ORIGINS OF THE BLACKFEET CLAIMS
The border-whites were at bottom of all of the violations of the treaty and agreement since they believed the only solution was the final solution-extermination of the Indian race. The Montana border-whites were particularly virulent racists having their roots as confederates holding Black slaves before the Civil War and coming to Blackfoot Confederacy lands after the racists were defeated. The earliest border whites were reported by Agent Reed in 1862 as killing and scalping Black-Foot Indians, and bringing liquor into the Indian Territory in violation of the 1855 Treaty. These were gold miners and illegal emigrants into Blackfoot Confederacy lands. Behind these robbers and killers were the territorial politicians like Montana Territorial Governor Meagher, who called for the extermination of the Indians, and the Conrad brothers, who were confederates and members of Moseby’s Raiders, a confederate class of soldiers who sacked towns for booty. At the top of the border white’s robber’s organization were the robber baron’s like James J. Hill and his son Louis Hill, who were allowed by the BIA superintendent to take any Blackfeet resources needed for his Great Northern Railroad. There were the Fort Benton “Merchant Princes” who financed the whiskey trade, robbed the Indian annuities, and starved the Blackfeet into land cessions with their senator’s complicity. Above all this robbery and murder was the Congress who many times suffered willful blindness to the border whites and practiced “Ostrich complicity” with the criminals and Montana Senators who blamed the Indian victims for their losses. But, in white collar crimes it is never wise to blame the victims of government complicity with so many government documents and investigations covering their criminal activities over a century. It results in the Indian claims we are now pursuing after nearly one hundred years. More recently the son of James J. Hill, Louis Hill, corrupted the Blackfeet tribal chairman into approving a tribal lease over the protests of the tribal council by taking the lease to Washington D.C. for BIA approval. The Indians would pay all of the costs of developing the wells and Louis Hill would garner all of the profits, so that the Indians would get nothing in the end, not even gas. Glacier and Pondera Counties played the role of legalizing the land thefts by issuing tax deeds and canceling Blackfeet title in county court actions. All illegal of course, but who was watching over the Blackfeet interests? The Blackfeet defenders were the Chiefs listed in the treaty and agreement, and Robert Hamilton, a graduate of government Indian School who beat the indoctrination of school authorities to turn Indian students against their own people. Stuart Hazlett, a government school graduate and contemporary of Hamilton, chose to help the whites and government officials to force the Indians to sign patents. He was the competency commission clerk for Blackfeet Agency who prepared the lists of Indians slated for patents, while Hamilton was the lawyer for the chiefs. This divide is still in place on the reservation with some Blackfeet fighting for their lands and some Blackfeet behind the BIA as superintendent and other positions. The Indian Service created government schools to create white-oriented Indians who would work for the government in civilizing the Indians, and help to strip the Indians of their property and treaty rights over time. I remember the Blackfeet BIA clerks in the 1960’s joking about taking Indian winos money and property and having a good time on their account, crowing about their nest eggs. I think now the BIA clerks and government cowboys use third-party contracts to lease Blackfeet property for their own enrichment. The public schools oppression of Blackfeet history also helps to cover up the true criminal events that made the Blackfeet poor and landless. Public schools run by the state and county cannot teach the true history of Indian property conspiracy events without exposing the whites to Indian claims and law suits. These are live claims that the BIA, Interior Department and State of Montana have tried to extinguish for over one hundred years. The forced patent conspiracy reached into tribal government by the 1980’s when Chairman Old Person chose to oppress the Blackfeet claims in conspiracy with the BIA. We educated him many times on the forced patents, and he lied to us many times in agreeing to help us bring the claims to Congress. In the traditional Blackfeet law he would be banished from the tribe for his treason. But that is all part of Blackfeet history now, he will be known as the traitorous chief that got away with it. The border whites involved in the forced patents and other conspiracies came from Cut Bank, which the elders believe is on the reservation, Conrad, Choteau, Great Falls, Valier, Havre, Chinook and every other little farm town that wanted Blackfeet water. The one thing we did discover was that the conspiracy was all local for the enrichment of the border whites and border towns. There was no national movement to take the Blackfeet lands, only bogus Blackfeet land cession bills introduced in Congress by Montana Senators for the benefit of Montana constituents. Even the killing, starvation, whiskey trade, small pox, and massacre were meant to take more Blackfeet lands by border whites. It has been a long, slow death for the Blackfeet Indians, but try as they might, the border whites could never reach the limits of Blackfeet suffering. Even their last killing of 100 Blackfeet by starvation in 1913 was unsuccessful because the Blackfeet appealed to Senator Lane to protect their interests in Congress, in which Senator Lane exposed Senator Walsh of Montana’s bill to steal the Blackfeet minerals. He was made to put the minerals back and admonished by Senator Lane, who told the Congress the Blackfeet Indians were eating skunks to keep their lands, as they were being starved by the BIA and border whites to make them agree to another land cession of their reclamation lands and oil wells. Do you think you could hold out under those circumstances? Give some credit to yourself, for you have been deprived of your fortune without concession. We are closer to victory and must band together. The next step is to construct our tribal resolution requesting Congress [Senate Indian Affairs Committee] to resolve our claims by legislative solutions. The tribal council has offered the Tribal Attorney to assist us in the preparation of the Congressional Request. We welcome all suggestions and assistance in this preparation period. Tell us what you want us to request of the Committee. For example, forced patent, etc., that we can include in the claims document, and legal advice or legal assistance in the document preparations. Anything will help. Thanks.
The border-whites were at bottom of all of the violations of the treaty and agreement since they believed the only solution was the final solution-extermination of the Indian race. The Montana border-whites were particularly virulent racists having their roots as confederates holding Black slaves before the Civil War and coming to Blackfoot Confederacy lands after the racists were defeated. The earliest border whites were reported by Agent Reed in 1862 as killing and scalping Black-Foot Indians, and bringing liquor into the Indian Territory in violation of the 1855 Treaty. These were gold miners and illegal emigrants into Blackfoot Confederacy lands. Behind these robbers and killers were the territorial politicians like Montana Territorial Governor Meagher, who called for the extermination of the Indians, and the Conrad brothers, who were confederates and members of Moseby’s Raiders, a confederate class of soldiers who sacked towns for booty. At the top of the border white’s robber’s organization were the robber baron’s like James J. Hill and his son Louis Hill, who were allowed by the BIA superintendent to take any Blackfeet resources needed for his Great Northern Railroad. There were the Fort Benton “Merchant Princes” who financed the whiskey trade, robbed the Indian annuities, and starved the Blackfeet into land cessions with their senator’s complicity. Above all this robbery and murder was the Congress who many times suffered willful blindness to the border whites and practiced “Ostrich complicity” with the criminals and Montana Senators who blamed the Indian victims for their losses. But, in white collar crimes it is never wise to blame the victims of government complicity with so many government documents and investigations covering their criminal activities over a century. It results in the Indian claims we are now pursuing after nearly one hundred years. More recently the son of James J. Hill, Louis Hill, corrupted the Blackfeet tribal chairman into approving a tribal lease over the protests of the tribal council by taking the lease to Washington D.C. for BIA approval. The Indians would pay all of the costs of developing the wells and Louis Hill would garner all of the profits, so that the Indians would get nothing in the end, not even gas. Glacier and Pondera Counties played the role of legalizing the land thefts by issuing tax deeds and canceling Blackfeet title in county court actions. All illegal of course, but who was watching over the Blackfeet interests? The Blackfeet defenders were the Chiefs listed in the treaty and agreement, and Robert Hamilton, a graduate of government Indian School who beat the indoctrination of school authorities to turn Indian students against their own people. Stuart Hazlett, a government school graduate and contemporary of Hamilton, chose to help the whites and government officials to force the Indians to sign patents. He was the competency commission clerk for Blackfeet Agency who prepared the lists of Indians slated for patents, while Hamilton was the lawyer for the chiefs. This divide is still in place on the reservation with some Blackfeet fighting for their lands and some Blackfeet behind the BIA as superintendent and other positions. The Indian Service created government schools to create white-oriented Indians who would work for the government in civilizing the Indians, and help to strip the Indians of their property and treaty rights over time. I remember the Blackfeet BIA clerks in the 1960’s joking about taking Indian winos money and property and having a good time on their account, crowing about their nest eggs. I think now the BIA clerks and government cowboys use third-party contracts to lease Blackfeet property for their own enrichment. The public schools oppression of Blackfeet history also helps to cover up the true criminal events that made the Blackfeet poor and landless. Public schools run by the state and county cannot teach the true history of Indian property conspiracy events without exposing the whites to Indian claims and law suits. These are live claims that the BIA, Interior Department and State of Montana have tried to extinguish for over one hundred years. The forced patent conspiracy reached into tribal government by the 1980’s when Chairman Old Person chose to oppress the Blackfeet claims in conspiracy with the BIA. We educated him many times on the forced patents, and he lied to us many times in agreeing to help us bring the claims to Congress. In the traditional Blackfeet law he would be banished from the tribe for his treason. But that is all part of Blackfeet history now, he will be known as the traitorous chief that got away with it. The border whites involved in the forced patents and other conspiracies came from Cut Bank, which the elders believe is on the reservation, Conrad, Choteau, Great Falls, Valier, Havre, Chinook and every other little farm town that wanted Blackfeet water. The one thing we did discover was that the conspiracy was all local for the enrichment of the border whites and border towns. There was no national movement to take the Blackfeet lands, only bogus Blackfeet land cession bills introduced in Congress by Montana Senators for the benefit of Montana constituents. Even the killing, starvation, whiskey trade, small pox, and massacre were meant to take more Blackfeet lands by border whites. It has been a long, slow death for the Blackfeet Indians, but try as they might, the border whites could never reach the limits of Blackfeet suffering. Even their last killing of 100 Blackfeet by starvation in 1913 was unsuccessful because the Blackfeet appealed to Senator Lane to protect their interests in Congress, in which Senator Lane exposed Senator Walsh of Montana’s bill to steal the Blackfeet minerals. He was made to put the minerals back and admonished by Senator Lane, who told the Congress the Blackfeet Indians were eating skunks to keep their lands, as they were being starved by the BIA and border whites to make them agree to another land cession of their reclamation lands and oil wells. Do you think you could hold out under those circumstances? Give some credit to yourself, for you have been deprived of your fortune without concession. We are closer to victory and must band together. The next step is to construct our tribal resolution requesting Congress [Senate Indian Affairs Committee] to resolve our claims by legislative solutions. The tribal council has offered the Tribal Attorney to assist us in the preparation of the Congressional Request. We welcome all suggestions and assistance in this preparation period. Tell us what you want us to request of the Committee. For example, forced patent, etc., that we can include in the claims document, and legal advice or legal assistance in the document preparations. Anything will help. Thanks.
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