At the moment I'm preparing a reference book for Lulu.com that includes reference material for the Reservation Blackfeet -- that is, Blackfeet people on the Reservation. That means I'm dropping out the nearly half of the people on the tribal rolls who live OFF the reservation.
It also means that I'm dealing wiith matters after about 1855, which is the time the major prairie tribes signed their peace treaty, creating reservations.
A reservation is a default creation, imposed upon the people it is meant for. They didn't ask for "reservations." In Canada they are called "reserves" and in California they are called "ranchos," but even all the ones called "reservations" are quite different in their details. The government of the USA drew boundaries to contain aboriginal peoples in order to free up territory for settlement by immigrating Europeans and to reduce costly cavalry deployments to keep the peace. Mineral deposits and oil were major reasons to push back reservation borders. As I write, and part of the reason for the book I am assembling, is that water rights along the southern border of the Blackfeet Reservation (which is Birch Creek) are now in negotiation to try to sort out state law about water (first person using it has first rights) as opposed to federal law about water (determined by the Winters case to be whatever water is needed for the use designated by the Federal Government when the area was designated as a reservation, a game reserve, or whatever). Tempers are frayed, partly because the state side is highly developed and the agriculture in the area is dependent upon it, but the reservation side has been repeatedly bungled and aborted by federal officials and (more recently) the tribe.
Because reservations in different places and different ecologies were defined according to the ideas of the times over a period of two hundred years, no two of them is alike in terms of economics or governance. Everything has to be negotiated case-by-case. Over the years the lands become valuable in ways no one expected (oil, casinoes, water) but also lose value (global warming, radioactive contamination).
The only answer I can envision is education, knowledge, research. The best "hand" to play is the one with the most cards.
Below is my Table of Contents for relevant material that's hard to find. I may add more essays by myself as explanation. I have been stunned by the amount of material on Google Book Search -- government and academic reports and transcripts that I had no idea existed. They will be hard to find, which is why I've posted notes on some. A few books are hard to read for a high school or tribal college student, so I have supplied notes with the recommendation that the book be tackled after getting a grip on the notes. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
1. Treaty with the Blackfeet
The True Spirit and Original Intent of Treaty 7. Treaty 7 Elders and Tribal Council with Walter Hildebrandt, Dorothy First Rider and Sarah Carter. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1996.
2. Harrison-Fagg Report
Missouri River Basin Investigations Project. THE BLACKFEET RESERVATION AREA--ITS RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT POTENTIAL (Billings, MT: Missouri River Basin Investigations Project, 1972).
3. Fleeing Value of the Rez
Brief history of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, Montana by Ralph M Shane (Unknown Binding - 1966)
Geology and ground-water resources of the Two Medicine irrigation unit and adjacent areas, Blackfeet Indian Reservation, Montana by Q. F Paulson (Unknown Binding - 1965)
1998 special SEED examination report, Lower Two Medicine Dam, Blackfeet Indian Reservation, Montana, Bureau of Indian Affairs by Charles Swanson (Unknown Binding - 1999)
1999 intermediate SEED examination report, Lower Two Medicine Dam, Blackfeet Indian Reservation, Montana, Bureau of Indian Affairs by Jim Bowen (Unknown Binding - 2000)
10 year forest management plan for the Blackfeet Indian Reservation by Pete Sawyer (Unknown Binding - 1994)
Water resources of the Browning-Starr school area, Blackfeet Indian Reservation, northwestern Montana (SuDoc I 19.42/4:97-4134) by M. R. Cannon (Unknown Binding - 1997)
Field inventory of mineral resources, Blackfeet Indian Reservation, Montana (Report BIA) by Michael Sokaski (Unknown Binding - 1980)
Historical report on the Blackfeet Reservation in northern Montana by Thomas R Wessel (Unknown Binding - 1975)
Soil investigation report Columbia Falls-Glacier Park Forest Highway, Summit-Glacier Park section, Route No. 13: Lewis & Clark National Forest and Blackfeet Indian Reservation, Glacier County, Montana by G. E Meyer (Unknown Binding - 1951)
Evaluation of the mountain pine beetle infestation, Blackfeet Indian Reservation and east side Glacier National Park (Montana, 1979) (Forest insect and ... Northern Region. State & Private Forestry) by M. D McGregor (Unknown Binding - 1979)
Report of E.B. Linnen, Chief inspector, dated February 3, 1916: On the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, Montana by Edward Bangs Linnen (Unknown Binding - 1916)
Geology and ground-water resources of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, northwestern Montana (Hydrologic investigations atlas) by Geological Survey (U.S.) (Unknown Binding - 1996)
Socioeconomic influence on Blackfeet Indian education by Dean Jack Jensen (Unknown Binding - 1973)
Economic analysis of the Blackfeet Indian Irrigation Project by John R Glenn (Unknown Binding - 1985)
Economic changes in Montana affecting the Blackfeet by Paul Wallace Gates (Unknown Binding - 1975)
Indian Reserved Water Rights: The Winters Doctrine in Its Social and Legal Context by John Shurts (Paperback - Mar 2003)
4. The Foley Report
5. F.C. Campbell in the GF Tribune, July 1,1906
6. Sherburne School
7. Holy Family Mission
Mission among the Blackfeet. Harold Harrod.
7. “Rebirth of the Blackfeet Nation”
BLACKFEET HERITAGE, 1907-1908. Edited by Roxanne DeMarce. (Browning, MT: Blackfeet Heritage Program, 1980).
1998 BLACKFEET GENEAOLOGY, TREASURES AND GIFTS, edited by Roxanne DeMarce (Browning, MT: Blackfeet Heritage Program, 1980).
MODERN BLACKFEET; MONTANANS ON A RESERVATION, Malcolm McFee. (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1972).
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