In 1906 Congressman Bathrick of Ohio rose to protest Montana Senator Walsh’s bill in a Joint Session of Congress that was crafted to allot the Blackfeet Reservation over the protests of the Indians: “ I am convinced that those behind this bill expect to get in on a very profitable land deal, it seems to me that of all of the many cases of robbery and hardship imposed on the American Indians, that the case of the Blackfeet Indians is the darkest and most shameful.”
Senator Walsh’s bill intended to take 156,000 acres of reclamation, coal, and oil lands of the Blackfeet Indians left over after allotment. Senator Walsh’s allotment bill was a land grab hatched in Congress by grafters to steal Indian land. A Government Inspector reported in 1906,
“ these Indians are worse off than being convicts in a penitentiary with a corrupt warden, but these Indians are not convicts either, and know they are being pushed into a pit of helplessness. “
The BIA superintendent and agency traders conspired to steal Indian annuities and sell the Indians their own goods back at high prices through the agency store. Indian goods sold in the trader’s store ran up debts on the starving Indians that were cashed in as liens on Indian allotments or tax deeds issued by county courts. Coercion led to the forced patent conspiracy.
The Indians knew that they would be starved again and be forced to sell more land to keep from starving to death, and the cycle would begin anew. There were hundreds of landless Blackfeet by 1920. Liens filed by traders amounted to over $100,000 in debts on the Indians and tax deeds filed in county courts severed Indian title to 210,000 acres of the reservation.
Senator Lane’s investigation found the agency superintendent & border whites starving the Indians to force them to sell 156,000 acres under the reclamation, coal and oil fields. Superintendent McFatridge hired a hulking, brutal Montana Territorial Prison convict as agency police chief to throw Indians in the medieval jail. Indians died from beatings, pneumonia and diseases in the unheated jail. It was practically a death sentence to be thrown in the agency jail.
History and language needs to agree with available evidence to reach the truth. The Baker Massacre and Starvation Winter’s real purpose was to take 17,000,000 acres of Blackfoot Confederacy lands for Montana stockmen and gold miners. The border-white success is evident.
The ability of the criminals to execute hundreds of land frauds [fee patents] also exposes their political connection to the Montana Senators in manipulating the plenary powers [absolute powers] of Congress over the Indian’s property for their constituents [white stockmen] benefit.
Legal scholars say that without ‘intent’ there can be no genocide and that’ theft” was never the goal of federal Indian policy, but nevertheless, we the Blackfeet, have had massacre, starvation, land frauds disease, and removal. Was it all just by accident or extermination policy?
The Blackfeet Indians have 605 claims concerning stolen Blackfeet lands and minerals today in which the Interior Department admitted complicity [partnership in crime] in the fee patents and tribal claims. The Blackfeet Tribe has never consented to opening up the Blackfeet Reservation to white settlement, the Indians did not give their consent to accept the fee patents, nor did the Secretary of Interior possess the authority to issue unrestricted fee patents.
We have a winning claim to get our land returned with $300,000,000 [1980 estimate] in just compensation. The claims address disinheritance or lost birthright of Blackfeet Indian heirs in the 605 forced patents, 37 secretarial transfers [sales] of heir ship lands, pilfering of deceased Indian trust accounts, trespass to property and illegal rights of way.
Blackfeet heirs lost millions of dollars in their BIA IIM accounts. The past leader did not think of his duty to preserve the Blackfeet lands, and called the thefts a bureau [BIA] problem, even to all of the small allotments that add up to all of the land we will ever possess. Tribal leaders should think of their duty to the Blackfeet Nation, and the debt we owe to our relatives for sufferings and deaths in an ultimate sacrifice to leave their trust lands for their grandchildren.
Senator Walsh’s bill intended to take 156,000 acres of reclamation, coal, and oil lands of the Blackfeet Indians left over after allotment. Senator Walsh’s allotment bill was a land grab hatched in Congress by grafters to steal Indian land. A Government Inspector reported in 1906,
“ these Indians are worse off than being convicts in a penitentiary with a corrupt warden, but these Indians are not convicts either, and know they are being pushed into a pit of helplessness. “
The BIA superintendent and agency traders conspired to steal Indian annuities and sell the Indians their own goods back at high prices through the agency store. Indian goods sold in the trader’s store ran up debts on the starving Indians that were cashed in as liens on Indian allotments or tax deeds issued by county courts. Coercion led to the forced patent conspiracy.
The Indians knew that they would be starved again and be forced to sell more land to keep from starving to death, and the cycle would begin anew. There were hundreds of landless Blackfeet by 1920. Liens filed by traders amounted to over $100,000 in debts on the Indians and tax deeds filed in county courts severed Indian title to 210,000 acres of the reservation.
Senator Lane’s investigation found the agency superintendent & border whites starving the Indians to force them to sell 156,000 acres under the reclamation, coal and oil fields. Superintendent McFatridge hired a hulking, brutal Montana Territorial Prison convict as agency police chief to throw Indians in the medieval jail. Indians died from beatings, pneumonia and diseases in the unheated jail. It was practically a death sentence to be thrown in the agency jail.
History and language needs to agree with available evidence to reach the truth. The Baker Massacre and Starvation Winter’s real purpose was to take 17,000,000 acres of Blackfoot Confederacy lands for Montana stockmen and gold miners. The border-white success is evident.
The ability of the criminals to execute hundreds of land frauds [fee patents] also exposes their political connection to the Montana Senators in manipulating the plenary powers [absolute powers] of Congress over the Indian’s property for their constituents [white stockmen] benefit.
Legal scholars say that without ‘intent’ there can be no genocide and that’ theft” was never the goal of federal Indian policy, but nevertheless, we the Blackfeet, have had massacre, starvation, land frauds disease, and removal. Was it all just by accident or extermination policy?
The Blackfeet Indians have 605 claims concerning stolen Blackfeet lands and minerals today in which the Interior Department admitted complicity [partnership in crime] in the fee patents and tribal claims. The Blackfeet Tribe has never consented to opening up the Blackfeet Reservation to white settlement, the Indians did not give their consent to accept the fee patents, nor did the Secretary of Interior possess the authority to issue unrestricted fee patents.
We have a winning claim to get our land returned with $300,000,000 [1980 estimate] in just compensation. The claims address disinheritance or lost birthright of Blackfeet Indian heirs in the 605 forced patents, 37 secretarial transfers [sales] of heir ship lands, pilfering of deceased Indian trust accounts, trespass to property and illegal rights of way.
Blackfeet heirs lost millions of dollars in their BIA IIM accounts. The past leader did not think of his duty to preserve the Blackfeet lands, and called the thefts a bureau [BIA] problem, even to all of the small allotments that add up to all of the land we will ever possess. Tribal leaders should think of their duty to the Blackfeet Nation, and the debt we owe to our relatives for sufferings and deaths in an ultimate sacrifice to leave their trust lands for their grandchildren.
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