Plains Indian Studies - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

62 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY
of Blackfoot self-determination. At times his actions
advanced his own personal fortunes as much
as the collective welfare of the submerged tribe.
Doubtless, in his own mind the two objectives
were one.
Although Hamilton accommodated his own
identity to meet the changing demographic nature
of the reservation, he rarely sublimated himself
to the whims of the White world. His behavior,
often erratic and inexplicable, was consistently
assertive in so far as encouraging political
activism among the Blackfeet. Hamilton's actions
frequently brought federal reprisals. While the
federal government through its reservation agents
sought the destruction of Blackfoot culture and
tribal society, the establishment of a Jeffersonian
yoeman economy, and the political docility of the
Blackfeet, Hamilton defended the tribe's cultural
heritage while attempting to accommodate to
twentieth-century economic realities. More importantly,
he tried to weld the Blackfeet together
with a new sense of community based on shared
political aspiration as well as pride in a common
ethnic heritage. That he did not and possibly
could not find a mechanism to fulfill his aim of
preserving the past while living in a radically
altered present did not diminish the substantial
character of his achievement.
Details of Hamilton's early life are uncertain.
He was probably of mixed blood parentage, although
that is not well established. In 1902 Hamilton
claimed to be a full blood Indian, whose
parents had died in his infancy. A.B. Hamilton,
a local trader, adopted him, changed his name
from Bobtail to Robert, and gave him his own
surname. In 1920, however, Hamilton indicated
that A.B. Hamilton was his natural father and
that his Blackfoot mother died in childbirth. The
confusion as to Hamilton's birth may provide
some insight into his character. In the first two
decades of the twentieth century Blackfoot demography
changed dramatically. At the turn of
the century the Blackfoot population was dominated
by full bloods; by 1920 they constituted
barely one-fourth of the enrolled membership.
Although Hamilton may have simply been expedient,
he more likely reacted under the stress of
alienation felt by many of his generation who had
neither a commitment to the old ways nor a firm
perception of the future. Neither full blood by
birth nor mixed blood by temperament, he strove
to be both (Anonymous, 1902:1570; Stout, 1921:
1206; NA, 1915c).
Raised in the household of a White Indiantrader
and educated at Carlisle Indian School
where he graduated in 1896, Hamilton doubtless
was confused about his own ethnic heritage. Consequently,
in finding his place on the Blackfoot
Reservation at the turn of the century he appealed
to emotion rather than biology. The conflict
in his own background propelled him to seek
identification in the political arena rather than in
a society still clinging to a way of life that could
not survive.
Returning to the reservation after his graduation,
Hamilton began a conventional career for a
young man with a prominent local sponsor. He
married a full blood Blackfoot girl in 1898 and
took a job as a clerk in the store of another trader,
E.T. Broadwater. While working in the Broadwater
store he also acted as an interpreter for the
reservation agent. That experience may have first
turned him to political activism. Certainly for the
first time it brought him into close contact with
his people and gave him a unique vantage point
from which to observe the nearly complete control
that reservation agents then exercised. Hamilton
also discovered that he enjoyed being at the center
of power.
Hamilton's tenure as tribal interpreter was
short-lived. He used his position to convince the
agent of the need for a building to house a
Blackfoot literary society where young men of his
age could learn English and read American literature.
Agent Thomas Fuller applauded the idea
and soon gave his permission, only to learn that
the building was a gathering place for training
young men in the Sun Dance and for older men
to pass down oral traditions. Hamilton had not
been entirely deceitful. He intended to combine
instruction in English with the preservation of
Blackfoot traditions, which he wished to learn
himself He also used the occasion to rally support
against an appointed tribal council. In any event,