This study of the administration of the Blackfeet Reservation by the United States was prepared for a lawsuit against the government with the Indian Claims Commission, Docket Number 279-D. It is shocking, detailed, and explores the years between 1855 (the first treaty) and the 1950’s -- the years that few know much about. This fat document is frankly sympathetic to the Blackfeet and so full of facts that no one takes into account that many have tried to get copies. In the coming months I’ll try to put as much of it as I can online.
The Table of Contents itself is helpful because it lays out a time-line. The first four parts are introduction:
i. The various Blackfeet Reservations in Montana.
(Foley means historically, not geographically. The original rez was the top half of Montana -- since then it has been reduced step-by-step until now it is fifty miles on a side, sort of square.)
ii. Blackfeet Indian Reservation, Montana
iii. Leading Personalities
(I’ve converted this into a card file which I will use to develop an index of this document as well as references in other places. Foley included photographs of many of these people, all posed portraits of hairy whitemen except for one portrait of Joseph Kipp who was remarkably able to “walk on both sides.”)
iv. Introduction
I. INAUSPICIOUS BEGINNINGS: The Treaty of 1855 and its aftermath, 1855-1870.
II. DISINTEGRATION AND SURVIVAL: The Blackfeet Indians and Frontier Montana, 1870-1886
Part One: Whiskey Traders and Methodists, 1870-1876
Part Two: Tributary to the Bentonites, 1876-1884
Part Three: The Open Range, The Blackfeet Reservation, 1884-1886
III. IN THE CLUTCHES OF THE “AGENCY RING”: The Many “Friends” of the Blackfeet, 1887-1893
Part One: “He Ought to Be Removed:” Agent Mark Baldwin, 1886-1889
Part Two: Drunken Clerks and Jewelry Salesmen: Agent John B. Catlin 1889-1890.
Part Three: The Morphine Eater -- Strange Hero of the Intellectuals, Agent George Steell, 1890-1893.
Part Four: A Man on Horseback: Captain Cooke’s Entry, 1893.
IV. POLITICS, PATRONAGE AND PLUNDER: The Rise and Decline of the Blackfeet Cattle Industry: 1894-1899
Part One: Swords into Miners’ Picks: Captains of the Agency Ring, Lorenzo Cook, U.S. Army, Acting Agent, 1893-1895.
Part Two: The Last Refuge: Ceding the Mineral Strip, 1894-1895.
Part Three: Homecoming: The Return of George Steell, Cattle Baron, 1895-1897
Part Four: Refuge for the Republicans: Senator Carter’s Friends and the Blackfeet, 1897 - 1899
VI. “...A WHITE MAN’S PASTURE:” The Blackfeet Get Fenced, 1900-1910
Part One: Won’t You Come Home, Dan Floweree?” The “New Policy” and the Old Problems, 1900- 1905
Part Two: Standing Still, Going Backwards, 1905-1910.
V. BUREAUCRATIC BURDEN: The Office of Indian Affairs vs. The Blackfeet Tribe, 1910-1913.
Part One: The Family that Preys Together... “The Father, Son and Holy Terror: Superintendent McFatridge” 1910-1915
Part Two: Encore: The Return of Corruption and Starvation, 1915 - 1920.
Part Three: Comrade Campbell’s Five Year Plan, 1921 - 1929
Part Four: Oil, Oil Everywhere, but Not a Drill in Sight.
VII. THE MIXED BLESSINGS OF TRIBAL DEMOCRACY, 1930 - 1905’s.
Part One: Five years of Unplanning: 1930 - 1935
Part Two: Tribal Tribulations, The Council’s Peculations, 1935 - 1945.
Part Three: After the War Was Over: The Council vs. The Bureau.
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