Blackfeet History Quotes about Scientific Racism and Ranching
One 1892 account of rainy night grave robbing of fifteen Blackfeet Indian graves is chilling:
I collected them in a way somewhat unusual: the burial place is in plain sight of many Indian houses and very near frequent roads. I had to visit the country at night when not
even the dogs were stirring…after securing one [skull] I had to pass the Indian sentry at
the stockade gate which I never attempted with more than one [skull], for fear of detection.
-Repatriation Reader edited by Devon A. Mihesuah
So despite protestations the government would have issued to the contrary, there can be no escaping one conclusion: Washington did more to hinder than to help the evolution of Indian cattle ranching. To the west on the Blackfeet Reservation, a comparable drama was played out. Although the government introduced cattle by the early 1880s, the overall pattern mirrored a preference for farming over ranching. As it would on many reservations during the era, federal officials persisted with the dream of irrigated farming. Veteran agent James H. Monteath knew futility when he saw it, labeling irrigation projects at Blackfeet in 1900”monuments of misdirected energy, being utterly impracticable.” Either planning was inadequate, or the Indians did not want the irrigation, or if they did, so did intruding whites.
Not all Blackfeet had an equal chance at getting a start in the cattle business. Washington preferred that cattle be given to “deserving Indians,” and not all, apparently, fell into that category. Those who obtained the federally bestowed animals, which bore the “ID” (Indian Department) brand, had other offers. Non-Indians waved cash, marriage proposals, and other enticements to lure Blackfeet into providing pasturage. As of 1903, of the 20,000 head of cattle, only 5,000 had “full-blood” owners.
Moreover, while advocating Indian farming and ranching, government officials did not back away from a continuing program of land allotment. Even though by 1917 it had been a demonstrable disaster on reservations all over the western United States, such overwhelming evidence did not stop the onrushing engine of allotment. Allotment by definition mitigated against successful cattle ranching. How could a rancher survive in western Montana on 160 acres? Bureau employees dutifully bought 1,880 head of cattle for the Blackfeet in 1915, and that number had grown to 4,300 two years later. But allotment followed by drought and bitter winters from 1917 to 1920 made for a mean combination that decimated tribal ranching. Efforts to revive the industry in the 1920s and 1930s would face long odds.
One 1892 account of rainy night grave robbing of fifteen Blackfeet Indian graves is chilling:
I collected them in a way somewhat unusual: the burial place is in plain sight of many Indian houses and very near frequent roads. I had to visit the country at night when not
even the dogs were stirring…after securing one [skull] I had to pass the Indian sentry at
the stockade gate which I never attempted with more than one [skull], for fear of detection.
-Repatriation Reader edited by Devon A. Mihesuah
So despite protestations the government would have issued to the contrary, there can be no escaping one conclusion: Washington did more to hinder than to help the evolution of Indian cattle ranching. To the west on the Blackfeet Reservation, a comparable drama was played out. Although the government introduced cattle by the early 1880s, the overall pattern mirrored a preference for farming over ranching. As it would on many reservations during the era, federal officials persisted with the dream of irrigated farming. Veteran agent James H. Monteath knew futility when he saw it, labeling irrigation projects at Blackfeet in 1900”monuments of misdirected energy, being utterly impracticable.” Either planning was inadequate, or the Indians did not want the irrigation, or if they did, so did intruding whites.
Not all Blackfeet had an equal chance at getting a start in the cattle business. Washington preferred that cattle be given to “deserving Indians,” and not all, apparently, fell into that category. Those who obtained the federally bestowed animals, which bore the “ID” (Indian Department) brand, had other offers. Non-Indians waved cash, marriage proposals, and other enticements to lure Blackfeet into providing pasturage. As of 1903, of the 20,000 head of cattle, only 5,000 had “full-blood” owners.
Moreover, while advocating Indian farming and ranching, government officials did not back away from a continuing program of land allotment. Even though by 1917 it had been a demonstrable disaster on reservations all over the western United States, such overwhelming evidence did not stop the onrushing engine of allotment. Allotment by definition mitigated against successful cattle ranching. How could a rancher survive in western Montana on 160 acres? Bureau employees dutifully bought 1,880 head of cattle for the Blackfeet in 1915, and that number had grown to 4,300 two years later. But allotment followed by drought and bitter winters from 1917 to 1920 made for a mean combination that decimated tribal ranching. Efforts to revive the industry in the 1920s and 1930s would face long odds.
-from When Indians became Cowboys Native peoples and cattle ranching in the American West by Peter Iverson
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