Monday, August 30, 2010

The Social Contract Quotes

The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes
The right of conquest has no other foundation than the law of the strongest. And if war gives the conqueror no right to massacre a conquered people, no such right can be invoked to justify their enslavement.
To renounce freedom is to renounce one’s humanity, one’s rights as a man and equally one’s duties.

Victor Frankl Quote

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: The last of human freedoms-to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to chose one’s own way.
-Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Bureau of Indian Affairs Officials Testimony

Bureau of Indian Affairs Officials testimony on Monday, December 17, 1979 concerning the pre-1966 claims of the Indians before the U.S. Senate, Select Committee on Indian Affairs purpose was “To determine the status of the work of the Department of the Interior and Department of Justice in identifying and processing claims of the Indians that arose before 1966.” The BIA had “confessed” to complicity in the aforementioned land frauds in another hearing on March 13, 1979 after evidence pointed toward BIA complicity in the issuance of patents in fee to the Indians. BIA officials told the committee “you hear stories that there are thousands upon thousands of claims out in the misty mountains.” And, they said “BIA Records are stored all over creation.” BIA officials felt the claims had “grown stale.”
The BIA testified “the claims program will affect a significant number of [white] citizens in this country because, in many cases, we are looking at the prospects of regaining title to [Indian] property, and many of these [white] individuals through no fault of their own, are holding void titles.” The BIA testimony glosses over massive Indian land frauds that have driven the Indians to abject poverty for generations, and will continue to do so until the Indians get justice. It is like testifying on the Nazi Genocide in World War II without mentioning the consequences of the Jewish Holocaust.
The BIA aired the issue of heirship problems and thousands of Indian descendants unidentified, as though they were lost somewhere in America and could not be found [relocated to Chicago, perhaps] and then they revealed to the committee that these Indians are potential claimants too, and “our responsibility to them is legal and must be met.” The BIA testified that if the claims did not survive the statute of limitations, there would be a suit against the U.S. Government as trustee for failure to carry out a fiduciary obligation; a breach of the trust obligation to bring an action on their [Indians] behalf.” The BIA was not going down alone, by God!
What happened to the Indian claims since 1980? It remains after one hundred years of the date of the original land frauds and thirty years after the hearings, [1979] that the State of Maine and other white defendants, states, counties, corporations, companies, and individuals have had their land titles secured, but Indian land title claims remain in jeopardy. The BIA policy of ignoring Indian issues, leaving Indian property not dealt with, hoping it will go away, remains in force to date. I think the BIA-Interior Department is trying to or has accomplished the dirty dealing of eliminating dormant pre-1966 Indian title claims in current settlements in the IIM cases and the state-tribal water compact settlements. That is one issue for the Indian lawyers to look into and resolve to give us grassroots Indians an idea of what it is we are agreeing to in the IIM and state-tribal water compact settlements. The IIM lawyers appear to be more interested in settling their $100,000,000 fees. The Indians got the loose pocket change the Congress dropped from its Indian claims fund to placate Cobell et al. Will $1,000 replace your title?
What are the consequences of land frauds on Indian allotments and oil wells? In my opinion, it reaches the level of political and economic genocide of Indian sovereignty and treaty rights usurped by the border-states and border-whites. The BIA admit their entire administrative organization has lost jurisdiction and control over the most potent natural factor in the control of the use of the range as a result of the loss of Patent in Fee lands and the subsequent loss of control of water holes on Indian reservations.
There is not enough Indian grazing land left in blocks big enough to administer, and the fragments are leased by white ranchers, leaving the Indian landowners with minimal payments. The BIA is managing air. The alienated lands [Patent in Fee] to an extent far out of proportion to the allotted acreage control the watering places for stock. In the livestock wars of the early west, the control of watering places was the principle point at issue and it is this control of water today that is just as important and as essential to the efficient utilization of range lands.
The highly decentralized ownership of allotted lands is the “obstacle against which any but the most elastic and readily adaptable plan of grazing will shatter itself and become ineffective.” BIA grazing management plans are “obscured by the very pressing problem of the unified administration of a block of land divided by ownership into thousands of separate parcels.” The expression Grazing Management used in an industrial sense, presupposes the existence of a relatively large tract of land to which supervision can be given toward obtaining continued production and utilization of forage crops.
The Patent in Fee lands [stolen allotted Indian lands] are scattered over the entire reservation, every township having two or more Patent in Fee allotments. The land status maps also indicate a pronounced tendency for the more valuable areas, particularly along water courses, to pass into a Patent in Fee status ahead of the less desirable, drier areas. “This indicates a desire on the part of the white stock owner to acquire title to the watering places to be used in connection with the leasing of adjoining [allotted] range lands. As is indicated by a study of the location of the Patent in Fee lands in relation to the areas under grazing leases, the owners of alienated lands [white ranchers] are in a position to greatly influence and in some cases to absolutely control the use of adjoining allotted range lands.”
The white ranchers and farmers lands, on account of the Patent in Fees, and the available range lands of the Indians, is distinctly a range livestock county within reservation boundaries and as such may be considered a distinct economic territory. This situation is apartheid in nature and practice to separate indigenous people from their land and rights in their own country. The border-white’s goal is to oppress Indians politically and economically through genocidal history. The livestock figures show that the livestock industry of the white ranchers on reservations annually produce three and one half times the income of their nearest county competitor because of the Patent in Fee lands and monopoly of adjacent Indian ranges.
The Indians were promised in treaty, separate lands free of state taxation and state jurisdiction, and free of speculators on Indian land. The treaty doesn’t say Blackfeet Indians and “white ranchers” reservation; it is the “Blackfeet Indian Reservation.” Recently uncovered government documents reveal the physical genocide attempts of Montana border-whites to “exterminate” the Blackfeet Indians for their property. Time ran out on the border-whites physical genocide era [the Indians survived] and then came the social, cultural, economic, and political genocide of Indian people and human rights violations by the border-states and border-whites manipulating the plenary powers of Congress for their economic benefit.
The Indians remain in political and economic bondage to border-whites and under control of border-states today. The Cobell IIM cases and the state-tribal water compact settlements have the potential to extinguish Indian title claims forever by agreeing to money settlements without considering the land frauds and state political oppression of the Indians. The lawyers and Cobell don’t understand the damage they are doing to legitimate Indian title claims for the return of Indian property by pursuing “ambulance chaser” claims for money settlements, but isn’t that what lawyers do?
We want our treaty land titles back as any sensible robbery victim would say, and we want our lost revenues to that resource compensated and we want the border-states and border-whites removed from Indian reservations. We need a “leave us alone law.” This is racketeering. The machinery of the federal government, the President, the Congress and the Supreme Court, gears locked in the question of Indian justice.
We need national Indian lobbyists to call for Congress to re-settle the Indians on their own lands and to remove the border-whites to their own reservations [state lands] and we need to hold IIM Indian claims and state-tribal water compact settlements in abeyance until the Indian land title is restored and the white ranchers “void” titles removed from the reservation.
The estimates of the losses in Indian title and tort claims cases reaches 17,000 individual and tribal claims and 10,000,000 acres of allotted Indian land nationwide. The title issues are to regain title to Indian property.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Political oppression of the Blackfeet Indians by Glacier County and Others

Political oppression of the Blackfeet Indians by Glacier County and Others
By Bob Juneau-August, 2010
Indian authors and educators agree in the main that Indians are the most lied about and lied to group in America. Why is that true? In all cases the truth told in Indian history will lead the reader to the truth of dispossession of Indian land by whites. There it is, the whole truth, nothing but the truth; a truth covered up by the public school curriculum across the United States to keep the Indians ignorant of their political history with the state of Montana.
“Old Myths Never Die-They Just Become Embedded In Textbooks”- title by Thomas Bailey. Why is that true? This is called “blaming the victims” to justify the invasion of Indian treaty lands by whites for the purpose of dispossessing the Indians of their land and cattle industry. The attempted genocide of the Black-Feet Indians by Montana Militia and Governor Meagher in Montana Territory is documented by Agent Wright’s Report to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in September, 1867. What was their justification? Governor Meagher was an Irish immigrant to the United States, who wished to “exterminate” the Black-Feet Indians in order to “settle” Irish immigrants on Black-Foot Confederacy lands held by treaty with the United States. The Montana border-whites brought massacre, starvation, small pox, whiskey trade, removal, and finally assimilation to the Black-Feet Indians. The Board of Indian Commissioners appointed by President Grant called the Montana border-whites murderers, robbers, and thieves of the Indian people lives and land. President Grant noted the Montana Territory capital was located in the center of Blackfoot Confederacy lands still held by treaty with the United States. The gold miners at Fort Benton killed Black-Foot Indians on sight and scalped the murdered Indian victims and brought the scalps into the town. The miners were digging gold mines in the Sweet Grass Hills twenty years before the Blackfeet were starved into ceding the land to avoid starvation in 1887.
The reservation was reduced by the curse of the Montana border-whites invasion of Blackfeet treaty lands, and their calls for extermination of the Indians. The priests recorded the white man’s killing and robbing of the Blackfeet Indians, “approaching the reservation daily, pushing the Indians, even up to the mountains.” This is the truth about the early history of Blackfoot Confederacy-Montana Territory political history.

Montana border-white’s invasion of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation
The failure of the Montana border-whites to “exterminate” the Black-Foot Indians and bring Irish immigrants to “settle” Blackfoot Confederacy lands held by treaty ignores the existing treaty rights of the Blackfeet Indians to a separate reservation, free of white rule [state jurisdiction and tax free lands] and led to the BIA-white land grafters conspiracy to break up the common lands of the Indians into individual parcels. The allotment of the Blackfeet reservation caused by a 1907 Blackfeet allotment bill introduced in Congress by Senator Walsh of Montana made it easier to rob the Indians one by one absent the protection of the tribe. The forced fee patents took away the Blackfoot common grazing lands held by treaty and allotments of land in severalty were issued on the reservation by Interior Department instructions and was the final step in the political oppression planned by the state of Montana for the Indians demise. The Indians were now dependent on the BIA for protection.
The white stockmen target the Blackfeet grazing lands for land frauds
To understand the political oppression of the Blackfeet Indians, the reader must look at it from a business standpoint, and the object of allotment of the breaking up of the common grazing lands of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation held by the 1896 Agreement/Article Five. The grazing management plan for the Blackfeet cattle ranchers must now include the problem of the unified administration of a block of land divided by ownership of 3,600 separate Indian parcels of land known as allotments in severalty. The self-supporting tribal cattle ranching industry supported by the common grazing tracts reserved for the cattle ranchers and recognized in the agreement is now destroyed by Senator Walsh’s Blackfeet allotment bill in 1907. This is called the manipulation of the plenary powers [absolute] of Congress over the Blackfeet trust property and economic lives of the Blackfeet Indians by Montana politicians for the benefit of their constituents [Glacier County white stockmen]. There is no Blackfeet cattle ranchers “grazing management plan” without the existence of the large tract of reserved grazing lands held by treaty on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.
Blackfeet reservation base prior to Glacier County invasion in 1919
1929 reports showed the reservation with a gross area of 1,492,042.44 acres, containing 1,440,000 acres of allotted land, approximately 20% of which has been alienated through the process of issuing Patents in Fee to the allottees [Enrolled Blackfeet Tribal members] and through the sale of heirship allotments [Secretarial transfers-pre-1966 Indian Money Damage claims].
The situation is further complicated by the fact that the 285,000 acres of alienated lands [Blackfeet allotments stolen by white stockmen and farmers], to an extent far out of proportion to the acreage involved, control the watering places for stock. This control of water is the most important factor in the stock business in relation to the utilization of the range. In the livestock wars of the early west, the control of watering holes was the principle point at issue and this control of water today is just as important and as essential to the efficient utilization of range lands.
Transfer of BIA jurisdiction to Glacier County rule of the range lands
The local BIA Agency transfer of title from trust to fee caused loss of control and use of the Blackfeet range units to Glacier County under tax deeds and void title to white stockmen. The highly decentralized ownership of the former commonly owned reserved grazing tracts guaranteed to the Blackfeet cattle ranchers in the 1896 Agreement/Article Five shattered the self-sufficient Blackfeet cattle ranching economy. At this point in tribal development the tribal land base was losing 6,000 acres per year to Patents in Fee, representing over 20% of the gross area of allotted land. This Patent in Fee land is scattered over the entire reservation, every township having two or more Patent in Fee allotments, containing the most valuable lands well watered along water courses, to pass into white ownership by forced fee patents. The Indians were assigned the drier lands, less desirable for livestock raising [camels, perhaps]. The white stock owner thusly indicated his desire to acquire title to the watering places to be used in connection with the leasing of adjoining Indian range lands for ten cents an acre. This gives the white stockmen and landowners the absolute control and the use of adjoining range lands of the Blackfeet allottees. The third-party agreements existent in BIA leasing regulations and under the table secret leasing agreements between the white stockmen and tribal members who ranch from the BIA Range office leave the Indian landowner with minimal return on his property. Fractionalization of the inherited lands and BIA leasing regulations prohibit active participation of landowners except to sign documents.


Back to the past to reach 1896 treaty goals and economic self-sufficiency
Contrary to the good judgment and broad understanding shown in the agreement cited, practically the entire reservation has been allotted in severalty to the individual Indians. The resultant decentralization of ownership is now and in all probability will continue to be a very serious obstacle to efficient land utilization and effective grazing management. The larger open plains is generally considered to be an ideal cattle country and the narrow strip along the western boundary is more suitable for sheep as the terrain is rough and the feed largely browse and weeds.
Detailed study of conditions regarding ownership of patent in fee lands
A cursory look at the conditions of the reservation land ownership of patent in fee lands within the boundaries of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation will indicate the need for securing a permanent income from the ownership of trust allotments. The recommendations made can only be carried out by the legislative process of extinguishing all void fee simple titles on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation to reach the goals of the 1896 Agreement with the United States to complete the sovereign bargain to the Blackfeet Indians.
The Blackfeet Chiefs are pointing the way to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee to restore the Blackfeet Indians out of political oppression of the Territory and State of Montana to Blackfeet political and economic Independence guaranteed by treaty.
The Blackfeet cattle rancher’s re-settlement and the title restoration and just compensation to the Blackfeet allottees will complete the sovereign bargain between the Blackfeet Tribe and the United States.








Friday, August 27, 2010

The Social Contract Quote

The Social Contract Quote
Those who think themselves the master of others are indeed greater slaves than they.
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Louis C. Matt

1907-08. Census of the Blackfeet Reservation with Historical Annotations by
Robert J. Ege

Compiled at Great Falls, Montana 1969.

Louis C. Matt (Cont.)
Father: Louis Telier, white, deceased.
Parents: unknown.
Mother: Angeline Telier, living on Flathead.
Father and mother are Pend Oreilles
Brothers and sisters: Mary Beauchamp, wife of Joe Neauchamp: Mary Ashley,
Wife of Peter Ashley; Claforce Telier, Theodore Telier and Isaac Telier.
Louis C. Matt married Angeline Ogden 29 years ago on the Flathead Reserve by a priest.
He then found out she had a former husband about nine years ago. He separated from her in 1890. Louis has lived with Angeline since 1893. He had the priest marry them in June
1907 on South Fork of Cut Bank Creek. The priests are investigating the first marriage with a view of having it annulled.
(Damn strange about these Indian-Catholic arrangements. It appears that it was perfectly alright and acceptable for white males of the Catholic faith to live with Indian women out of wedlock – but, be a bit careful of marrying one who has been previously wed.
R. J, H.)
Children by Adeline (Angeline): Alice Matt, 14 years; Francis Matt, 12 years; Lena Agnes Matt, 10 years; Albert Matt, 8 years; Theodore Matt, 6 years; Esther Matt, 2 years and George Matt, born January 13, 1909.
Lives on South Fork of Cut Bank Creek – last 11 years.
Louis came to Blackfeet Reservation 13 years ago. Was here at the time of the Treaty of 1895 – 96 and was recognized here. He is on the rolls here as are his children. He came over from the Flathead thinking this was where he had to establish his rights.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

For Everyone who views this Blog get a free copy of Blackfeet Sorrow

For everyone who views this blog you can get a free copy of my book Blackfeet Sorrow by sending me your e-mail address. I promise you your address will be used for no other purpose than sending you a copy of my book Blackfeet Sorrow. In return please consider sending me a donation some time in the future. My e-mail address is blkftpatriot@yahoo.com. And if you want to send me a donation my address is 2308 W. Foothills Dr. Apt.2 Missoula, MT 59803. Thanks!

Statute of Limitations Extension

STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS EXTENSION
Monday, December 17, 1979
U.S. Senate, Select Committee on Indian Affairs, Washington D.C.
The committee met pursuant to notice at 10:15 a.m., in room 1202, Dirksen Senate Office Building,
Senator John Melcher (chairman of the committee) presiding.
Present: Senators Melcher, Inouye, DeConcini, Hatfield, and Cohen.
Staff present: Max Richtman, staff director; Peter Taylor, special counsel; Virginia Boyland, staff attorney; John Mulkey, professional staff member; and Michael Cox, minority counsel.
Senator Hatfield [acting chairman] The purpose of the hearing this morning is to determine the status of work of the Department of the Interior and the Department of Justice in identifying and processing claims of Indians and individuals that arose before 1966.
Prior to 1966, there was no limitation on the time in which the United States could bring an action for damages either for itself or on behalf of an Indian tribe. In 1966, the Congress enacted 28 U.S.C. 2415 to establish a time limit of 6 years for claims based on contracts and 3 years for damage claims for most torts. Six years was allowed for trespass or conversion damages affecting lands. There is no limit on time for actions to establish title to lands. In 1972, at the request of the Departments of Interior and Justice, this statute of limitations was amended to extend by 5 years the time in which the United States could bring an action on behalf of an Indian tribe or individual for a claim arising before 1966. In 1977, this statute was again extended by 2 ½ years to April 1, 1980. The purpose of these extensions was to allow Interior and Justice to identify and process outstanding Indian claims and provide some for negotiations of settlements outside of court, where possible.

[What is the current status-August 25, 2010, of 28 U.S.C. 2415, Individual Indian, Pre-1966 Blackfeet Allottee-tribal claims to title not subject to statute of limitations and related tort claims subject to statute of limitations?]

There are 1,200 total estimated Blackfeet tribal members forced fee claims and other identified claims on the Official List of BIA Forced Fee Patents issued on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation by the Blackfeet Agency BIA].

The Interior Department and Bureau of Indian Affairs officials expressed concern for white people holding “void” title to allotted lands on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation: “The Bureau of Indian Affairs acknowledges that many of the claims are dealing with regaining [Blackfeet] title to property under circumstances in which defendants through no fault of their own are holding by void title,[statement not true as whites on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation obtained their title to Blackfeet allotments and minerals through the illegal cancellation of Blackfeet trust patents by BIA officials in the forced fee patents conspiracy to allow local white land grafters to place liens and county taxes on the trust lands of the Blackfeet Indians].
“The title issues in these claims [forced patents, secretarial transfers, and old age claims] are not subject to the statute of limitations as are the tort claims.”

Many prospective defendants are Indians. Other prospective defendants are immune from suit, such as Indian tribes and the federal government. In some instances defendants are corporate entities [Great Northern Railroad, James J. Hill, Louis Hill, The Texas Company [Texaco], The Sherburne Mercantile Company of Browning, Montana, the Browning Mercantile Company, the state, county, individuals, corporations and companies.].

ORIGINS OF THE BIA-INTERIOR DEPARTMENT, JUSTICE DEPARTMENT STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS PROGRAM

STATEMENT OF FOREST GERARD, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR INDIAN AFFAIRS, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, BEFORE THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS OF THE UNITED STATES SENATE OVERSIGHT HEARING, DECEMBER 17, 1979.
“Mr. Chairman and Members of the committee, it is a pleasure to appear before you to discuss matters relating to the statute of limitations claims program. I would like, in my testimony today, to describe the scope of the task, our efforts to carry out the task, and some of the problems we have encountered since the extension was granted in 1977.
I will not burden you with a detailed background of the program. That history has been stated in the various reports relating to previous extensions. It will be helpful, however, to mention some points that may place in proper perspective the situation that we face today.
The program began developing after July 28, 1966 the date of the statute of limitations first went into effect. The statute limited to six years the time in which the United States, in carrying out its trust responsibility to Indians, could sue third parties for damages to the property of Indians arising out of tort or contract. In 1972 the six-year limitation was extended five more years, or until July 28, 1977, as to claims which accrued before July 28, 1966, the date of the first act.
In 1977, in testimony before this committee on the then pending extension bill, we stated that we had identified several hundred pre-1966 claims, and that we anticipated well over a thousand nationwide. We were then given a two-year and 8-month extension, until April 1, 1980.
For fiscal 1978, we went as far as we could with existing resources. The Department formulated a comprehensive plan of action during FY 1978 and aggressively sought funds to implement such a plan. Immediately after extension was granted, work began on the formulation of a claims processing plan and on the preparation of a budget request. By February 1978 the plan was initiated with existing resources at the field level with an intensive training phase. The plan included claims processing procedures, time limits, direction on communication channels, recommended forms, suggested publicity, and improved liaison with the Justice Department. Our plan was put into action during FY 1978, and while we did process some of our backlog it was clear we needed funding if we were to meet the needs of the claims problem.
[Note from Bob Juneau: This is a common tactic used by politicians and government officials to deny funding for issues feared by politicians or to cover up legitimate claims against the government for depredations of Indian property committed by whites and corporations and states, and by who ever. Sometimes that whoever leaks over into tribal affairs such as the stonewalling and threats local BIA superintendent and tribal chairman Old Person used on us in 1980, to keep the Blackfeet forced fee patents claims “under wraps.”]
[Blackfeet history note: In the early part of 1914 Superintendent McFatridge acted to encourage the Indians to agree to the sale of the reclamation lands and oil fields on the Blackfeet reservation declared “surplus lands” by the Interior Department after the first allotment of reservation lands held in common in 1907. A tribal meeting elected Robert Hamilton, Wolf Chief, Young Man Chief, and Big Plume to go to Washington D.C. to represent the tribe, but McFatridge wrote the Commissioner of Indian Affairs asking him to deny the Indians delegation because they were against the land sale. A month later he arranged a delegation of his “own” that included the most prosperous half-breeds [1/64th Indians]. Inspector Linnen reported at a general meeting of the Blackfeet Indians, attended by over 300 Indians, all but 8 voted against the sale of the northeast portion of the reservation containing oil fields and irrigated reclamation lands, and among these eight half-breeds are said by the other Indians to be profiting from the use of Indian lands not their own or to be acting in harmony with the wishes of the whites who desire to acquire such lands. These eight half-breeds owned 95% of the cattle on the reservation by their political influence with bureau officials, while McFatridge leased the Indian allotments for 10 cents an acre to local white stockmen. The full-blood cattle ranchers, prosperous men before the conspiracy, now were in the breadline with the others for their generous sharing of their cattle herds to feed their starving neighbors, it being a custom among them to share their food down to the last bite.
Senator Walsh of Montana and the Interior Department then introduced a bill in Congress to allot the reservation and open up the surplus lands left over after allotment to white settlement. Commercial clubs in Cut Bank, Conrad, Shelby, Great Falls, Valier, and Choteau wrote impassioned letters of support for the land sale saying how good it would be for the Indians to sell their farm lands to the whites. To their chagrin and embarrassment in 1919 the entire reservation was allotted leaving no surplus lands for the border-whites, and so the border-whites and BIA crooks began the forced fee patent conspiracy to defraud the Blackfeet Indians of their land and oil wells, which claims we are still fighting today]
[Statement of Forest Gerard Continued] Specific funding to implement our statute of limitations claims program was first provided for FY 1979. Just as we were launching our program at the beginning of FY79 we were slowed for six months by a hiring freeze. When the thaw came in March it left us with about a year to process a then existing inventory of about a thousand claims. In addition our plans called for an all-out search for unidentified claims and the referral of all worthwhile claims to the Department of Justice no later than November 30, 1979. The reason for the November date was that the Department of Justice needed at least 4 months to prepare and file the claims in court. By December, 1979 there were 9,768 claims identified potential claims and another 5,000 claims in the field not yet inventoried.
Our claims program has affected a significant number of our citizens in this country. In many instances hardships may result as a result of our suits. In many of these same instances we are dealing with regaining title to property under circumstances in which defendants through no fault are holding by void title. [void title in the forced fee patents means the border-white’s titles to the Blackfeet allotments have “no legal force or effect, is without legal efficacy.” Peter Taylor, the senate committee lawyer told us in 1980 that the border-white’s land titles on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation were Interior Department land certificates canceling Indian title and not worth the paper they were written on. This means that only the political power of the State of Montana and BIA-tribal council stonewalling complicity [partnership in crime] holds in place the fraudulent Blackfeet titles held by reservation whites.] The titles in these claims are not subject to the statute of limitations as are the tort issues.
Many prospective defendants are Indians. Other prospective defendants are immune from suit, such as Indian tribes and the Federal Government. In some instances defendants are corporate entities.
In any case, under the time constraints we face, we are unable to give the vulnerable defendants time to work out amicable settlements. [In 1980 the Committee lawyer, Peter Taylor, told us the committee would probably settle with the Blackfeet by restoring all of their land titles and oil wells and $300,000,000 in settlement compensation, but no! Chairman Earl Old Person and the tribal council went with the BIA and stonewalled our claims and ran us out of tribal government]. Forest Gerard continued his testimony: “The United States, of course, has a trust responsibility to the heirs of trust patentees and deceased Indian claimants just as it does to recognized tribes, bands or groups.” The Blackfeet Allottees and tribal cattle ranchers Agree!






Sunday, August 22, 2010

President Richard Nixon Special Message to Congress on Indian Affairs (1970) Quote

PRESIDENT RICHARD NIXON SPECIAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS ON INDIAN AFFAIRS
(1970) QUOTE

The special relationship between Indians and the Federal government is the result instead of solemn obligations
which have been entered into by the United States Government. Down through the years, through written treaties and
through formal and informal agreements, our government has made specific commitments to the Indian people. For
their part, the Indians have often surrendered claims to vast tracts of land and have accepted life on government
reservations. In exchange, the government has agreed to provide community services such as health, education and
public safety, services which would presumably allow Indian communities to enjoy a standard of living comparable
to that of other Americans.
This goal, of course has never been achieved. But the special relationship between the Indian tribes and the
Federal government which arises from these agreements continue to carry immense moral and legal force. To
Terminate this relationship would be no more appropriate than to terminate the citizenship rights of any other
American.

Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire Quotes

PEDAGOGY OF THE OPPRESSED BY PAULO FREIRE QUOTES
To affirm that men and women are persons and as persons should be free and yet to do
nothing tangible to make this affirmation a reality, is a farce.

One of the gravest obstacles to the achievement of liberation is that oppressive reality absorbs
those within it and thereby acts to submerge human beings’ consiousness. Functionally, oppression
is domesticating. To no longer be prey to its force, one must emerge from it and turn upon it.
This can be done only by means of the praxis(practice): reflection and action upon the world in order
to transform it.

The Stonewalling of the Blackfeet Claims

THE STONEWALLING OF THE BLACKFEET CLAIMS

Why does the tribal council continue to stonewall the tribal claims?

The introduction of true Blackfeet history even today will help you to set a true course for your self in life, but a false Blackfeet history makes your past distorted and your future uncertain. If we knew our history, we would know better than to believe the BIA in anything they say or do, or to trust the white man ever. We would know that the Blackfeet Indian Reorganization Act tribal council has robbed the Blackfeet people since 1936 when they were created by the Congress and Interior Department to replace the traditional Blackfeet leaders. These were tribal politicians looking for a good time and to gather personal wealth and tribal political power in a can. It was a change in tribal leadership in that any tribal bum or crook could suddenly be made tribal leader. They became rich, successful tribal council bums and crooks.
The BIA Tribal Assimilation Policy meant corruption in tribal affairs, and it led to the disintegration of tribal society. The tribal chairman filled his own pockets, and his dog ate steaks under the Indian Reorganization Act tribal council. The traditional Blackfeet leaders sacrificed their own prosperity to save the Blackfeet reservation from the border-whites. They were forced by the BIA and local whites to eat skunks and 100 Indians starved by 1913.
The comparison of traditional tribal leadership to Indian Reorganization Act tribal council leadership is the difference between great leaders to convicts. It is a BIA wrought miracle that in the whole history of the I.R.A. tribal council no council member ever went to federal prison for stealing tribal and federal funds. If we didn’t know our true tribal history that would tell us we have had honest leaders in tribal government.
Now, let us examine the conduct of the supreme leader of the Blackfeet Nation, Chief and former Chairman Earl Old Person, who has led the tribal council since 1980. There were robber barons before he came along and I suspect he was taught the ropes by these crooked tribal leaders, but he for sure carried it onward. The most damaging crime against one’s government is treason, and it is treason to stonewall the legitimate tribal and allotted claims of the Blackfeet people. This is the crime of Earl Old Person. His acts are a curse to the conduct of traditional Blackfeet leaders who filled our tribal history with examples of integrity, statesmanship, and courage at the point of death and at their own personal peril and poverty. They spent their own scarce money to travel to Washington D.C. to present the tribal claims, over the threats of the BIA and local white crooks. We are trying to carry on that tradition, but the tribal council does not see it that way under Old Person’s continuing influence and example.
The former Blackfeet chairmen Allen Talks About and Bill Old Chief supported our claims and sent us to Washington D.C. with the claims, and other tribal council members supported us such as Jim St. Goddard, Smiley Kittson, Betty Cooper, Leland Ground and Leonard Mountain Chief, but it was always Earl Old Person that was re-elected and cancelled our claims.
He knows the political system but has used his knowledge to suppress the Blackfeet claims for the BIA and white men since 1980. I hope his influence leaves the tribal office for good; it is evil treason and unspeakable vices.
Today we have found a new file that has the original Blackfeet allottees list.

1907-1908 CENSUS OF THE BLACKFEET RESERVATION ALLOTMENT OF 320 ACRES TO EACH OF 2,623 TRIBAL MEMBERS

This file has the names of the original 2,623 Blackfeet Tribal Members who received allotments. The Census was successful in determining eligibility of the people of the Blackfeet Nation to receive allotments, and for the most part, establish their heredity and genealogy. The 1907-1908 Census listed many of the old chieftains that made up the traditional tribal governance under the Blackfoot Confederacy. Their lands are among the stolen allotments.

RESEARCH NEEDS:
1. List of Blackfeet allottees 1907-1908
2. Heredity and genealogy of the Blackfeet Indians-1907-1908
3. Estimated 5,000 pages, copying costs @ .25 per page
4. Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs Hearings documents on BIA “confession” to complicity in Blackfeet forced fee patents
5. Research costs @ $1,500 for researcher
TOTAL ESTIMATED BUDGET COSTS: $3,000

PLEASE REQUEST THE TRIBAL COUNCIL TO FUND OUR EFFORTS AND TO STOP THE STONEWALLING OF THE FORCED FEE PATENTS CLAIMS. THERE ARE DOCUMENTS IN THE DENVER FEDERAL RECORDS CENTER ON THE PATENTS AND ON THE BLACKFEET CATTLE RANCH FAMILIES THAT WERE DESTROYED BY THE BIA RECLAMATION SERVICE AND WHITE STOCKMEN IN VIOLATION OF THE 1896 AGREEMENT/ARTICLE FIVE. WE ARE TRYING TO RESETTLE OUR PEOPLE ON THEIR OWN LANDS.

Charles N. Pray Collection

CHARLES N. PRAY COLLECTION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA-MANSFIELD LIBRARY-MISSOULA CAMPUS,

BLACKFEET FEDERAL COURT CASES SUPPORTING TRIBAL SOVEREIGNTY AND THE RESERVATION OF TRUST ALLOTMENTS AND MINERALS TO THE UNITED STATES FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE BLACKFEET TRIBE OF INDIANS

Blackfeet Forced Fee Patents

U.S. V. GLACIER COUNTY, et al, The judge’s decision ruled that the Blackfeet lands were to be held by the [federal] government for a period of twenty-five years and to be free from [state] taxation during that period, but that within two years after the issuance of the [Blackfeet] trust patents, the government [BIA] under a statute hereinafter referred to, issued patents in fee to the [Blackfeet] Indians without any application therefore by the Indians, and without their consent. Thereafter the [Blackfeet] lands were listed for taxation in Glacier County and the [Blackfeet] Indian owners were required to pay [county] taxes. Some of the Indians defaulted in the payment of [county] taxes and later the county obtained tax titles to their lands. Why the patents in fee were issued in such numbers and under such circumstances before two years of the trust period had expired does not clearly appear [These were the BIA forced fee patents land frauds we are still fighting today]. However, all of these patents in fee were later cancelled under acts of Congress of Feb. 26, 1927 (25 U.S.C. A., Sec. 352 (a) and of Feb. 21, 1931, (25 U.S.C.A., Sec. 352 (b). [The Interior Department did not comply with the federal court decision and the lands remain in white ownership]. The Attorney General of the United States in an opinion delivered in 1888, “That the [Indian] allotment lands provided for in the Act of 1887 [General Indian Allotment Act] are exempt from state or territorial taxation upon the ground above stated, namely, that the [Indian] lands covered by the act are held for the period of twenty-five years in trust for the Indians, such trust being an agency for the exercise of a federal power, and therefore outside the province of state or territorial authority. But that the Secretary of Interior seems to have been given authority by the Act of May 8, 1906, (Title 25 U.S.C.A., Section 349) to issue patents in fee to [Indian] allottees and remove all restrictions to sale, incumbrance, or taxation. Under this act the fee patents in question were issued to the [Blackfeet] Indians. There appears to be no reason why the court should not hold here, as it has held heretofore, when the same question in substance has been presented, that the Indian possessed the right to have his lands free from state taxation for the period expressed in the patent, and that no act of Congress, such as the foregoing appears to be, could disturb or impair that right, (Choate v. Trapp, 224 U.S. 665; Morrow v. U.S., C.C.A.S.., 243 Fed. 854; U.S. v. Bemewah County, C.A.C,A. 9, 290 Fed. 628. It was held in the Morrow Case, above, that the government may in its dealings with the Indians create property rights which, once vested, even it cannot alter, and an array of cases are cited in support of this declaration. The quotations by counsel from all of these cases are cited in support of this declaration. The quotations by counsel from all of these cases are directly in point. No application was made or consent given in respect to the issuance of fee patents. In the Benewah County case it was held that the issuance of fee patents, without the application and consent of the [Indian] allottees rendered such act illegal.

Blackfeet Mineral Rights Reservations

In U.S. v. Frisbee et al, the government brought suit to quiet title to the lands described in the complaint, wherein through inadvertence and mistake on February 15, 1930, a fee simple patent, numbered 10348112, to said lands, was issued to Amy Sherman, who was also known as Amy Rides at the Door and Amy Running Fisher, under the alleged requirement of reservation of all of the mineral rights, including coal, oil, and gas to the United States of America, for the benefit of the Blackfeet Tribe of Indians, was omitted, without authority of law, from the provisions of said patent, all of which is alleged to be contrary to the Act of June 30, 1919 (41 Stat. 17); the pertinent provisions of which are as follows: That any and all minerals, including coal, oil & gas, are hereby reserved for the benefit of the Blackfeet Tribe of Indians until Congress shall otherwise direct, and patents hereafter issued shall contain a reservation accordingly. The fee simple patent issued here in question was issued under the general Indian Allotment Act of 1887 is not a matter in dispute. This act, which has been amended from time to time, provided for the allotment of lands of different acreage in severalty to the Indians of the several reservations. After considering the various acts and authorities brought into the controversy the court is of the opinion that the Act of June 30, 1919, became a part of the general allotment act, and that all fee simple patents subsequently issued were required to contain a reservation of “any and all minerals, including coal, oil and gas” for the benefit of the Blackfeet Tribe of Indians, until Congress shall otherwise direct; and then follows the concluding sentence which makes the requirement doubly mandatory, “and patents hereafter issued shall contain a reservation accordingly.” The motion of plaintiff for a summary judgment should be granted, and such is the order of the court herein. Judge Charles N. Pray

QUESTIONS: We have tried nearly every tactic to get the federal government to take up and investigate the Blackfeet forced fee patents frauds, but it seems the Reagan Administration stonewalled the claims in 1980, and there has been little support since for the allottees. This is a national problem with 10,000,000 acres nationwide taken by forced patents unresolved as far as the Indians are concerned.
I suppose the Indian minerals were taken too, especially in the Oklahoma tribes, but coal is included in the mineral reservations. I saw where many of the Crow Allottees were listed in the pre-1966 Indian Money Damage Claims in the Billings Area Office. There seems to be a commonality here among Indian people nationwide, that makes it a national issue of political importance to many tribes.
I think there is sufficient evidence and legal precedence but the issue needs a political agenda with the support of national Indian organizations. The issue of Indian allotment has been heard by Congress in 1980 and the confession by the BIA to the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs to complicity in the claims in 1979 in on record. [Statement of Forest Gerard, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs].
We want to try the National Whistleblowers Act but need guidance on whether these frauds of Indian land and minerals would qualify under that law. It seems that when President Reagan stonewalled the claims in 1980 the individual Indian allottees had no recourse to his actions, and the forced patents were left unresolved by Congress.
It may only take a new tribal resolution by the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council to break it open, I don’t know at this point.
One other factor since 1980 was the alignment of Chairman Old Person with the BIA in suppressing the Blackfeet claims at the reservation level.
I know this is a tribal political problem, but the new tribal council members seem supportive. Any thoughts?
Thanks from Bob Juneau, and Robert C. Juneau, Blackfeet tribal claims researchers.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Correta Scott King & Martin Luther King Quotes

Coretta Scott King & Martin Luther King Quotes
Christmas will be sad for us. As it will be for many people I think this year. But I think that it doesn't mean that we will sit around and bathe in our grief. I think that, very often, a time like this causes people to really reflect on the deeper meaning of say, Christmas or any other occasion. I remember Easter of 1963, when my husband was jailed in Birmingham. I had just had my fourth child and was still confined to my house. And he had gone to jail on Good Friday. And I was very depressed. But somehow that was the most meaningful Easter that I have ever experienced because, you know, Easter is a time of suffering. But it's creative...you know, it can be creative suffering. And I think if we think in terms of my husband's life and his death in those terms, then we will not be as sad. We will be hopeful, because in his death there is hope for redemption.
-Coretta Scott King
I have long since learned that being a follower of Jesus Christ means taking up the cross. My Bible tells me that Good Friday comes before Easter. Before the crown we wear, there is the cross that we must bear. Let us bear it! Bear it for truth, bear it for justice, bear it for peace! Let us go out this morning with that determination.
-Martin Luther King

Friday, August 20, 2010

Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Quotes from Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire

It is a rare peasant who, once ”promoted” to overseer, does not become more of a tyrant towards his former comrades than the owner himself.
Pg.28

Thus is illustrated our previous assertion that during the initial stage of their struggle the oppressed find in the oppressor their model of “manhood.”
Pg.28

Freedom is not an ideal located outside of man; nor is it an idea which becomes myth. It is rather the indispensable condition for the quest for human completion.
Pg.29

To surmount the situation of oppression, people must first critically recognize its causes, so that through transforming action they can create a new situation, one which makes possible the pursuit of a fuller humanity.
Pg.29

Chief White Calf

Chief White Calf’s Statement on the “Big Claim”

“In the old days, when we made war on the other tribes, and conquered the land you [whites] later took away from us, our warriors carried a bow and two quivers full of arrows. In the old days my quivers held arrows, because in those times we fought with arrows. But nowadays one can no longer fight with arrows; nowadays one must fight with money, and you can clearly see that the quivers which should hold the money with which to fight for my people are empty.” The Chief pulled his pants pockets inside out to show they were empty. “If you want me to be able to fight then fill my empty quivers. Fill my empty quivers with money, and then I will be able to fight.”
Chief White Calf No. 2 made it to Washington D.C. and met with the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to get the money due the Blackfeet people, but the commissioner John Collier told him to go home and the check would be sent in due time. The Chief refused and told Collier he was “going to stay until he got the claim money due his people even if he had to die like his father Chief White Calf No. 1 died in 1903 in the Presidents private chamber, fighting for tribal claims.” Chief White Calf, the son, told Collier he would “take an old blanket and sleep in the streets and eat garbage if he had to, but he would not leave without that money. Then he said the whole world will know that two Chief White Calf’s died in Washington D.C. fighting for the rights of their people. The whole world will know that the old Chief White Calf and his son, the new Chief White Calf, both died right here in Washington D.C. I will do the same [as my father]. I will die here before I will turn around like a whipped dog and go home without the check.” Commissioner Collier relented the next day and called the Chief to his office and handed him the check due the Blackfeet Indians. You can contrast the behavior of real Blackfeet Chief’s in carrying out the serious business of the Blackfeet Tribe with the odd behavior of the tribal council and tribal traitor “Chief “Old Person joining the BIA on the other side in this dispute by stonewalling the Blackfeet claims. They knew perfectly well that we could do little without the support of tribal government. We too have suffered by those in power because we refused to give up and went at the tribal council for the past 30 years impoverishing ourselves in the fight for the Blackfeet claims. I am on welfare in Missoula at this time, and that is why I cannot be at home to fight this claim in Browning, but we are spreading the history and knowledge of the land frauds committed against our people. All I ever saw Earl Old Person do as the tribal leader was to enjoy his vices at the expense of the Blackfeet Tribe. He is honored by the whites in Montana who robbed the Blackfeet people.

United States Census Records- Blackfeet Allotments

UNITED STATES CENSUS RECORDS- BLACKFEET ALLOTMENTS

The United States Census of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in 1907-1908 is important to Blackfeet tribal members and the tribal land claims because it documents the Blackfeet Indian Reservation lands held in common were surveyed and 320 acres was allotted to each member of the tribe.
The census in 1907-1908 was made ”to determine proper recipients of the allocations. Found qualified [to receive allotments] were 2,623 tribal members.” Another allotment was made in 1919 of 80 acres to each tribal member, which allotted the entire reservation land base leaving no surplus lands for white settlement on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.

HOW DID THE WHITE MAN GET TITLE TO BLACKFEET LANDS?

The Interior Department Indian Money Damage Claims [pre-1966 Indian claims] list 605 Blackfeet Indians as victims of the BIA forced fee patents frauds. We found a list of over 1200 Blackfeet forced fee patent victims made up by the Blackfeet Agency BIA. We filed this list of 1200 Blackfeet forced fee patent claims at the Senate Indian Affairs Committee in 2001, which claims the tribal chairman subsequently declined to support.

TRIBAL MEMBERS CLAIMS LEFT OUT OF WATER SETTLEMENT

The forgotten people in the current state-tribal water compact settlement is the Blackfeet ranchers and the Blackfeet allottees losses caused by the BIA Reclamation Service Project on the Blackfeet Reservation in the St. Mary-Milk Rivers Diversion of reservation water to non-Blackfeet downstream water users. The removal of the self-sufficient Blackfeet cattle ranchers from their treaty guaranteed [1896 Agreement/Article Five] reservation grazing tracts and hay lands and their small irrigation ditches dug by the tribal ranchers to divert tribal streams and rivers for watering mountain meadows to produce winter feed and summer pasturage for Blackfeet cattle herds destroyed their self-sufficient cattle industry. The Blackfeet ranchers and landowners paid the costs for the construction and operation of the St. Mary-Milk Rivers Diversion. The successful Blackfeet cattle ranchers and the Blackfeet allottees lost their cattle industry and trust allotments to government reclamation projects and BIA land frauds. The concern is that the tribal council is blinded by settlement money in the state-tribal water compact and forgot to restore the tribal land base and successful tribal cattle industry economy recognized in the 1896 Agreement/Article Five as the main treaty goal of the Blackfeet Tribe and the United States.

BLACKFEET POSTCOLONIAL PSYCHOLOGY AND TRAUMAS

What is in the tribal council heads that could possibly be more important than defending our land base and the people’s property rights? The pencil factory still is the only legacy of $180,000,000 in expenditures of the tribal council since 1936. The possibility of council brainwashing or treason is always a threat to tribal security, it is happening to us right now by the tribal council stonewalling of the Blackfeet forced patent claims.
The white people in Havre- Chinook Montana, Canadian Mormon cowboys , Alberta farmers, Hutterite Colonies, and white ranchers and farmers all enjoy the benefits of the reservation land and waters. The Blackfeet Indians were impoverished by this BIA Reclamation Service project and the self-sufficient Blackfeet cattle industry economy was destroyed. There needs to be a special study area in the water settlement and proposed expansion of the St.Mary Diversion [flooding of Babb is considered a future sacrifice for the St.Mary Diversion]. What about the treaty guarantees made to the Blackfeet Tribe and tribal cattle ranchers in the 1896 Agreement/Article Five. What are the tribal cattle industry re-development needs, and just compensation for Blackfeet cattle rancher’s losses? The Blackfeet people paid social and economic costs of the St. Mary Diversion that benefited the United States, State of Montana and Alberta, Canada.
Institutional Equity is a Congressional Requirement in claims cases that means tribal concerns must be considered on an equal footing with federal, state, county, and foreign governments [Canada]. I was thrown out of the tribal conference room in a state-tribal council water compact negotiation meeting for bringing up these very concerns on behalf of the Blackfeet ranchers and landowners rights. I requested “institutional equity” for the Blackfeet Tribe and the Blackfeet allottees and cattle ranchers. The NARF Attorney told us we [tribal members] had no rights, and the BIA man later told tribal chairman Old Person the Tribe had no rights either. Who the hell has the “rights” on the reservation? Is this the Cardston, Alberta Mormon Invaders-Montana Land Grafters- Hutterite Reserve? I guess it is now, but we will change that!




POLITICAL GENOCIDE -THE UNITED NATIONS DEFINITION

The United Nations defines ‘genocide’ as the act of denying a people the right of existence, in whole or in part, by undermining the foundations [treaty rights] underlying their national or ethnic identity, with the aim of destroying that group.” The 1896 Agreement/Article Five treaty violations and encroachment of white ranchers, Hutterites, State of Montana, Glacier and Pondera Counties, and Canadian emigrants onto the reservation, and removal of Blackfeet landowners and cattle ranchers from their reserved grazing tracts and water diversions and cattle pastures reaches the definition of United Nations political genocide. It plunged the Blackfeet people into an epic tribal poverty that they cannot recover from unless and until all of the Blackfeet treaty guarantees are restored.
It is a also criminal breach of the constitutional guarantees of the Blackfeet Indian’s special treaty rights contained in the 1896 Agreement/Article Five. We want our tribal land base restored and white men removed to their own “reservations,” the State of Montana and Alberta, Canada. The tribal elders tell me Glacier Park has encroached upon our western and southern borders quite deliberately and will not retreat. They changed the boundary lines when the council wasn’t looking. It becomes a question of why don’t the tribal council defend our borders?

MONTANA BORDER-WHITES GENOCIDE BLACKFEET INDIANS

Our history tells us we were condemned to die by the Montana border-whites for our property. That is historical fact and is documented in the Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, September, 1867. The Christian Priests testify to the deaths and land thefts and wrongs done by border-whites to the Blackfeet Indians on a daily basis. The Indians had no chance of struggle. The settlement money does not make the Blackfeet Indians “whole” for their losses, but compensation must include the rehabilitation of the 1896 Agreement/Article Five. We have lived with half a loaf for too long as tribal leaders became institutionalized [posttraumatic postcolonial stress disorders] to accept second class status in the corrupt government system. There are new school buildings and education institutions but they are part of a state run education system [false curriculum on Indian history] that brainwashes Indians and whites and hides state history of robbing Blackfeet land and resources, state treaty violations and Blackfeet genocide. We have been silenced to cover up gross injustices and human rights violations. The superior and civilizing powers themselves [BIA and State of Montana] need the tools of justice and civilization.

TRIBAL COUNCIL IS BRAINWASHED TO TRUTH AND JUSTICE

The tribal council under Old Person’s regime reminded me of random brainwashed Indian followers of whites [he has 85 awards from national white organizations but led the poorest tribe in America]. The tribal council’s reaction to the Iraqi prison torture stories was the tribal police ran out and got their own torture chair and strapped Blackfeet teenagers in them for days. They chained teenagers in beds for days. I told you of the history of cruelty of Superintendent McFatridge in mistreating and starving Blackfeet students in reservation schools. Here it was the tribal council that needed water boarding to un-brainwash them. I guess they wanted to make a good impression with the Bush Administration torturers because they stole $8,000,000 from the COPS Grant.

GOVERNMENT ARCHIVES HOLD THE TRUTH OF LAND FRAUDS

The Government Archive Rolls tell the story of the exercise of a corrupt government power that morphed into the Indian land frauds committed by BIA Agency personnel and the Agency Ring, a criminal conspiracy.
The suppression of that federal government archive by the BIA and state public school system and state government itself has lasted from then to now leaving the Montana land grafter’s and BIA crooked deals open to public scrutiny and senate investigation one hundred years after the fact. There is a public confession by the BIA in Congress to complicity [partnership in crime] in the Blackfeet forced patents, secretarial transfers, and old age assistance claims among others. The old age assistance claims illustrate the cruelty and duplicity of both the BIA and county in forcing elderly Blackfeet welfare recipients to sell their allotments as a condition to receive welfare assistance from the county. So cruel!
The remaining obstacle to winning the claims is to overcome the tribal council’s reluctance to join the fight. We have a few nibbles but no bites. You can get a list of original Blackfeet Allottees from the 1907-1908 Census, in the Special Collections Section, Mansfield Library, University of Montana, Robert J. Ege Collection. [There are also Blackfeet family genealogy records available there]. Please lobby the tribal council to join us.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Chokecherries

Message from Bob Juneau
Did you know?

1. Chokecherry Antioxidants are the perfect antidote to heart disease?
2. Buffalo Meat has vitamin C in it?
3. Pemmican is the only perfect food ever invented?

Natural foods processes were invented by Blackfeet Indians for preserving foods without refrigeration and processed foods were perfected by Indians to carry the Indians through winter and times of privation.
It seems to me that in view of the terrible outbreaks of diabetes, heart disease, and food shortages on the reservation that natural foods and medicines could be re-developed before the Chokecherry bushes and other natural plants are destroyed and forgotten.
There are national and international markets for natural foods and medicines that we could sell to and have the traditional people knowledgeable in these crafts preserve these Blackfeet foods and natural medicines.
Nutrition is a big issue in the health of Indian people in eliminating high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, and malnutrition. This project would need funding to study the parameters of the available raw materials to process the natural foods traditional to the Blackfeet Indians. The tribal council should help the people get started in these self-help projects. The project doesn’t need to be a big industrial development but a cottage industry with many families involved in the growing, gathering, processing and marketing of natural products. The best example I have seen of the local industry type of development is the Salish- Kootenai Tribes contracting with the tribal members to cut and haul logs to the mill. There could be a central processing plant owned by the cooperative members and each person could grow and sell as much raw product as they desire according to their needs. The Blackfeet people are very intelligent but many tines tribal officials get in the way instead of just providing funding to get things started. There are Chokecherry bushes all over the reservation, but I fear they will be plowed under at some point and the future tribal members will never know the use of those plants and berries. The tribal buffalo are under valued by the tribe as an asset and a valuable product for the tribal members. Pemmican could be marketed to the defense department for provisions for long range patrols and special force’s foods. Heart disease could be cured given a natural diet and antioxidants contained in the Chokecherry, and the curse of diabetes could be lifted given natural snacks and foods made from natural Blackfeet products. What do you think? Just an idea to help with disease and hunger.

Quote from the Prince by Machiavelli

The best fortress which a prince can possess is the affection of his people; -Machiavelli, The Prince

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Letter to Indian Country Today 8-18-10

The most vicious criminal convict sitting in federal prison has had justice in the federal courts, but 17,000 Indian claimants nationwide have been denied justice and compensation for nearly 100 years in America. You must realize that not every conspiracy is a theory, as most are proven to be true. The BIA forced patent conspiracy to defraud thousands of innocent Indian allottees nationwide of their trust allotments has not only been proven by Congressional Investigations dating back to the allotment period, but there is a public confession of guilt by the federal trustee in Congress. What more does the Congress need to provide justice and make things right with the Indian people?
In Oversight Hearings On Statute Of Limitations Before The Senate Select Committee On Indian Affairs, 96th Cong., 1st Sess. 3-13 (1979) Statement of Forest Gerard, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs: “Litigation was thought inappropriate in these cases because the government would have to sue itself on behalf of Indian claimants.” Is that a public confession of guilt?
Congress was acutely aware that litigation in many instances would be unfair to third parties who had purchased their property many years ago without knowledge of the Indian claims. This is a dubious statement because the forced patents were investigated and known to Congress since the 1920’s in the Survey of Conditions of Indians in the United States conducted by the Subcommittee of the Committee on Indian Affairs of the United States Senate. Many of the Blackfeet Chiefs and allottees testified to the committee in 1929 and the senate investigator provided reports on the crimes. As for “innocent third parties” occupying the stolen Indian allotments without knowledge of the thefts, it would be hard to find a white man on the Blackfeet reservation who did not know he was on stolen Indian lands.
It is a subject of great satisfaction to the illegal white emigrants on the reservation and border-towns adjoining the Blackfeet Indian Reservation because they are the guilty parties to the conspiracy who have benefited by conspiracy. In 1980 Congress was troubled by the serious problem of complicity on the part of the federal government in bringing about many improper transfers and encumbrances of Indian land (e.g. Secretarial transfer, forced fee patent, and old age assistance claims), S. Rep. 96-569, supra at 3. Senator Cohen’s remarks in introducing legislation to extend the statute of limitations yet another time exposed the Interior Department’s plan to will the remainder of 17,000 Indian claims out of existence.
The Sampsel Report submitted by the Interior Department contained one legislative proposal to 50% of the O.A.A. claims and threw out 17,000 Indian claims by departmental rule and claimed this report brought the Interior Dept. into substantial compliance with P.L. 96-217.
Section 2 of P.L. 96-217 provided that all Indian claims not litigated by the Interior Dept. that legislative proposals would developed and be sent to Congress to resolve outstanding Indian claims by legislative solutions.
Congress was also troubled that waiving claims for damages on the grounds that the claim for title to the land is not barred does not do justice for the Indian landowner or the non-Indian who is occupying the Indian land in good faith and under color of title. Indian water rights claims were waived by the Interior Department on the stolen Indian allotments which Chairman Cohen thought “will almost certainly adversely affect the bargaining position of the United States and the tribes in attempting to reach settlement of these claims.” In the light of Blackfeet Tribe-State of Montana Water Compact negotiations the water rights of the Blackfeet forced patent victims were thrown out in the settlement. We estimate there are 500,000 acres in play in the Blackfeet forced patents claims. I suspect tribes nationwide suffered diminished tribal and allotted reserved water rights claims on their reservations water quantification absent settlement of Indian land fraud claims prior to state-tribal water compact negotiations.
Indian claimants nationwide are the victims of the impasse between the Executive Branch and Legislative Branch of the United States Government to settle 17,000 outstanding Indian claims to 10,000,000 acres of allotted lands. The Interior Department is the admitted perpetrator of the land frauds, but has been allowed to function as criminal, judge, and jury in their complicity with non-Indians. What was their verdict? It is the same verdict reached in any oppressive government, not guilty on all charges.
This is now a political fight and the absence of national Indian advocacy organizations support, that constantly bray to the world on injustices to the Indians have remained silent on this issue and their silence is duly noted.
It was Thomas Jefferson who noted that ownership of land is the only way to generate wealth in America. The root of tribal and Indian poverty is the land frauds committed by the federal trustee and their co-conspirators. Welfare is the band aid that covers the wounds of generations of Indian families after the theft of their family lands. It is time to heal those wounds. Nobody has paid for the crimes against the Indian property in one hundred years and we will not let the United States Government forget their role in the impoverishment of Indians nationwide. It would seem to me that the best foreign policy the United States can exhibit to the world is to live up to the original American treaties with the Indian people. We have our Indian troops fighting in Iraq for the freedom and liberty of Iraqi’s. We need our national Indian leaders to stand up for us reservation Indians who they represent. I would like to live on my grandma’s allotment but there is a white man with a tax deed from the county on it. There is something basically wrong with that scenario, white ranchers on Indian trust lands. It is the visible head of the conspiracy. The loose change claims [BIA-IIM] will buy you a smoking used car. It is not the answer we are seeking because it did not consider the 17,000 Indian claims to 10,000,000 acres of stolen Indian lands nationwide. We will stay impoverished until we regain our stolen treaty lands to all of the reservations nationwide. It is a treaty right to be free of white rule [state law and speculators]. It is up to us to demand our lands and treaty rights taken by conspiracy. The white ranchers and landowners on our reservation are a constant reminder of the loss of our lands and a continual source of anger and repressed feelings for the Indian people. We cannot be made whole again until justice is provided and the return of our home lands is accomplished. We have the evidence and the confession but we lack the support of national Indian organizations to lobby for us. Please help us.

Pedagogy of the Oppressed Quote

PEDAGOGY OF THE OPPRESSED by Paulo Freire

There is no such thing as a neutral educational process. Education either functions as an instrument that is used to facilitate the integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity to it, or it becomes “the practice of freedom,” the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.
-Richard Shaull, publisher’s forward

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Letter to Councilman Shannon Augare and the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council

8-17-10
To: Mr. Shannon Augare, Blackfeet Tribal Business Council
From: Bob Juneau, researcher of Blackfeet claims

Subject: Background of claims and forward resolution of claims to Congress


Intergenerational Blackfeet Posttraumatic Stress Disorders Traumas

Montana Border-White Genocide and Indian Removal Traumas
By Bob Juneau

History of Indian-White relations in the United States: In the Federalist Papers, John Jay stated “Not a single Indian War has yet been produced by aggressions of the present federal government, feeble as it is; but there are several instances of Indian hostilities having been provoked by the improper conduct of individual states, who either unable or unwilling to restrain or punish offenses, have given occasion to the slaughter of many innocent [Indian] habitants.” President Grant cited the Montana border-whites as the single biggest obstacle to the civilization of the Indians in Montana Territory, and the Board of Indian Commissioners appointed by President Grant cited the Montana border-whites as robbers, murderers, and thieves of Indian property. The Massacre of Heavy Runner’s band by the army was provoked by Montana Territorial Governor Meagher for the purpose of exterminating the Blackfeet Indians and bringing Irish immigrants to settle their lands. There has been no official recognition of the treaty violations and land frauds stemming from the early days of Blackfeet-white relations.

Discussion: The Blackfeet Indians have not had any treatment or payment for the historical traumas induced by the Montana Territory Indian Extermination Policy carried out by the Montana border-white emigrant’s invasion of Blackfoot Confederacy lands. The Blackfeet Indians have been under constant attack for generations by Montana border-whites and the impact and shock of those traumas is still with us today. The evidence shows the Blackfeet Indians paid the social and economic costs for the border-whites expansion into Blackfoot Confederacy lands held by treaty with the United States. There is ample evidence of the direct negative impact of the Montana border-white invasion of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation and the unfulfilled treaty promises of Congress in the 1896 Agreement/Article Five.
The choice offered to the Blackfeet people over generations is either to capitulate to the Montana border-whites [accept white rule on the Blackfeet reservation] or to face extermination of Blackfeet life and soul. The goals of the Territory and State of Montana have been met although at the expense and misery of the Blackfeet Indians. The treaty goals of the United States and the Blackfeet Tribe do not have equitable standing with the illegal benefits accruing to the Territory and State of Montana’s illegal occupancy of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. The treaty goals of the 1896 Agreement/Article Five were promised but never delivered. Our mission today is to complete the goals of the 1888 Treaty and 1896 Agreement.

THE DISAPPEARING SOVEREIGNTY OF THE BLACKFEET NATION

The lack of resolution of repressed tribal historical treaty issues are continuously manifested in the Blackfeet people in symptoms that require some type of medication even today. If the person does not medicate himself, then the only defense left in the light of pain is disassociation. The person no longer has an awareness of who or where he is, thus rendering the treaty issues non-existent. We then get the passive tribal leadership that reflects the behaviors of a defeated people with no hope for the future.
The failure of tribal leadership over the past 30 years since 1980, when the claims were rejected by the tribal council, to actively support and pursue justice for the hundreds of Blackfeet Allottees who were victims of massive land frauds [forced patents] conducted by the Interior Department and state/county governments, leaves their Blackfeet heirs in doubt and uncertain about their treaty rights and role on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.

LEGAL AND MORAL OBLIGATIONS TO RESOLVE CLAIMS

The Blackfeet Indian Reservation has lost roughly one-third of its land base to the land frauds and the Blackfeet Indians have been made the victims of federal water development projects on the Blackfeet Reservation for the benefit of state citizens. The history of the land frauds is a tragedy from which the Blackfeet Tribe has not recovered. The Blackfeet Indians can demonstrate explicit treaty language in the 1896 Agreement/Article Five that guaranteed them special treaty rights to develop the reservation lands for the exclusive use and benefit of Blackfeet cattle ranchers and the Blackfeet cattle industry. The evidence in the construction of the St. Mary-Milk Rivers Diversion by the BIA Reclamation Service points to the fact that gross and fundamental injustices were done to the cattle ranchers and the landowners. The issue of institutional equity would seem to indicate some sort of settlement for the Blackfeet landowners and Blackfeet cattle ranchers.
The neglect of the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council and the Congress of the United States to address the issue of institutional equity in the federal reclamation projects and state encroachment on the reservation resulting in loss of Blackfeet allotments will effectively close the last opportunity the Blackfeet Tribe and Blackfeet Indians will have to rebuild the tribal economy destroyed by the St. Mary-Milk Rivers Diversion of reservation waters to state citizens and the forced fee patents conspiracies and other tribal claims that resulted in the loss of nearly one-third of the reservation land base reserved for the exclusive use and occupancy of the Blackfeet Indians. Congress and the Interior Department are clearly guilty of abdicating trust responsibilities to the Blackfeet Tribe and Blackfeet Allottees, and what has unjustly been stolen from the Blackfeet Indians must be restored to bring the tribe to their former social and economic status as self-sufficient cattle ranchers recognized in the 1896 Agreement.

Project needs: tribal council resolution requesting a Senate Indian Affairs Committee legislative solution to the Blackfeet claims-tribal and allotted. It will be necessary to conduct tribal council hearings on the forced fee patents, and other tribal claims and to organize and document tribal oral history of the claims. It will be necessary to retrieve documents such as Congressional Hearings on the subject and information on tribal cattle ranchers and forced patents at the Federal Records Center in Englewood Colorado [list of 500 tribal brands dating back to 1893 recognized as successful ranchers for claims purposes]. It will be necessary to contract the services of natural resources economists to calculate the losses of Blackfeet cattle, land, oil, gas, coal, timber, gravel, and other losses as needed, to formulate a “valuation theory” for the Blackfeet Tribe and tribal members losses. Anthropology experts will be needed to assess the damages to the social fabric of the tribe caused by the Montana border-whites invasion of the reservation and the failure of federal trust responsibility to protect and carry out treaty goals and provisions. We will need testimony from tribal members on the rebuilding of the reservation in the tribal image and their vision of a “settled” Blackfeet Indian Reservation. We have the evidence on hand of land frauds and government corruption in the forced fee patents etc.

Budget: research hours and travel to retrieve documents. We may be able to get experts from the University to conduct the studies on natural resources losses and anthropological studies of tribal member’s pain and suffering. I have no expectations that the tribal council will help us financially, so we will keep doing what we can with our own expenses to keep the claims alive.





Monday, August 16, 2010

The United States Constitution & American Indian Treaties

THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION & AMERICAN INDIAN TREATIES
Article I, Section 8 and Article 6

Article I, Section and Article 6 of the United States Constitution guarantee the upholding of American Indian Treaties by the United States Government. Anyone who swears an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States is also swearing an oath to
uphold American Indian Treaties.

Article I, Section 8
To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with Indian Tribes;

Article 6
All Debts contracted and Engagements entered into, before the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation.
This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.
The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.


The Federalist Papers

THE FEDERALIST PAPERS edited by Clinton Rossiter

Not a single Indian War has yet been produced by aggressions of the present federal government, feeble as it is; but there are several instances of Indian hostilities having been provoked by the improper conduct of individual states, who, either unable or unwilling to restrain or punish offenses, have given occasion to the slaughter of many innocent inhabitants.
-John Jay, Supreme Court Justice

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Native American Post Colonial Post Traumatic Stress Disorders are real

Native American PostColonial PostTraumatic Stress Disorders Are Real

The book above by Roberto Duran and Bonnie Duran examines histories role in helping Indian individuals and Indian communities to have a clear understanding of the historical issues that have led to the pain felt by many native individuals and communities today. The authors believe that “Most of those injuries are a direct result of the colonization process.” They say that “Without a proper understanding of the [Indian] history, those who practice in the disciplines of applied social sciences operate in a vacuum, thereby merely perpetuating this ongoing neocolonialism.”
The terms used in describing intergenerational transmission of posttraumatic stress disorders [PTSD] has emerged from research done with victims of the Nazi Holocaust, but it turns out many of those dynamics in effect in the Jewish holocaust experience are similar to those of the Blackfeet holocaust experience with the Montana Border-Whites Indian “extermination” policy over a period of 150 years and counting. The Blackfeet genocide has turned from extermination to dispossession. The United States has not acknowledged the holocaust of Blackfeet people in Montana and this lack of official national acknowledgement remains the main obstacle to the healing process of the Blackfeet people. The inherent denial also keeps the border-whites trapped in an aura of secrecy and alienation since their acts continue to haunt them with guilt and mad consumerism. The ends justified the means.
I can see the knowledge of Blackfeet history healing some of our hurts in today’s world because the white man’s shame will soon be known world-wide. It reminds me of the hundreds of Blackfeet Allotments all gone in a couple of years after the white man established Glacier and Pondera Counties on the reservation. By 1920 there were hundreds of “landless” Blackfeet Indians and the whites had ownership of 210,000 acres of the best reservation lands and oil fields. How did they do that? Conspiracy and government complicity [BIA frauds] was the tools of the criminals, and poverty of the Blackfeet Indians was the result. The cause and effect had to be fraud and conspiracy in order for that many Blackfeet land fraud cases to come in clusters of hundreds in just two years after state encroachment on the reservation. There is a legal term that says “The thing speaks for itself.”
This is a political battle now, not a legal one. The Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs in 1979, Forest Gerard, testified to the Congress that the Department of Interior was complicit in the land frauds [forced fee patents, old age assistance, secretarial transfers], and therefore could not bring litigation on behalf of Indian claimants because the government would have to sue itself in federal court. That is quite a legal pickle for sure.
In 1980 Chairman Earl Old Person was suppressing the Blackfeet claims in the tribal office. The Blackfeet elders had requested the tribe to look into their land claims on their own property that had been taken by white men and local trader J.L. Sherburne. That is how the whole trip started in the Blackfeet claims. It is only recently with the sharing of tribal historical research and a renewed effort that we have been able to overcome the weight of Old Person’s political power. We would take the Blackfeet claims to Washington D.C. and Chairman Old Person would cancel them before we got back home. He is a BIA operative. We had the killer documents that proved the BIA criminal conspiracy, but we could not reach the Congress.
Where do you think your money has gone to? What about your grandma’s land? Is there a white man squatting on it, and where did he come from? Who is it that has lost their land and who is it that has gained your land? Will $1,000 cover your losses? Lazy lawyers will tell you the truth is at the bottom of a bottomless pit, but they are just trying to settle and get their cash. But the law says what came into court must come out of court, but the trick played on the Indians is that they have not been to court. Remember the confession of complicity of the BIA in 1979? The BIA is too crooked to get into court and confess, so they just buried the claims at both ends, and guess who was their local man? Old Person tortured us for nearly thirty years. I was worried with the shortness of reservation life and sudden death the case might be buried forever. This is in reality a case that belongs in the Congress to settle because of the many treaty violations contained in the Blackfeet claims. The local whites [Cut Bank, Valier, Conrad, Choteau, etc.] try to kill the treaty but Congress will set them right and move them out to their own reservation [Montana].
I used to believe that if we could present our case to tribal and federal authorities that justice would follow and that if judges saw the evidence right in front of them they would rule in the Indians favor, but the past thirty years have given me a depressing dose of reality in treaty law. It is political! President Reagan and Secretary of Interior James Watt in 1980 defied Congress in implementing the P.L. 96-217 Indian claims law. The claims remain locked up in the Interior Department, The Blackfeet claims remain where President Reagan left them in 1980 and will stay there until the next Congress takes action upon our request [Blackfeet Tribe]. The Tribal Elders Council has treaty issues. We are moving toward the day of Blackfeet rule.
Public Law 96-217, Section 2, says the Interior Department must send all Indian claims to Congress that they deemed inappropriate for litigation. Instead the Interior Department attempted to let the statute of limitations run to extinguish the Indian claims. That is where the Blackfeet claims remain today, awaiting tribal council action in requesting that our claims be sent to Congress for legislative solutions.
There are a couple of issues that yet might derail the Blackfeet claims. The Cobell Case Settlement must not include the Blackfeet land claims or any other claims of the Blackfeet landowners or the Blackfeet Tribe.
The Interior Department lawyers might try to put two corpses in one casket in the IIM settlements eliminating our forced patent claims. I don’t know the terms of the settlement, but it would show some respect to the Indian people for the lawyers to explain the terms and provisions of the settlement before we vote on it, or if it is a done deal.
The other issue is that the tribal council in 2008 agreed to “set aside” the Pre-1966 Indian claims in the state-tribal water compact settlement.
Senator Cohen of Maine in 1980 as Chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee said the Indian water rights to these stolen allotments must be protected, and the title to Indian land is not barred in these cases, therefore it is incumbent upon the Congress to protect innocent Indian victims by this law [96-217, Section 2]. In other words, the water rights and mineral rights go with the land restoration in the forced patents and other land frauds.
The Blackfeet Indians land, water rights and minerals must be restored for the Indians to be made whole from their injuries and losses. Tribal issues include rights-of-way and trespassing violations by the state and county and state encroachment on the reservation. The Tribal Elders Council issues include the Park Boundary and other land issues. The tribal cattle rancher’s claims are a treaty right violation and need support. There is a lot of work to do but the tribal council is helping us and we will meet soon.
It is good to remember that these claims cases are also a therapy for the past and need to be won to begin the healing of the people and nation.


Friday, August 13, 2010

Quotes from The Prince by Machiavelli

QUOTES FROM THE PRINCE by Machiavelli

“I shall differ from the rules laid by others,” writes Machiavelli.”Reality” is his guide. “For the manner in which men live is so different from the way in which they ought to live, that he who leaves the common course for that which he ought to follow will find that it leads him to ruin rather than to safety.”

Because of human, replies Machiavelli, which is ever ungrateful, cowardly, fickle and selfish.

Within the state, men can be made to “be good,” that is, order can be preserved.

“men will always prove naturally bad, unless some necessity constrains them to be good.”

“men should attempt everything and not be dismayed by anything; for God loves strong men, since we see that he always punishes the weak through the strong.”

Society is a system of forces in which the loser is always wrong.

Lies you teacher told you

Montana history dooms the Indians because it says the Indians could not progress, so the public school curriculum goes, that the education of students need not examine the process of dispossession of the Indian’s land. The public school history does not examine the white people’s attempts at Indian genocide, or “extermination” as they so pointedly put it. Today the Indians are so far behind the whites are concerned their “secret” will finally be pointed to as the critical factor in the retarded development of the Indians.
The 1896 Agreement/Article Five is a special treaty right recognizing the success of the Blackfeet cattle ranchers and the self-supporting Blackfeet cattle industry. Government Inspectors document the success of the Blackfeet cattle ranchers as early as 1893. Remember, this is only ten years later from the starvation years when the buffalo were finally destroyed by the white invaders into Blackfoot Confederacy lands.
The Blackfeet Indians had recovered from the massacre, small pox, starvation, whiskey trade, and the corruption of the Indian Service in ten years! The history professors say this recovery is unprecedented in human history for a hunter/gatherer society to convert to a completely different private-sector economy. Not only to overcome all of the atrocities but to also manage to negotiate an agreement that guarantees recognition of successful cattle ranchers and the self-sufficient tribal cattle industry.
The real history would tell of the strength and intelligence of the Blackfeet Indians, and the attempted genocide of the border-whites, and the Territory and State of Montana’s role in destroying the Blackfeet cattle industry and invasion of the reservation upon the stolen Blackfeet allotments. If the state has any jurisdiction on the reservation it is based on the stolen Blackfeet allotments. If the whites are successful cattle ranchers on the reservation it is upon the stolen Blackfeet allotments they base their success.
Not a pretty picture is it? This history might lead to inquiries into the legality of white land ownership on the reservation on stolen Blackfeet lands. It might lead to a claim by the Blackfeet Indians to recover their reserved treaty lands and oil wells and question the illegal occupation of the reservation by whites. It might reveal the economic success of the border-whites is based on stealing Blackfeet land and resources.
The brainwashing of the Indians begins with the public school textbook. The gross description of public schools is to keep the facts from Indians to keep the Indians ignorant and stupid. The critical factor in tribal history is oral history so that all tribal members know the critical events in tribal history. The public school curriculum is designed to prevent discussion of injustices toward Indians by border-whites to prevent development of any sense of social justice for the [Indian] victims to preserve the status quo.
I have sat in university classes when the truth about Indian history in Montana was told to young white students for the first time in their lives, and who became ashamed of the unfairness and savagery of their white ancestors, and cannot defend it. But, they have been taught the opposite in public schools K-12, and it proves white students can be brainwashed to think their privileged position is historically justified, and that is the root of their bias toward Indians. They feel superior to Indians in their minds and actions.
In contrast, the Indians are taught that deprivation is their own fault, and that idea keeps them in their places that white society assigns to them. The border-white’s control of the public schools curriculum has led them to shape public perception on issues dealing with Indians. The purposeful omission of critical facts in curriculum of Indian-white history limits the public school student’s view of Indian history. It manufactures racists.
You don’t have to be white to be racist against Indians. There are many racist, brainwashed, educated Indians in public schools, and that goes for Indian school boards too. We had that experience in Browning Public Schools when we brought our book on Blackfeet history to the school board and superintendent. The whites, Crees, and Blackfeet administrators and school board members threw our book in the trash can. I think most of them are cowards afraid to face down the white racists that write racist Indian history books for public schools. Heart Butte Schools welcomed our Blackfeet history book. Why do you think that happened?
The knowledge of ones own history is empowering, and conversely the lack of knowledge of ones own history can be crippling. Fifth graders can recognize lies the teacher tells them although to challenge the teacher will get you a beating in public schools. One of our little friends was listening to us discuss the Blackfeet claims and the return of our lands, so he goes to school the next day and tells his teacher: “teacher, all of the white people are going to have to leave the reservation soon because the Indians are taking their land back.” See how the truth turns the tables on the whites? That little guy knew his history and it gave him a sense of ownership of the reservation instead of the white man’s minority.
Our whole effort has been to convince the tribal council that we can win based on our special treaty rights. There is nobody else on Earth that has rights to live on the reservation and own all of the land except the Blackfeet Indians. The Blackfeet people have many historical heroes that helped to save our Blackfeet Nation, and there are many instances of Blackfeet courage and intelligence in dealing with genocidal border-whites. We get support from Indians all over the country for our truths about Indian history.

Statement of Rides At the Door

STATEMENT OF RIDES AT THE DOOR AT THE SENATE INDIAN COMMITTEE HEARINGS HELD IN BROWNING, JULY 1929.

This reservation belongs to the Indians. It belongs to them individually by the
allotment. I want to ask you, honorable gentlemen, why I do not have the full say of
these lands and not have the other fellow have the full say of it. The white man and the outsider comes in and he has the whole say of our lands as to what is to be done with them. You realize, my belief is, and my forefather’s belief is, I raised you; the white man came and I gave him the land and I raised him in this country. Now he should give me that privilege and the full power to say something about my own affairs in my own land.
It would be a great joy to me and my people if they could have their own voice about their lands, as to the disposition of them and as to what should be done with them. Give me your support and give me my own powers to say about my own property.
Just as soon as the news came to the reservation and to me, when it reached me, there has been a new administration, new President, then I knew that we have some hopes of getting somewheres and protecting our rights. My belief is that since we have a new commissioner and administration that the Indians will get justice.