Plains Indian Studies - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

78 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY
per capita payments could ease the poverty of the
latter, the Gros Ventres could not have benefited
very much from per capita payments. For this
reason the delegates pressed for the allotment of
Fort Belknap, urging that individuals also should
receive much needed financing as well as sufficient
grazing land to support the number of stock
adequate for family subsistence. They also requested
increased rations for the elderly. The
delegates were taken to meet the President and
were able to obtain an increase in rations, a
promise of an investigation of agency programs,
and a pledge to seriously consider the delegation's
other requests (NA, 1912).
During the 1920s, the council sought to improve
opportunities for employment and to exert
more control over leases and the expenditure of
tribal income. Before the reservation was finally
allotted in 1923 and 1924, councilmen fought to
influence the allotment policy, sending two delegations
to discuss the issues involved. Despite the
council's efforts, the Fort Belknap Indians found
little relief from poverty, although Superintendent
Marshall was transferred after the council
complained about him to officials in Washington
(Berry, 1973). In 1929, a Senate investigation into
reservation conditions at Fort Belknap (as well as
on other reservations) gave the council a new
forum for their numerous complaints, including
inadequate rations for the elderly, unfulfilled
promises from the 1895 land cession agreement,
an inadequate loan program, unfair irrigation
charges, agency graft, poor health and education
facilities and programs, and poor roads (United
States Senate, 1932:12551-12641). The investigation
had the effect of bolstering BIA support
for stockraising and brought some administrative
reforms at Belknap (Berry, 1973). The Gros
Ventre councilmen also continued to press the
tribe's claim against the United States for the
violation of the 1855 treaty. (The tribe eventually
won a judgment from the Court of Claims in
1935.)
In most matters, the Gros Ventre and Assiniboine
councilmen had few disagreements. Together
they protested mismanagement of reser­
vation resources and argued for more self-determination
(Fort Belknap, 1921-1929). The Gros
Ventres, however, insisted on the primacy of Gros
Ventre rights at Fort Belknap. They argued that
in the 1860s and 1870s they had agreed that some
of the Assiniboines could occupy the lands assigned
to the Gros Ventres in the Treaty of 1855,
but that since that time other Assiniboines moved
on the reservation without the Gros Ventres'
consent. In their strategy to win federal allies in
the struggle over rights to Fort Belknap, councilmen
sought to convince the superintendents that
Gros Ventres were more "progressive" than Assiniboines.
They often succeeded. Superintendent
J.D. Martin (1914-1916) described the Gros
Ventres as much more progressive than the Assiniboines
and the Gros Ventre councilmen as
"quite active in seeking some method or plan for
the improvement of the Indians." He was critical
of the Assiniboine councilmen: "Some of them
have endeavored to stir up discord and dissatisfaction
among the Indians. ..." According to
Martin, the Assiniboines had "much less livestock
per capita than the Gros Ventres and much less
ambition" (NA, 1914b, 1915a). At times, the
Assiniboines made a more favorable impression
on federal officials.
In 1913, the Gros Ventres sent two councilmen
to Washington to protest the Indian Office's plans
to allot Belknap lands to all of the Assiniboines
living at Fort Belknap, arguing that most should
be allotted at Fort Peck with other Assiniboine
bands (FARC, 1913). To the Gros Ventres' annoyance,
they were informed that the Assiniboines
were entitled to allotment at Fort Belknap.
Although the Gros Ventres were not consulted
about the matter. Fort Belknap Reservation was
created by the Act of 15 April 1874 (18 Stat. 28)
from part of the land reserved for the Gros
Ventres in 1855. (The reservation was reduced in
size in 1887.) The government justified the allotment
of the Assiniboines because the Act provided
that not only the Gros Ventres but also, at
the President's discretion, "other Indians" could
be placed at Fort Belknap.
In the 1920s, the Gros Ventre councilmen