying Indians and burned them alive in their beds or
chased survivors through brush and raped the women and girls before shooting
them in the skull. The Inspector General Report said the attack was triggered
by false reports of Blackfeet Depredations, [murders and horse stealing] officially
submitted by Montana Governor/General Meagher, Montana Militia and U.S. Army Generals
at Fort Shaw to General Sheridan for final approval, based on false reports of
attacks by the “Black-Feet Indians” upon Montana citizens. Montana Militia
troops looted 1,400 horses and 7,800 buffalo robes from Chief Heavy Runner’s
camp and raped and murdered many little girls and women.
“SLOW-DEATH
MEASURES” GENOCIDE TRIBAL FAMINE DECIMATE THE BLACKFEET POPULATION Inspector
C. H. Howard reported Blackfeet Indians starving by 1883, “It was my first
experience in witnessing actual starvation; I have never visited an agency
where there was so complete destitution. Children and adults are dying for want
of proper nourishment when sick. There are thousands of cattle roving over the
hills and valleys surrounding the reservation. I have even seen them on land
which still remains a part of the domain of this tribe. But does anyone suppose
these cattle will be safe in this vicinity while these Indians are starving? At
the same time the cowboys do not hesitate to use arms in protecting the cattle?
How long will it be before these Indians will begin to retaliate by arms and we
will have another Indian war?” Agent Allen wrote, “The rations last for two
days barely, the rest of the week the people live on wild berries and air,
until Friday evening, when they again flock to the stockade and receive the
entrails of the beeves butchered for the next day’s issue. Every part of the
refuse is eagerly sought and eaten, and most disgusting contests occur for
possession of the entrails except for the paunch and gall which they give to
their dogs. Their physical condition is that of a slowly starving people, all
of the people being very gaunt and thin, and in some cases shockingly
emaciated. Scrofula prevails to a great extent among them aggravated by a lack
of nourishment and an unmistakable large number seems to be suffering from
consumption. In fact, their systems are so impoverished, that very slight hurts
develop into serious complications. The deaths are estimated by agency
employees at one per day, but the Department of the Interior is today totally
ignorant of the numbers of Indians it pretends to care for and feed. The
Indians prefer to dispose of the bodies by tying them in trees or placing them
in high places, and the hills and ridges around the agency are dotted with
these ghastly objects. The Indians offer themselves to work for food, and where
ten are called for, fifty will appear, but while there are many ways the agent
could employ them, he is unable to do so because they must be paid in rations
and there are none to spare. There are places they tried to plant with axes
digging the furrows, but immediately ate the seed potatoes furnished by the
agent, and fished out the creeks. They have not a fur or skins for moccasins
and there is nothing in their lodges except for the people themselves. In May
and June there were times they stripped the trees and ate the inner bark to
keep their souls and bodies together. The Indians vital forces are so weakened
by the famine of the past three years that the winter now approaching will find
them unable to endure its severity and still more dreadful suffering and death
will occur.” Jesuit Priest Father Prando wrote, “The injustice of the white man
is the cause of suffering among the Indians. The Blackfeet are sunk in want and
misery, and in my opinion, they will have trouble getting through the winter without
dying of hunger. There was so much talk and so much noise in the newspapers
about the deplorable condition of these poor creatures, but till now they
received no help. And, this year the effects of the famine are making
themselves felt so horribly and the savages are dying rapidly. Indeed, we can
say two-thirds of the tribe are diseased now. What a pity it is to see little
boys and girls, with their small faces pale and emaciated, with languid eyes,
and at an age when they should be happy, experiencing sorrow and consumption.” Father Constantine Scollen first met the
Blackfeet in 1861, and he saw them as a proud, haughty, numerous people, having
a regular “politico-religious” organization [Blackfoot Confederacy-Sun
Religion]. After 1870, the Blackfeet had lost more than half their population
and tribal social organization was in deep decay from constant attacks of
massacre, whiskey trade, small-pox, and destruction of tribal buffalo herds.
Father Scollen observed, “They have been utterly demoralized as a people, the
surviving relatives of the small pox epidemic of 1870 and the survivors of the
Baker massacre went more and more for the use of alcohol. They endeavored to
drown their grief in the poisonous beverage, sold their robes and horses by the
hundreds for it, and now had begun killing one another, so that in a short time
they were divided into small parties, afraid to meet on the prairie. Formerly,
they had been the most opulent Indians in the country, and now they walked
without horses, clothed in rags.” At a council of Blackfeet and Blood tribes of
Indians at Blackfeet Agency, April, 1875, an election of Chiefs was held and a
code of laws adopted outlawing whiskey in Blackfoot Country, the council opened
with prayers and songs to the Divine Father, the Indians all kneeling. Agent
John S. Wood called the meeting to order saying, “Before commencing on any
great and good work, we have been taught by the word of the Great Spirit to
invoke his blessings, and all we said and done would be heard and remembered by
him, and we would be held accountable. If we did not intend living up to our
pledges, we had better not make them. For many years you have been without
unity, without a Head Chief, and without laws, roaming over the prairies in
small, unfriendly, if not hostile bands, killing each other under the influence
of whiskey. During the last year, you have killed one hundred and thirty one of
your own people through whiskey. I want you to elect a Head Chief who does not
drink whiskey and who will care for and control his people.” Little Plume was
elected Head Chief and Generous Woman and White Calf elected Subordinate
Chiefs. In 1886, United States Indian Treaty Commissioners arrived on the
Blackfeet Reservation in forty degree below zero weather in the winter to treat
with Blackfeet Chiefs, discussed the starving condition of Blackfeet Indians,
stayed for a week and negotiated the purchase of the Sweet Grass Hills
Country. Congress Ratified the Blackfeet
Land Cession in the 1887 Agreement, ending tribal famine by ceding 17,000,000
acres of prime tribal grazing lands to the United States and received payment
of $1.5 million over ten years to be paid in annual installments of $150,000 to
purchase cattle, supplies, rations, equipment and other needful things to improve
their property by building homes and barns, fences and pastures, to establish a
tribal cattle industry for self-support. Blackfeet cattle ranchers developed a tribal
cattle industry by 1890 with 500 tribal brands, 25,000 head of cattle, shipping
steers to Chicago Stockyards, to end tribal famine.
“SOMMATTSSIIPIKOAN”
CLASS OF LYING, CHEATING, CROOKED, CLEVER DOUBLE-DEALING WHITE MEN Blackfeet Agent George Steell served
his first term of office as Blackfeet Agent in 1890-1893. The agency physician,
Dr. Jenkins, certified Steell to be a confirmed narcotics addict, a “Morphine
eater” in Dr. Jenkins words. Dr. Jenkins said Steell never did his paperwork
without one-half gram to a full gram of Morphine to ease his rheumatic bones,
such ills demanded daily injections of the drug. Steell became very angry at
Dr. Jenkins for withholding the drug; he was determined to be high all the
time. Dr. Jenkins reported Steell “needed the morphine as a drunkard needs
whiskey.” Blackfeet Chiefs complained Agent Steell would only talk to them
through a hole cut in his office door while they sat in an outer office when he
was “riding the dragon.” His haggard tortured face appeared in the peep hole and
his dry lizard’s voice croaked, “go away.” Agent Steell grazed two hundred head
of cattle on his ranch on the border of the reservation until he was replaced
in 1893, and then he scattered the Indian’s cattle herds toward his ranch on
Birch Creek, where 25,000 head of Blackfeet cattle were “rustled” by white
ranchers. Blackfeet Agency, Chief Clerk, E.J. Garrett wrote James J, Hill, Owner
of the Great Northern Railway, about opening up the “mineral strip” where it was
thought gold was to be found in the mountainous portion of the reservation;
“What we shall want, when the time is ripe, is the opening of the mountain
country west of north and south line, drawn, say, through Midvale to the
British boundary. Of course, they will make a strong kick against giving up the
mountain country, but I do not think it will be such a difficult matter if the
right commissioners are selected to treat with them. We will depend on your
aid, and will probably write you further.” Montana Territory Governor Martin
Magginnis requested Blackfeet deportation to Canada, “The Blackfeet will be
more difficult to deal with-all their blood and kindred are in the British
America, where they really belong themselves. I have the belief that if intelligently
approached they would consent to a consolidation with some of the other tribes,
or if they desired to be consolidated with their kindred, whom the authorities
have now moved north from the boundary line, with the best results, perhaps it
might be made a matter of international arrangement; if carried out it would
afford the most satisfactory solution of the matter of this tribe and greatly
reduce the amount of annual appropriations for their support.” Former agent Mark Baldwin, prospecting on the reservation,
wrote Hill about a coal field that might be of interest to his railroad, it was
located on the reservation, a problem to be solved by another tribal land
cession. Frontier pimp, trading store owner, S.P. Horr, was prostituting “squaws”
in his store at night, paying them in food to feed their hungry children. The
agent inquired into “Horr’s Habits” and found he was “making a brothel of the
store at night.” Dr. Hughey, being very drunk, was performing an operation,
hacking away at a struggling boy’s hand. The boy was rescued and the agent had
his hand dressed. Dr. Hughey was quite drunk outside the stockade amongst the
Indians, who were making jeering remarks on his condition, but with the help of
the clerk he was brought inside and confined to his room. The next night an
Indian woman was concealed in Dr. Hughey’s room, her husband and father came
over the pickets, the gate being closed and noisily using threats demanded her.
She had been hurried from the doctor’s room on the first alarm, but was taken
from her hiding place and given to her husband. Inspector Gould wrote, “These Indians are
worse off than convicts sentenced to a penitentiary with a corrupt warden, but
these Indians are not felons either. Their case is hard. The short years,
during which Congress has provided ample means for their equipment and training
is fast passing. They know it. They feel that they are not sliding but being
pushed towards a pit of helplessness. Their revenues are stolen, their rights
are insolently disregarded, and even their feelings are needlessly wronged.
And, Secretary [of the Interior] Vilas is personally responsible for this
corruption and misrule.” Chief White
Calf said, “If he should remain, before that time has elapsed, he will steal us
blind, and starve us to death.” Old Eagle Flag said, “This is the best
reservation of all and yet the Indians here are the poorest of all.” Senator
Lane of Oregon, member of the Senate Commission To Investigate Indian Affairs
wrote in 1915: “I was informed by these Indians that they are being starved in
order to compel them to consent to the sale of their irrigable lands under the
reclamation project and newly discovered oil fields in the northeast portion of
the reservation, and to keep from starving they had killed and eaten all the
prairie dogs and skunks which had formerly had their habitat thereabout. A few
of the Blackfeet ranchers have small herds of cattle, but these are diminishing
rapidly for the reason that they are killing them off to feed their starving
neighbors, it being the custom with them to divide their food to the last
mouthful with their hungry neighbors. The result of this generous and kindly conduct
on their part, I was informed, has been that the Blackfeet Indians, some of
whom had fine cattle herds, are now without any, and are in their turn in the
bread line, life eked out by scanty rations issued by the government. The
effects of a starvation diet and the fact that they have been starved in the
past and are starving now, has been called to the attention of the Commission
To Investigate Indian Affairs, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Secretary of the
Interior and it can be established beyond a question of doubt to any
fair-minded person that starvation is the primary though indirect cause of many
deaths.”
“SLOW-DEATH MEASURES” CORPORATE GENOCIDE
TO MURDER INDIANS BY DISEASE AND POVERTY The United States Congress gave 400,000,000
acres of “free- land” to the Great Northern Railway as it chugged across
America, but it wasn’t enough to sate James J. Hill’s “corporate greed” for
more money and property. The railroad reached Blackfoot Country in 1890,
spewing small pox and other diseases that killed many Indians, but considering
what was to come, they might be the lucky ones. In 1912-1922, hundreds of individual
Blackfeet landowners were systematically tortured and murdered by “Deliberate
Conspiracy” discovered by senate investigator Walter W. Liggett, designed to “defraud
the Indians of their land and money.” The government agent put the dependent Indians
on a starvation diet to force signatures on titles to Indian land, inflicting death
on stubborn Indians by malnutrition related diseases caused by poor diets. Blackfeet
landowners were tossed in the unheated agency jail by agency police in 40
degree below zero weather to die of “exposure”, the county attorney and Indian
agents “framed” innocent Blackfeet landowners to the state penitentiary on
false criminal charges, county judges “committed” stubborn landowners to the
state insane asylum, while the agent appointed the county attorney as
“guardian” of the Indian’s estate and sold their land to white men while the Indian
landowners were locked away. Blackfeet Superintendent Arthur McFatridge
traveled to the Montana Penitentiary and paid the warden to release the most
violent and “brutal” convict to his custody, and brought him back to the
reservation, made him the agency jailer, and gave him Indian land and a salary. BLACKFEET “DOUGHBOYS” FOUGHT ON THE FIELDS
OF FRANCE, BUT STARVED UPON RETURN HOME President Joseph K. Dixon of the National
Indian Memorial Association protested starving conditions of Blackfeet veterans
in 1921 in a letter to General Pershing, “The Report of Senator Lane dated
January 9, 1915, describes a shack where the Blackfeet Indians of this bleak
region live, where they allege they are being starved to compel them from
necessity to consent to sale of their irrigable lands. I want to know, General
Pershing, if you are able to find anywhere, in the annals of the deplorable
conditions obtaining in starving Russia and hunger-ridden Armenia, anything
more heart rending or deplorable than this condition on the Blackfeet
Reservation-denied absolutely by Secretary of the Interior Franklin Lane, and
why it is and how it is that this nation will pour out its treasures of food
and clothing and sympathy on the children of foreign lands while they leave
destitute and dying Indians under the control of a merciless bureaucracy. 150
Blackfeet Indians fought in World War One on the Fields of France, and only
about twenty came back, and many of them wounded; that these Indian veterans
are now dying by the roadside; and so are many of their other tribal members,
from sheer hunger; that the tribe is being decimated by the pangs of hunger; that
their hunting grounds have been pre-empted and their land filched and that many
of them literally starved to death last winter, and that hundreds of them will
be in serious want again this year. Please use your influence and great heart
to strike a blow that will rouse the people to a realization of the horrors
that exist at their own door, and that the spirit of mercy and of good-will
clustering about the manger and cradle in Bethlehem will bring gifts of food
and clothing to these dependent, oppressed and damaged Indians. Parents, old
and blind, who lived to rear boys whom they sent to fight under your swords in
France, are likewise wounded, helpless and suffering. This statement reached
the eye of Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the Interior and he immediately
protested, going so far as to send a special messenger to New York, stating I
am “abusing” the United States Government. Not many weeks later the Women’s
Club of San Francisco wrote a letter to Senator W.P. Dillingham of Vermont, detailing
the awful conditions obtaining on the Blackfeet Reservation. The Commissioner
of Indian Affairs sent his reply that, “No reports have been received by me of
Indians starving to death under the jurisdiction of the federal government or suffering
from want of food.” James Willard
Schultz wrote, “Yesterday, Many Guns, Dog Gun, and many others came to see me
and said they were so hungry they just had to ask for help. They ask why the Government
doesn’t send the troops to kill them off and put them out of their misery. An
old woman came to see me, walking all the way from the forks of the Two
Medicine River. She was in rags and starving. I gave her a meal and then bought
flour, sugar, coffee, and meat for her, and she was so affected by this, she
broke down and cried. I tell you, by God, that it makes me mad all the time to
see the conditions these Indians are in! Many of them are plumb out of food and
have no horses or anything. Tuberculosis is rapidly killing off the Indians,
but it serves well the interests of the big meat trust Swift & Co. and its
subsidiary; Portland Land & Cattle Company. By reference to the “big grass
country”, the writer means this-The patents which the government issued to the
Blackfeet for their allotments of land are rapidly being stolen by whites. The
Blackfeet were in a fair way to be self-supporting, with fine herds of cattle, but
the commissioner shut off their rations, paid for by tribal land cessions. The
agency trader extended credit for food, and they began selling allotments of
land to avoid starving to death. The trader at Browning had two hundred and
twelve of Blackfeet allotments and the Great Northern Railway was given a lease
for the entire St. Mary Valley for ten cents an acre, removing Blackfeet ranchers
from their summer pastures. Mrs. Mabel Monroe-Bond was robbed as a teenage girl
of her land at St. Mary Village where the eastern entrance to Glacier National
Park shares a border with the Blackfeet Reservation, a very valuable piece of
real estate that attracted the Great Northern Railway owner James J. Hill as a
site for his hotels. The same system of graft was used by the Bureau of Indian
Affairs officials issuing forced patents of Indian lands to get Mrs. Monroe-Bond
to accept her patent; “Many of us protested against getting our patents, but
Horace Wilson, agency superintendent, told us that we had to accept them and no
way out. In those days an agent’s word was the law. None of us relished the
idea of going to jail, so we grudgingly accepted the patents as we were sent
for. Ninety percent of us were totally ignorant regarding land laws, and it was
a great calamity for us to have the patents forced on us against our wishes
because we sensed our short-comings and were left in the dark concerning the working
order of things, until it was too late. It was not long until the taxes began
to pile up so high that we could not hope to pay. None of us had jobs and most
of us was trying to eke out a scanty existence on our ranches, our cattle was
gone, there was no work to be had, all jobs were held by white people. Road
work on the reservation and in the Park was done by imported help. We Indians
were discriminated against on all sides as far as work was concerned, and still
we were expected to pay taxes and keep body and soul together on nothing. And
all this time the outside sheep and cattle were quietly grazing on our lands
for nothing-ten cents an acre is “nothing” to receive for an acre of pasturage
of the finest grazing in the world, and we will call it “nothing” for
convenience. Horace Wilson was here about two years, not very long, but before
he left we found out to our surprise and grief that he was a dope fiend. We
were grieved to know that such a wreck had been appointed to be our guardian.
Not so long after he’s gone an article appeared in the Great Falls Tribune,
where Horace G. Wilson, formerly of this country, was sentenced to ten years in
the penitentiary in California for the Man-Act. A new man, F.C. Campbell, now
came to be our agent. He had no personal bad habits but he was worse, because
he was a political grafter and he became involved in Joe Sherburne’s political
machine, for Joe Sherburne was secretly running the county and the Indian
Office too. Who is Joe Sherburne? He is our agency trader for the last 35 years
and owns the First National Bank here, (that explains it). All the money for
the Indian Office goes through his bank; and that is how he exerts so much
influence over the Office. They are linked up like a log-chain-Joe
Sherburne-the Indian Office-sheep and cattle companies-Swift & Armor, and Great
Northern Railway. Results they have built up a nice little Tammany Hall Clique
at Browning. Graft is a hard thing to prove where members are handy at padding
up accounts, but one can always put 2 and 2 together. Sometimes, Joe Sherburne
does not even stop to put on a mask. Sheep and cattle companies continued to
graze on our land for nothing. Other sheep and cattle operators came in and
tried to run the grazing bid up, but the Indian Office closed the bids one day
ahead of the scheduled time. The un-favored bidders would arrive just one day
too late. Superintendent Campbell inaugurated a policy that he called the
Five-Year Program. He tried to make us sheep-minded and encouraged a few of his
pets to buy sheep on the Reimbursement Loan Plan; no doubt the sheep companies
had some old toothless ewes they wanted to get rid of and he conceived the idea
of us buying them. We protested against sheep and said we wanted cattle, but he
told us that his program consisted of sheep and milch goats. A nice thing to
wish on us old buffalo chasers, just imagine a dignified old former warrior
herding sheep and pailing a milch goat, it cannot be done. The Blackfeet
temperament does not run that way. Why force a mode of life on him that he
despises. He cares nothing for mutton and he would never quit running in the
other direction if he saw a sheep tick. He shakes his head, no good for a
Blackfeet, too dirty, smell bad, wool full of bugs. He dreams of the old
buffalo days but they are gone forever. Cattle satisfy because they are nearly
the image of his dear beloved buffalo. They are clean, easily managed and one
does not have to stoop to the ways of a buzzard to care for cattle. According
to the purposes of the program our resources gradually dwindled away. We could
not repair or replace old machinery, our penniless condition prevented us from
acquiring new herds of cattle or even one cow, our clothes became so ragged the
wind nearly whip us to death whenever we step out into the wind. Many members
began to get hungry, credit bills were run at Joe Sherburne’s store and when
the bills reach a hundred dollars, Joe Sherburne would own their land by hook
or by crook. There, that completes Campbell’s Five-Year-Starvation- Program, it
amounts to starve us out, burn us out, kick us out. Most of our land is gone
and it will not be long till the [white] “owners” of this reservation will
demand us to get out. Where shall we go from here, what can we do? Will it be a
wholesale exodus of the Children of the Sun, into the strange land of the white
man to stand in bread lines, begging for bread, penniless, homeless, permanent
objects of charity. President Roosevelt promised everyone something new,
something better, and we have faith in his promises, and faith in those he
picks to help him run the government. Give us an agent who has his nest egg
somewhere besides Indian reservations, a man with noble purposes, who has some
insight, some principles, a teacher who will look after the interests of the
ignorant and illiterate ones. Some of us can read and write but legal jargon
goes way over our heads and we cannot hire lawyers to untangle such mystic
wording. Give us a chance to buy cattle on the long term loan plan, say ten
years at not more than 5% interest, 3 to 5 head of cows to each family is
enough, with restrictions on sale of young female stock, a dual purpose cow
like the milking short horn would be the best because its ruggedness could
stand our harsh climate. This would give us a chance to get on our feet, to use
the grazing for our own benefit, or raise the grazing rent on sheep and raise
the price of hay for sale, to give us a chance to live.”
Copyright by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau,
Blackfeet Treaty Indians: [Story To Be Continued ].
