Friday, June 17, 2005

The Browning Blackfeet Comprehensive Plan of 1970 (1)

In 1970 the Browning Blackfeet Comprehensive Plan was presented to the Browning-Blackfeet City-County Planning Board by Harrison G. Fagg and Associates, Architects and Planners. The Planning Board consisted of Ed Aubert, George Henkle, Vern Hartford, Bill Bercovich, Jim Fisher, Bob Garrow, Wes House, Paul Van de Jagt, and Julian Weter. All these people and entities are gone now, but I have the Plan and am going to take the next few days to post parts of it. Most of the inch-thick paperbound document is maps, which I can’t post.

I’ll begin on page 15 which is “Background” because it gives a good picture of the context of the reservation. Too many people treat the reservation as though it were behind a moat, not continuous with and connected to the rest of the state. In fact, this information begins just after the actual fence around the reservation was removed. I’m assuming the report is out of copyright.

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The first discovery of oil in Montana resulted from drilling on the western edge of the reservation. The Swift Current Valley between Babb and Many Glacier is where history was made. Three wells were drilled with one at Boulder Creek finding prduction at 1,500 feet. Samples from the efforts were sent to the 1906-07 state fairs, but none of the wells proved to have commercial potential. The discovery of oil did lead to later exploration and the slime oil produced from the three wells provided grease for wagon wheel hubs for many years.

In 1907 the government decided to reverse its policy of treating the reservation as the property of the entire tribe. Provisions were made in the Congressional Act of that year to survey the entire reservation and parcel out the land to the individual tribal members. The act also provided that each family should be given an additional five head of cattle and that each district be allotted a registered bull. With the stock and the soon-to-acquired land holdings, many Indians were able to obtain capital and build large ranch operations. Most of the Indians raised horses as well as cattle -- reminiscent of the days when many considered them the finest cavalrymen in the world. At a given time, there were usually between ten and twenty thousand fine horses on the reservation with a government allotted thoroughbred stud servicing each district.

Land allottments were made to the 2, 450 Blackfeet on the tribal rolls following completion of the reservation-wide survey in 1912. Individual parcels amounted to 40 acres of irrigated and 280 acres of grazing land, or the individual could take the entire 320 acres in grazing land if he so desired. A sizeable acreage with full mineral rights could be held by a large family. Additional acreage was reserved for townsites at Browning and Babb with all remaining land to be sold under the Homestead Act. The proceeds from such sales were deposited in the U.S. Treasury to the credit of the Blackfeet and to repay the government for the irrigation projects. [This is what the Eloise Cobell lawsuit is addressing.]

The president of the Great Northern Railroad had done his homework well with his efforts resulting in the Homestead Act of 1862 being changed by Congress. The original act made it possible for a man to locate on 160 acres and obtain patent on the land if he remained on it for five years and “proved it up.” Under the Enlarged Homestead Act of 1909 the acreage was increased to 320 acres. Another amendment in 1912 provided for the prospective landowner to be able to leave the land for five months and reduced the residency requirement to three years. The patent fee on the land was set at $10.00.

The Great Northern conducted an extensive advertising campaign with posters being placed throughout the country. The posters illustrated a farmer plowing up gold dollars while his wife and children stood in the doorway of their cozy cabin nestled in the cottonwood trees. The railroad also built a special exhibit showing what could be grown in Montana. This exhibit toured the nation and brochures advertising the area wwere distributed at every stop.

The promotional push of the Great Northern resulted in a homestead boom with the first prospective settlers arriving about 1909. The boom was to extend into 1917. Ironically, the coming of the dirt farmers was resented by many of the same ranchers who had pushed Congress for opening the reservation back in 1873-74. They now found their widespread operations stopped by homesteader fences. Resentment against the homesteaders was also found in those who saw the civilized ways replacing the “Old West” with its lawless, untamed frontiers. The day of loose living was all but over as towns became established with their local governments, laws, churches and respectable citizenry. With the new law and order came the end of loose women and open brawls, just as with the plow came the end of acre after acre of the native short grass on which the cattle thrived.

Many settlers arrived with little or no farming experience -- only dreams created by the colorful railroad brochures. Others came with a fast dollar in mind -- they were intent only upon “proving up” and then selling or mortgaging their ground after three years. Still others arrived without dollar or tool to try to make it in the fabled land of milk and honey.

Homesteaders soon found they had to make do with what was available, and that was very little. Dreams of the cozy cabin or the quaint frame houses were more often than not replaced by tarpaper shacks. Even if ample lumber had been available, few homesteaders could have afforded to buy it. Those that were more practiced built sod houses, by now familiar to the great plains. In at least one recorded case a hillside cave was utilized for living quarters.

With the coming of winter, the wind and snow began to blow around the flimsy shacks and a new problem was created. Coal was the main source of heat but few homesteaders had the money to buy it. Many tore down fences and barns to obtain fuel; others stole coal off the railroad cars; other searched the windswept plains for dried cattle and horse dung.

(to be continued)

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