Chapter 11 - Montana Historical Society

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Western Indian Lands, 1850–1890 FIGURES 11.3, 11.4, and 11.5: In 1850 Indian tribes owned all the lands in the western United States (shown in blue). In the next four decades, Indians ceded (gave up) more and more land. (Tribal land east of the Mississippi River is not shown.) Western Indian Lands before 1850 Western Indian Lands by 1870 Western Indian Lands by 1890 1 1 — T H E E A R L Y R E S E R V A T I O N Y E A R S 2 1 1
“I Am Given Little Food” “We old Indians never knew of any way of obtaining food except by hunting. The government promised to feed us if we would live on the reservations. But I am given very little food. Each month our Indian policeman brings me one quart of green coffee, one quart of sugar, a few pounds of flour and a small quantity of baking powder. I am told that I might get more if I should go each month and ask the agent for it. But my home is more than 20 miles over a mountain . . . It should not be expected that a 92-year-old woman get her food by personally going to the agency every month on a certain day and during certain hours of the day . . . It would be hard enough in summer. It is impossible in winter.” —IRON TEETH, A NORTHERN CHEYENNE WOMAN FIGURE 11.6: Chief Mountain has been a sacred area to Blackfeet Indians for hundreds of years. It is part of the land the tribe sold in 1895. “Chief Mountain is my head,” said Blackfeet leader White Calf. “Now my head is cut off.” American painter John Fery (1859 –1934) painted this picture of Chief Mountain around 1915. 2 1 2 P A R T 2 : A C E N T U R Y O F T R A N S F O R M A T I O N Browning—so old it was contaminated with maggots. Approximately one-quarter of the Blackfeet tribe—600 people—died from starvation. The Assiniboine lost approximately 300 people. Many Gros Ventre and Sioux also died from hunger and exposure. Tribal people call this period “Starvation Winter.” After Starvation Winter, the tribes sold the only resource they had left—land. The Sweetgrass Hills Agreement of 1888 reduced the large northern Indian reserve to three smaller reservations: the Blackfeet, Fort Belknap, and Fort Peck Reservations. In 1895 the Blackfeet sold another strip of land that prospectors hoped would contain gold. When no gold was found there, most of this land became Glacier National Park. The next year the government pressured the Assiniboine and Gros Ventre to sell a 28-square-mile chunk of the sacred Little Rocky Mountains. There miners developed a large gold mine. Life on the Reservations By 1888 nine Indian tribes—the Blackfeet, Crow, Assiniboine, Gros Ventre, Sioux, Salish, Kootenai, Pend d’Oreille, and Northern Cheyenne—were living on six Montana reservations. (Rocky Boy’s Reservation—home to members of the Chippewa and Cree tribes—was not established until 1916. See Chapter 15.) Government policies on the reservations refl ected what many non-Indians thought at the time: that the best way for Indians to adjust to a rapidly changing world was to give up their tribal traditions and live like Euro-Americans (Americans with European influence or ancestry). Assimilation (when one culture is absorbed into another, majority culture) was the goal of the reservations. So while American Indian tribes struggled to main-
Page 1 and 2: FIGURE 11.1: Reservation Scene, by
Page 3: FIGURE 11.2: Confi ned to reservati
Page 7 and 8: FIGURE 11.8: Blackfeet tribal membe
Page 9 and 10: FIGURE 11.11: Northern Cheyenne far
Page 11 and 12: “ There were dead horses everywhe
Page 13 and 14: “ It has become the settled polic
Page 15 and 16: FIGURE 11.18: Crow Indian policemen
Page 17 and 18: “ Our belongings were taken from
Page 19 and 20: FIGURE 11.21: This beaded bag, crea
Page 21 and 22: FIGURE 11.24: Creative use of stitc
Page 23: Credits The following abbreviations

Chapter 11 - Montana Historical Society

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