Indian history has been re-written by the state and public schools textbooks to provide a favorable scenario for Montana Territory border-whites that casts their genocidal history of “exterminating” the Blackfeet Indians into a patriotic act. The real reason for hiding and changing Montana history is more than racism, it is tied to the economic robbery of Blackfeet land and resources by border whites and encroachment on Blackfeet treaty lands by the state. There are still Blackfeet claims to be settled and hundreds of millions of dollars at stake to be paid by the white invaders. Anthropologist Sol Tax says “What we [white Americans] have done to the [Indian] peoples who were living in North America is our original sin.”
The hardest obstacle for us modern Indians to overcome is the brainwashing of tribal leaders, who if we took the whole reservation back, and we will, still would never get a favorable mention in the tribal council.
In 1980 Chairman Old Person saw us as a threat to his tribal council patronage and entourage and power, and would not join us in the fight to get our lands returned, but instead used his power and influence to make us the enemy. He is the perfect example of the “white-oriented” Indians that helped the border-whites and agency crooks to rob the illiterate Blackfeet Indians in the forced patent frauds.
Two Blackfeet members illustrate this division within the tribe. Stuart Hazlett graduated government school as did Robert Hamilton, but Hazlett used his “education” to help the agency ring rob the Blackfeet, while Hamilton spent his life fighting for the rights of Blackfeet Indian sovereignty and to be free of white rule.
Colonel Pratt’s philosophy was to “kill the Indian and save the child” and to produce white-oriented Indians who would take the white man’s road and forget their Blackfeet principles and values. An Indian child in Pratt’s school said ‘the red man, he big savage, he don’t know nothing, the white man, he know everything.”
I recall many times when Chairman Old Person would attempt to humiliate us and cause us to quit the fight, and walk out of our council meetings to show his contempt for the Blackfeet claims. He blocked our claims at the Senate Indian Affairs Committee after we got a tribal council resolution requesting such an investigation of the forced patents in 2001.
It stands to reason when his hero was Bob Scriver, the racist robber of Blackfeet religious objects. Would Scriver sell that gold war bonnet of the Pope’s? The evil plan of the State of Montana is to incorporate the Blackfeet people under state law and rob the remaining reservation lands bit by bit. Only the Blackfeet Forced Patent-Blackfeet Cattle Ranchers claims will restore the Blackfeet people to sovereign status and clear the whole reservation free of white rule and occupancy.
Tribal dependency is another factor that works in the states favor and BIA complacency. The BIA need never change lest the Indians protest. Once again dependency on the BIA has left the tribe behind the curve of development. It has been our prayer that the Blackfeet will pull out of the epic tribal poverty by doing things for ourselves. Though Chief Old Person chose the wrong road long ago, there is an understanding now of how it happened [BIA brainwashing], and there is forgiveness for him should he change, but I cannot go along with traitors to the Blackfeet treaty right of tax free lands and freedom from white rule. I cannot abide the lies my government has told me [BIA-Interior Department], I know too much. I want my land back, and the freedom to submit to tribal law in my own land. “The private ownership of land is the only way to obtaining wealth, it cannot be had any other way” [Thomas Jefferson]. The Self-Supporting Blackfeet Cattle Ranchers [1896 Agreement/Article Five] were the sole economy of the Blackfeet Tribe and were recognized for their success in the Agreement, and thus their success became a treaty goal and a treaty right to the exclusive use and occupancy of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.
These are our goals today. We want the landowners [minerals-revenues] restored and the tribal cattle ranchers reserved grazing tracts, stolen livestock and revenue losses restored with interest since 1896. Then we can begin again to build our nation. I really think this is what our ancestors wanted us to do, and that is to save this land for future Blackfeet babies as they did for us under the duress of genocide. It is the least we can do for their heirs, to restore the reservation to honor their deaths and suffering sacrifices for us.
We are moving out of the period of dependency and toward true tribal sovereignty, and we will be good neighbors to the state, but not under state jurisdiction. The more we do for ourselves the closer tribal independence is to a reality instead of a goal. It is our ancestors who are guiding us in the treaty and tribal governance. We have the services of the tribal attorney when we get to the tribal resolution requesting a Senate Investigation of our claims. What we really need is to organize all of our claims into one tribal resolution, so we must involve the whole tribe in this endeavor. There is time for us to get it right, but also to keep in mind our people are suffering poverty not their fault, and it must be relieved as soon as possible. The tribal council is helping us so we expect to progress quickly. Stay tuned and give us your ideas and guidance, this project belongs to us all. We need a tribal summit meeting on the claims to bring us all together. How about September or November when the people settle in for the winter? Any suggestions?
The hardest obstacle for us modern Indians to overcome is the brainwashing of tribal leaders, who if we took the whole reservation back, and we will, still would never get a favorable mention in the tribal council.
In 1980 Chairman Old Person saw us as a threat to his tribal council patronage and entourage and power, and would not join us in the fight to get our lands returned, but instead used his power and influence to make us the enemy. He is the perfect example of the “white-oriented” Indians that helped the border-whites and agency crooks to rob the illiterate Blackfeet Indians in the forced patent frauds.
Two Blackfeet members illustrate this division within the tribe. Stuart Hazlett graduated government school as did Robert Hamilton, but Hazlett used his “education” to help the agency ring rob the Blackfeet, while Hamilton spent his life fighting for the rights of Blackfeet Indian sovereignty and to be free of white rule.
Colonel Pratt’s philosophy was to “kill the Indian and save the child” and to produce white-oriented Indians who would take the white man’s road and forget their Blackfeet principles and values. An Indian child in Pratt’s school said ‘the red man, he big savage, he don’t know nothing, the white man, he know everything.”
I recall many times when Chairman Old Person would attempt to humiliate us and cause us to quit the fight, and walk out of our council meetings to show his contempt for the Blackfeet claims. He blocked our claims at the Senate Indian Affairs Committee after we got a tribal council resolution requesting such an investigation of the forced patents in 2001.
It stands to reason when his hero was Bob Scriver, the racist robber of Blackfeet religious objects. Would Scriver sell that gold war bonnet of the Pope’s? The evil plan of the State of Montana is to incorporate the Blackfeet people under state law and rob the remaining reservation lands bit by bit. Only the Blackfeet Forced Patent-Blackfeet Cattle Ranchers claims will restore the Blackfeet people to sovereign status and clear the whole reservation free of white rule and occupancy.
Tribal dependency is another factor that works in the states favor and BIA complacency. The BIA need never change lest the Indians protest. Once again dependency on the BIA has left the tribe behind the curve of development. It has been our prayer that the Blackfeet will pull out of the epic tribal poverty by doing things for ourselves. Though Chief Old Person chose the wrong road long ago, there is an understanding now of how it happened [BIA brainwashing], and there is forgiveness for him should he change, but I cannot go along with traitors to the Blackfeet treaty right of tax free lands and freedom from white rule. I cannot abide the lies my government has told me [BIA-Interior Department], I know too much. I want my land back, and the freedom to submit to tribal law in my own land. “The private ownership of land is the only way to obtaining wealth, it cannot be had any other way” [Thomas Jefferson]. The Self-Supporting Blackfeet Cattle Ranchers [1896 Agreement/Article Five] were the sole economy of the Blackfeet Tribe and were recognized for their success in the Agreement, and thus their success became a treaty goal and a treaty right to the exclusive use and occupancy of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.
These are our goals today. We want the landowners [minerals-revenues] restored and the tribal cattle ranchers reserved grazing tracts, stolen livestock and revenue losses restored with interest since 1896. Then we can begin again to build our nation. I really think this is what our ancestors wanted us to do, and that is to save this land for future Blackfeet babies as they did for us under the duress of genocide. It is the least we can do for their heirs, to restore the reservation to honor their deaths and suffering sacrifices for us.
We are moving out of the period of dependency and toward true tribal sovereignty, and we will be good neighbors to the state, but not under state jurisdiction. The more we do for ourselves the closer tribal independence is to a reality instead of a goal. It is our ancestors who are guiding us in the treaty and tribal governance. We have the services of the tribal attorney when we get to the tribal resolution requesting a Senate Investigation of our claims. What we really need is to organize all of our claims into one tribal resolution, so we must involve the whole tribe in this endeavor. There is time for us to get it right, but also to keep in mind our people are suffering poverty not their fault, and it must be relieved as soon as possible. The tribal council is helping us so we expect to progress quickly. Stay tuned and give us your ideas and guidance, this project belongs to us all. We need a tribal summit meeting on the claims to bring us all together. How about September or November when the people settle in for the winter? Any suggestions?
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