NOTES from Paul Rosier's "Rebirth of the Blackfeet Nation, 1912-1954

CHAPTER ONE (first half)

Probably the most important concept in Rosier’s book is the idea that the difference between the termination of the reservation and “self-determination” or sovereignty, is whether it is initiated and controlled by someone outside the tribe or those within the tribe.

The next most important point of his is the enormous difficulty and yet compelling necessity that those within the tribe find one unified voice that will give them the effectiveness they need to be sovereign.

CHANGES TO BLACKFEET TRIBAL LIFE

1400? At some point in the past (hundreds of years ago -- maybe when white intruders destabilized the east coast) this group of people separated from a main group to the east, where they were a woodland people, and moved to the prairie where they became bison-dependent. The main evidence for this is stories from the elders and the language. In the process they turned away from water-based transportation (canoes), occupations (trapping water animals), and fishing.

1700 The horse reached the Blackfeet and guns about the same time. Partly because the dog-based ways could easily be adapted to horses, the Blackfeet bloomed into a “climax culture” that lasted between one and two hundred years. It crashed because of disease brought in by whites and because of the end of the bison. War played a lesser role.

1869 was the winter of the Baker Massacre, AKA the Massacre on the Marias. (To compare, the War Between the States was 1961-63.)

1883-94 is called the Starvation Winter. Bison were hunted out and the Indian Agent failed to provide food. 600 died. One result of this was a sharp change in the population.

1885 there were 18 mixed-blood enrollees and 2,000 full blood.

By1914 there were 1,452 mixed and 1,189 full-bloods
Most mixed bloods had white or mixed-blood fathers which meant their assimilation and advantages were driven by the fathers, who might be French trappers, traders, cattlemen, agents, or entrepreneurs.
This change created two classes of enrollees:
A mixed blood, pro-assimilation, relatively prosperous group and
A full-blood, impoverished, assimilation-resistant, non-English-speaking group, dependent on a mixed-blood (Hamilton) interpreter.

At this point in history, the same split between non-English immigrants and assimilated native-born was present among white people throughout the US, but was ameliorated by the middle-class presence of small towns and family farms. The non-English speakers were European but they came on purpose in order to assimilate with the English speakers. Their own language was preserved in churches for a while.

ALLOTMENT of land
1887 is the year of the General Allotment Act, an outgrowth of the Homestead Experience and also a response to maintaining small agrarian land-holders over against the growing impact of industrial and agricultural capitalism hungry for natural resources to develop. At the same time as pretending to help people find homesteads, it was a good excuse for releasing “surplus” lands for development. An additional twist was that the railroads were dependent on increasing homesteads and also that irrigation had been dug on the reservation that now was part of the “surplus.” This act was stalled for a long time.

March 1, 1907 the allotment act was passed. It was opposed by the Office of Indian Affairs and the Department of the Interior.

This was the Gilded Age, just ending, during which the major millionaires of America were created. Reservation land allotments tended to align with blood degree and the nature of the person’s business. Best grazing and wheat land drifted to the mixed blood entrepreneurs and ranchers. Hamilton, a mixed-blood educated at Carlisle, became the interpreter and spokesman for the full-bloods, who had a hard time dealing direct with the US Congress. Hamilton worked passionately for the full-bloods, but it meant that they could only work through him. He more or less “owned” them politically.

1913 The Tribal Business Committe was made up of 2 fullblood and 3 mixed blood members, including James Perrine (1/4 Blackfeet and a major sheep man) and Richard Sanderville who aligned with Malcolm Clark, Charles Buck (1/4 Blackfeet and a major cattle rancher who brought in black Angus). Also aligned with the mixed bloods were the agent, Arthur E. McFatridge, and Wolf Tail (owner of the largest horse herd on the reservation.)

1914, there is a hearing by a Joint Commission of Congress. Agent McFatridge is fired.

BLACKFEET TRIBAL BUSINESS COUNCIL
1915, the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council is created and immediately (December 13, 1915) votes to reject the sale of surplus land by 8 to 1. Hamilton (the mixed blood who represents full-bloods) is elected president. He has two preoccupations: agency corruption and preserving the tribal land base. He is not attacked on these issues but by character assassination.

1916 SB 793 Amendment to the Allotment Act of 1907 passed by the Senate but not by the House. Montana US Senator Walsh wanted to sell the “surplus land.”

A contingent opposing this Amendment (mostly full-bloods) went to Washington, D.C. Hamilton, Curley Bear, Bird Rattler, Wolf Plume and Oliver Sanderville. Mixed bloods who went included Malcolm Clark, Richard Sanderville, Mountain Chief (a Christian full-blood) John Galbreath and Charles Devereaux.

The million dollar debt incurred by the building of an irrigation system was weighing on the Blackfeet. They did not ask for the system and the “surplus” land included much of it. Some wanted to sell the “surplus” and pay off the debt. Others thought that the “surplus” should be leased, partly because the value of the land was increasing daily.

The Blackfeet leaders were much handicapped by the thickets of legal terminology, customs, equivalents, laws, regulations, etc. Only a few whites really understood. In the end they managed to reserve all mineral rights, probably because no one thought there were any minerals.

ACT OF June 30, 1919
The Blackfeet were exempted from having to sell their “surplus” land and instead all enrolled Blackfeet received an additional 80 acres. This was a win for Hamilton.

1916 The Blackfeet began to want to develop oil. (The regulations dated to 1891.) The Oklahoma Osage had become fabulously rich from oil and everyone was influenced by this, but some wanted to develop cautiously. (The Osage were persuaded to “plunge” quickly. The tribe was afflicted by a terrible series of murders committed by whites who married into the tribe, then killed all intervening inheritors. There was no chance for the people to learn how to manage money in those amounts.)

At this point the Blackfeet are aware that they have assets: good land, timber, livestock, and possibly oil. The split comes in the way they want to use these. The mixed bloods tend to want to develop minerals, ranches and wheat farms for the long term. They understand development, leasing, and paper instruments. The full-bloods are just anxious to stay alive. They have no housing, no dependable food, and have a hard time understanding a lot of theoretical stuff.

1917-1918 were good crop years with prices supported by WWI. (Wheat and wool for uniforms)
1919 was a drought summer and a harsh winter.
1920-21 was such a low point that two-thirds of the tribe were on rations from the agency.

1921 Frank Campbell, red-headed, 6’2”, energetic, and experienced. He had worked for the BIA for twenty years:
Superintendent of the Fort Peck Indian School
Allotting agent at Poplar
Livestock supervisor for the Blackfeet
Interim agent for the Blackfeet for 8 months between 1917- 1919 when the reservation had 4 agents, one after another!
His first act was to visit every single family. He took the agency physician with him. He felt great sympathy for the full-bloods he met in places like Heart Butte and Old Agency, and believed that if he could just get them to do subsistence farming, at least they wouldn’t starve.

THE FIVE YEAR INDUSTRIAL PROGRAM

Campbell organized 29 chapters of the Piegan Farming and Livestock Association. Many full-bloods broke away from Hamilton at this point and allied with Campbell.

Others were sceptical, like Found A Gun, who said farming was just a stopgap. Others were angry at Campbell because he couldn’t keep whites from trespassing, he helped other tribes which meant he was gone a lot, they wanted a cash crop rather than subsistence, and they resented Campbell’s reluctance to develop the oil.

Montana State Senator Frank J. McCabe (a Browning resident) joined Hamilton and in 1926 their group took 10 of the 13 seats on the BTBC.

1924 is the year Indians were given citizenship.