The Gros Ventre or A’aniii are an Algonquian-speaking people. There are quite a few tribes that speak languages belonging to this family. They all originated from a single tribe that once lived somewhere in the northeast of North America. As people often do, they migrated to follow their food supply. Some of these people moved westward to the north following caribou herds, like the Cree, and some went west toward the south following buffalo herds, like the Blackfeet and Arapaho.
Linguists are able to estimate how long different groups have been separated from each other by studying the amount of change that has transpired between their languages or dialects. We know that likely up until the late 1700’s the A’aniii and the Arapaho were one people. It is only speculation as to why they separated. Their cultures were very similar, and their languages were mutually intelligible. The Arapaho went south near the Cheyenne in the area that became Wyoming and the A’aniii went north into Montana and Canada. These tribes were equestrian buffalo hunters and very typical Plains Indians.
What follows is a discussion of Federal Indian Policy and then a brief history of the Gros Ventre and Fort Belknap. I’m offering this information as a critically important context for all the experiences I will describe in the following posts. It isn’t the most exciting stuff. In fact, if you think about what all of this means, this history is depressing and demoralizing. My stories would be far less meaningful without this context. No one chooses to go through the experiences these people endured.
To understand the history of these people, one must have some understanding of Federal Government Indian Policy and the relationship the Gros Ventre had with the government. Unless I specify otherwise, when I refer to government, I always mean the federal government. I’m going to start by offering a discussion of this relationship between the government and Native Americans, in general. While the languages and cultures between the tribes across the United States were incredibly different, the government designed laws and policies as if they were dealing with a single and identical group of people. It would be as if our government would treat China, Nigeria and England as being a single country and developing all our policies toward them in the same way. For obvious reasons, that approach would not work. From the outset, the government set the whole proposition up for failure; not that our country or our people were all that invested in success. Fair warning, this history is remarkably unpleasant. And there are too many politicians today who do not want this history taught to students in the manner I am describing it (the historical facts), because we might hurt someone’s feelings.
Treaties
A Papal Bull in 1537 declared that Indians were human and possessed an immortal soul. Wasn’t that special. Consequently, our indigenous peoples did not end up in zoos. The Pope’s insights influenced the earliest Europeans to see Native Americans as human beings, and they treated these communities as such. Too bad the Pope didn’t apply a tad bit more sensitivity to accusing my family of killing Jesus.
In the 1700’s, the tribes were treated as sovereign nations with a legitimate claim to their land. As colonists appeared in larger numbers, it was clear that the Indians were in their way. Treaties were all about moving these people out of our way.
The British wrote treaties with tribes to acquire their land and to establish boundaries for where tribes were supposed to live. The French did not recognize Indian land rights, but they developed more intimate relations with Indians and many married Indian women. You just got to love the French. The United States government negotiated treaties with the tribes and treated them as foreign powers starting in 1778. The treaty period ended in 1871.
Before contact with whites, the tribes were free to move and live wherever they wanted. Their only constraints were natural resources and competition for those resources with neighboring groups. As they were living on such large areas of land, neither of these constraints posed much of a problem. In the case of the equestrian buffalo hunters on the plains, the tribes followed the buffalo herds and often wintered near water supplies. They lived and depended on large tracts of land because they were following the migratory buffalo herds across the plains. I should add here that the horses that they were so dependent on for hunting and for mobility were not indigenous to North America. Modern horses were brought to the Americas by the Spanish after contact. As horses became so central to the Plains Indian economy, they were a prized possession. Horse raiding became a popular activity between the tribes. One of the most important values in Plains Indian society was bravery, and horse raiding created a lot of great opportunities for demonstrations of bravery. People often had different names throughout their lifetimes. Some names might be applied to a person by virtue of a physical characteristic. Some names were given to a person based on an act of bravery. There were not a small number of these names that were associated with stealing horses from an enemy tribe. They didn’t have surnames. That practice was forced on them when it became necessary for the government to start keeping track of individuals.
When settlers, miners, ranchers, and railroads wanted more and more land, there was no way our government was going to allow these tribes to continue their traditional existence. The treaties were all about defining smaller and smaller and smaller pieces of land that a tribe was permitted to live on, thus opening their traditional homes to the encroachment of whites. You know, the whole manifest destiny mythology. And that makes it obvious as to why the whole following migratory buffalo herds was just not going to work out for these tribes. Ergo, let’s just kill all the buffalo, make the tribes totally dependent on us for food and more pliable to accept all of what we needed from them - and that they wanted to avoid at all costs – the complete destruction of their language and way of life.
What is the value of a language and a way of life? We paid the tribes for their land. We’ve never compensated them for brutally destroying an entire way of life. There are probably guys on Wall Street who could monetize that for us.
The US viewed the tribes as dependent nations and as time went by, they became increasingly politically weak and economically dependent. The federal government reserved the right to regulate affairs with Indians and almost never relinquished that right to the states. Thus, states do not have any jurisdiction on reservations. These are exclusively federal trust lands. Treaties were negotiated by the President and were binding only after approval by the Indians (like we really gave them a choice) and a two-thirds vote of the US Senate. Any funds related to the treaties required separate Congressional action.
The government negotiated about 400 separate treaties with tribes, the largest number of which occurred between 1815 and 1860, the period of greatest westward expansion of white settlers. More than half of those treaties involved the tribes giving up large portions of their land and establishing much smaller boundaries for where they could live. About a quarter of the treaties involved moving tribes from their current homelands to entirely different locations.
The purpose of treaties was to establish boundaries between Indian and white lands and to affirm friendly relations between tribes and the US. Could one have a more effective gateway to friendliness than starvation? In exchange for their land the government gave the tribes civilization in the way of farm equipment and animals, educational facilities, western material culture and, of course, Christianity. To put it more succinctly, we paid them for this land and then used this money to force them to be stripped of a way of life they had absolutely no interest in losing. What a bargain.
By the 1870s, the lives of most of the tribes were sufficiently destitute that Congress saw no value in having to continue the charade of treating them as foreign powers. They were dependent on the government in many cases for their survival, and thus, we could pretty much do with them as we pleased (and we did). Thus, the treaty period ended in 1871, and the tribes were no longer recognized as independent nations. They became wards of the federal government. Thus, the government took on responsibility for caring for their welfare. What the government really did was to screw these tribes mercilessly at every turn. The tribes have never been compensated for this negligence and malfeasance. How do you place a value on the illegal disregard for treaty obligations and incompetence? I’m sure there are guys on Wall Street who could monetize it for us.
Even though treaties haven’t been written since 1871, all the legal obligations haven’t gone anywhere. The federal government still has all the responsibilities that are enumerated in these treaties. That makes these tribes unlike any other minority in America. Federal government policy toward minorities is often driven by ethical or moral values and decisions. This might also be the case for Native Americans. But the US government also has very real legal obligations involved in the treatment and policies directed toward the tribes. Lesson: if you knew that you were ultimately going to treat them like crap, you should have never feared them.
Administration of Indian Policy
The Continental Congress in 1775 created three agencies to deal with Indian Affairs; the country was divided into three regions. The Commissioners of these agencies were instructed to make treaties, establish friendly relations with the Indians, and prevent them from aiding the British. In 1786, the administration of Indian affairs was placed under the Secretary of War. The first Congress of 1789 appropriated funds for negotiating treaties. In 1824 the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) was established under the War Department. In 1849 the BIA was moved to the Home Department of the Interior, where it exists today. The BIA has a very long history of corruption and mismanagement. The tribes have a long history of not trusting the BIA, and for all the right reasons.
Major Legislation
1802 A law was passed to make it illegal to sell alcohol to Indians. It represents the first federal regulation of alcohol among Indians. This law was not repealed until 1953. The government left it up to the tribes to determine whether the sale of alcohol would be permitted on their reservations.
1817 A system of criminal law for Indians and non-Indians was established in Indian country. Indians were given the authority to punish other Indians according to their own way. Today, the tribes have jurisdiction of cases on the reservation that are not felonies. Only the federal government has jurisdiction over felonies. During the time of my research, one of the more significant legal issues involved this jurisdictional question. The states have no legal jurisdiction on the reservation. If Indians are off of the reservation, the local and state courts have jurisdiction over Indian behavior. Non-Indians, on the other hand, do not want to be tried in Indian courts for misdemeanors.
1819 An act was passed by Congress to encourage the civilization of Indians. The President was given power to employ people to instruct Indians in agricultural methods, and to teach children reading, writing, and arithmetic.
1830 The Removal Act was passed giving the government authority to remove Indians who lived east of the Mississippi. They were to be given land in the west in exchange for land they forfeited. This policy resulted in the Trail of Tears to Indian Territory (Oklahoma). Hey, grandma, we know how much you enjoy living in the everglades; but how would you feel about taking a 1300 mile walk to Oklahoma? The removal was supposed to be voluntary, and the federal government was also supposed to make compensatory payments. How voluntary does Trail of Tears sound?
1887 – The Dawes Act or General Allotment Act gave the President authorization to allot the lands of most reservations to individual Indians. The federal government would hold trust title on the lands – and any surplus reservation land could be sold to the government and funds would be held in trust for a tribe to be used for education and other civilizing endeavors. The purpose of the act was to transform Indians into western farmers with the values of individualism and self-reliance, and away from the communal values of the tribe. Once all the tribal members would receive their allotment, the government might purchase any land remaining and they might also open the reservation land to white homesteaders.
1892 - 1897 The federal government stressed Indian education acts providing for schools and the forced attendance of Indian children. Up until this period, the federal government often relied on and supported church schools for educating Indian children. The reservations were divided among different denominations. The Jesuits got dibs on most of the mission schools in Montana. Some of these were boarding schools with the expressed purpose of separating children from their parents and then forcing the children to give up their language, customs and beliefs. As the buffalo herds were decimated and the people became dependent on government rations for survival, the government and the missions used food as a weapon to force parents to give up their children.
1934 - Johnson-O'Malley Act was an effort to improve the economic and educational facilities available for Indians. It provided that education, medical attention, agricultural assistance and social welfare among Indians be the responsibility of qualified state agencies, removed from BIA control, and supported by federal money.
1934 - Wheeler-Howard Act or Indian Reorganization Act was an attempt to reverse some of the most devastating impacts of the allotment act. It was designed to retain Indian lands that were being lost through allotment and make possible the acquisition of additional lands. The tribes were encouraged to form chartered corporations with the purpose of improving tribal economies. The tribes became governments and incorporated businesses. They adopted constitutions and by-laws, and the people elected councils. Preferential hiring was given to Indians in BIA jobs.
WWII and the GI Bill offered many educational opportunities to the people who served in our military.
1946 The Indian Claims Commission Act was passed to settle old government injustices and treaties that had not been honored. These represented additional attempts for the federal government to abandon its obligations to the tribes.
1953 - The Termination Act was a federal policy in the 1950s that ended the federal government's support for Native American tribes and their reservations. The policy ended the government’s federal recognition of tribes and all the services and aid that came with this recognition. The act ended federal trust status of reservations and the protections of that status. It transferred jurisdiction of criminal and civil matters from the federal to state governments. It took less than 100 years for Congress to become totally worn out by all those treaty obligations. Fortunately, there were only a few tribes who were crushed by this incredibly horrific legislation.
1951 – The Indian Relocation Program was established. It was a voluntary program run by the BIA to relocate Native Americans from their rural tribes to cities. The BIA offered help with finding housing and employment and families received temporary funds for transportation, temporary medical insurance and food. It is important to recognize that for contemporary tribes, the center of tribal culture and language (when it still exists) is the reservation. People who relocate to urban areas either through this program or after service in the military, might still maintain their traditional identity, but it is far more difficult. It is more common for individuals who are in urban areas to participate with people from other tribes in more pan-Indian activities. Thus, in some important ways, one might consider relocation as being something akin to individualized termination. If assimilation is the goal, being in an urban area away from the reservation is a step in that direction. Often, individuals make regular and repeated visits back to the reservation to hold on to their cultures and specific tribal identities.
1955 The Public Health Service took control of the Indian Health Service from the BIA.
1970s Self-Determination The tribes were given the authority to develop and implement their own policies and received preference in contracting for services previously handled by the federal government. This was one of the few things Nixon got right.
Citizenship
The history of American citizenship for Native Americans is exceptionally complicated. It wasn’t until 1924 and the Citizenship Act that all Indians became American citizens. Before that date, there were ways that an individual could achieve citizenship. Most of these ways involved renouncing tribal culture, identity and membership. Let that sink in … we figured out that the treaties with foreign nations were no longer needed by 1871 (because we no longer feared these dependent and destitute tribes) and we dilly dallied around until 1924 to give them the right to vote. I wonder what the value might be of that ironic hypocrisy? I’m sure some guys on Wall Street could monetize it for us.
If what you read in that very brief history left you thinking that federal government policy was self-serving, inconsistent in every direction, paternalistic, corrupt, immoral and unethical, deceptive, negligent, abusive, and ineffective, then you have grasped the essential nature of the relationship between the tribes and the United States of America – our government and its people. This review was from 30,000 feet as these policies were enforced on all tribes. When reviewing these same policies as they were applied to one reservation, to the two tribes on that reservation and to the many people who lived on Fort Belknap, all these devasting policies become very personal and these programs had horrific consequences.
If I have an issue with Social Security or Medicare, I dread having to make a call to discuss it with a government employee. Reaching a human being on the phone isn’t an easy proposition. Finding someone who understands the issues is not an easy proposition. Getting a resolution to an issue is not an easy proposition. Almost everything about life on a reservation involves some kind of relationship to a federal government agency. The people regularly have to deal with the Indian Health Service (Public Health Service), Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (Department of the Interior), Bureau of Land Management, the Justice Department and FBI and many more. It is not an existence for the weak of heart.
In 1974, Edward Barry (Department of History, Government and Philosophy, Montana State University, Bozeman) published an excellent history of Fort Belknap: The First Hundred Years, 1855 – 1955. It is a thorough account and exceptionally well resourced. A portion of the following summary relies on Barry’s publication. I also rely on information I acquired through both my studies and literature review prior to my fieldwork, as well as my life on Fort Belknap between 1976 and 1978.
As Europeans arrived in the Americas, the tribes that lived on the east and west coasts, as well as those who were in the Southwest were significantly impacted and very early on. Those tribes, such as the A’aniii, who were located well into the interior of our country, were spared this early onslaught of Europeans. There wasn’t railroad access and getting into this region of the country was difficult. Lewis and Clark made their way into the Upper Missouri region, which is just south of the current Fort Belknap, but that didn’t occur until after the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Thus, the A’aniii were able to maintain their way of life long after tribes on the coasts were able to do so. Also, the buffalo herds in this central part of the country were the last to be hunted to extinction. These herds made the traditional life of these equestrian plains tribes possible. The last of the remaining herds of buffalo lived in the territories of the A’aniii. Other tribes moved into this region who relied on the last of this critical resource, causing increased conflicts between these groups.
A’aniiih or A’aniii or A’ananin is the traditional name for the Gros Ventre in their native language. I’ve tried to figure out if there are any differences in the meanings of these variations. I haven’t been able to besides different transliterations of the name. They mean The White Clay People. If we still had Beatrice and Jim, I would be able to get a definitive answer. I got so many wonderful definitive answers from Jim and Beatrice about the traditional culture and language. They were among the last fluent native speakers. I loved listening to them speak to each other. They were the sweetest. It is a complicated language. May their memories be a blessing.
The tribe was also known as Atsina. The name Gros Ventre was given to them by the French and derived from a confusion in translating sign language. I’ll describe the whole Gros Ventre thing in another blog. The federal government formally refers to this group as the Gros Ventre. The treaties were written with the Gros Ventre. At the time I was doing my work, the people referred to themselves as Gros Ventre. And the name Gros Ventre is also confusing, because the same name was applied to a totally different tribe, the Hidatsa.
The Gros Ventre had a long association with the Blackfeet. In 1855 the tribes signed a treaty (Fort Laramie) with the government establishing a common hunting ground for the Gros Ventre, Blackfeet, Piegan, Blood, Flathead and Nez Perce. The tribes agreed to remain in this established area. Fort Benton, on the Missouri River, was the center of Indian administration during this period. This location was selected because it was easier to get supplies into this area on steamboats as opposed to other areas that were located away from river travel. There weren’t yet railroads serving Montana territory.
When I was in Montana visiting Mike and Ligia in 2014, we made a trip to Fort Benton one evening. It is a beautiful town.
This is one of my favorite images from Fort Benton. It was sunset and the deer were in the river.
By the early 1870s, Fort Belknap was established near what is now Chinook and the agency was providing rations to the Gros Ventre as buffalo were becoming scarce. The tribe was also dealing with smallpox epidemics and warfare with the Sioux. During the 1880s the last of the buffalo herds were between the Bear Paw Mountains and the Milk River. The tribe had become destitute, impoverished and almost entirely dependent on the government for rations. As the Great Northern Railroad was completed, more white settlers made their way into Montana Territory, putting additional pressure on the government to make more land available to homesteaders and grazing lands for ranchers. Miners were pressuring the government to open land in the Bear Paw and Little Rocky Mountains.
Both of these photographs were taken just after the turn of the century on Fort Belknap. The first is of A'aniii men on horseback overlooking an encampment. I don't know the location, but it sure looks to me like it is in the Hays area on a ridge that is now near Route 376. The second image is of a group moving their encampment with horses pulling travois. I only have a couple of photographs because there wasn't a lot of material that isn't copyrighted. If you would like to see images of the A'aniii before major acculturation, there are a lot of beautiful photographs from the late 1800s and early 1900s that you can find on the internet.
In January 1887, the Fort Belknap Reservation was formally established for the Gros Ventre and the Assiniboine. The Assiniboine were a Siouan speaking people with a way of life very similar to the Gros Ventre. The mobility of these tribes was significantly constrained to this much smaller territory as compared to their traditional homeland. The government paid for the land that was taken away from these tribes, and the money was then used for the purpose of ‘civilizing’ the people. This is a critically important point to bear in mind through all these treaties and land purchases. The tribes were paid for the land, but the government kept possession and control of the money. It was not given to the people. Every time the government offered education or medical services or purchased agricultural implements or cattle or seed or equipment, or built schools or sawmills or homes, they charged the tribes against the money they were holding in trust. We didn’t give these people anything … we had them pay for all this civilizing stuff that they had no interest in buying. They were having acculturation shoved down their throats and we were charging them for it. Just how transparent, honest or accurate were all these transactions? Is it possible that the whites who made these sales were taking advantage (ripping off) of the tribes? I would urge you to think the Pentagon and $500 toilet seats. And given our history, why would anyone think that what we were paying for this land was an accurate and honest assessment of its real value?
This map shows the results of treaties on the land that was assigned to the Gros Vente Tribe. It starts with the 1855 Laramie Treaty and ends up with that much, much smaller yellow box toward the 49th parallel. It doesn't represent the last of the screwage, because I haven't gotten to the notch.
Father Frederick Eberschweiler, a German Jesuit Priest, established a mission on the Milk River near Harlem in 1885. He did so with the government’s approval. In 1887, he established a permanent mission on People’s Creek in the Litle Rocky Mountains on the southern portion of the reservation, in what is now Hays. He was given 160 acres for the mission. With the arrival of Ursuline sisters, the St. Paul’s Mission Boarding School was also established in 1887.
These are images of St. Paul's Mission taken before 1920 and the school fire in 1937. There have been a few fires that destroyed the St. Paul's Mission School. This first image is the Ursuline sister's dormitory. The church is in the background. The second image captures the entire mission complex from a hill leading up into the Little Rockies. The third image is a view from People's Creek, that later became known as Mission Creek. And the last image is the St. Paul's Mission School that was destroyed by fire.
Industrial boarding schools were located around the reservation. Discipline was harsh, and, as noted, the children were taken away from their parents to facilitate their speaking English, dressing in western clothing and learning more about western labor than reading, writing and arithmetic. The children worked. Children were also sent to off-reservation schools, such as Carlisle in Pennsylvania where they learned such things as carpentry, housekeeping and stock raising. Children died in these boarding schools, and many were never returned home.
There have been stories in the recent news about deaths that occurred in Canadian Boarding Schools. The children were not returned to their parents and were buried at the schools. There was little or no information surrounding the cause of their deaths, and there were a lot of them. This horrible situation was not unique to Canada. The same situation existed in the United States. Were there any crimes committed? Were any of these children abused? Was justice ever served? Were parents ever notified? Were civil suits ever brought against the schools or the federal government? How could we possibly compensate these families for the loss of all these precious lives? What would possibly be the value of these lost lives? I’m sure some guys on Wall Street could monetize it for us.
While the Allotment Act was being imposed on reservations across the country, the Gros Ventre and Assiniboine were fortunate in that it was postponed on Fort Belknap. On some of these other reservations, after the lands were allotted to individuals, the government opened their lands to white homesteaders. This never happened on Fort Belknap.
I’m going to summarize an incredibly gruesome history of the many, many Indian Agents who served Fort Belknap and their administration of the many, many programs all designed to transform these tribes into a community of farmers and ranchers who would own land, would become economically independent and self-reliant, and would adopt western culture and become Christians. Bada boom, bada boom.
Up until the turn of the century, the Indian Agents served in a patronage system. They were appointed through political connections. They stole from the tribes. They deceived their superiors by claiming the success of programs that were failing miserably. They were ineffective in direct proportion to their not caring about the people they were supposed to serve. They changed their approaches every ten minutes … from growing wheat or oats or alfalfa or potatoes or sugar beets, or raising cattle, or creating irrigation systems. No one program had a chance to succeed, because it was always done half-assed, and was never given the time or the education and training necessary. When the Indian Agent positions became civil service in the 1920s, these people became only slightly less incompetent, negligent, deceitful. They didn’t care, and they worked for the BIA that didn’t really care. And they didn’t care that whites in the towns off of the reservation were ripping off the tribes with every possible opportunity. Relations with whites off of the reservation were never great. After the Custer thing, relations with the tribes became worse.
The last cession of reservation land occurred in 1895 when gold was found in the Little Rocky Mountains. The tribes were screwed out of a piece of land in the mountains that was seven miles long by four miles wide. The government paid the tribes $360,000 that was used to shove civilization down their throats. To my knowledge, the tribes have never been compensated for the value of gold (or timber) that was taken out of their stolen land. I am certain that some guys on Wall Street could monetize the value of that lost opportunity. The miners have also done a spectacular job of destroying much of the mountains, including the timber resources, and then went bankrupt and were never held accountable for reclamation. The miners also ruined a pristine water resource from the mountains. I don’t believe that the tribes have ever been compensated for all that destruction. I’m certain some guys on Wall Street could monetize all of that for the tribes.
By the early 1900s, the Gros Ventre were becoming acculturated. The language was in the process of being lost from the boarding school experiences. Polygamy was on a significant decline, as other cultural practices and beliefs were changing. Extreme poverty, starvation and dependence were becoming their way of life, and health issues, such as tuberculosis, were becoming significant and endemic problems. Large numbers of the tribe had already been lost from the smallpox epidemics that occurred during earlier contact with whites.
In 1921, Congress approved allotment on Fort Belknap. The first problem that needed to be solved was the determination of Gros Ventre and Assiniboine tribal membership – what specific individuals would be eligible to receive the allotments of either 320 acres of grazing land or 40 acres of irrigated land. This entire issue of tribal membership is going to appear repeatedly in my stories, so I’m not going to get into the details here. Suffice it to say, when this process was taking place in the early 1920s, no one really had the slightest idea about what a ‘full blood’ Gros Ventre or Assiniboine really meant. Intermarriage between tribes went on under various circumstances from the beginning of time, and no one was keeping track of any of it in a notebook. Names were written down at this time, and membership became established by 1923. There was no magic or DNA testing involved.
While the Gros Ventre and Assiniboine members received their allotted lands in 1924, the most positive part of this process was that the remaining lands reverted to the tribes and weren’t open to white homesteads. This was a very good and important thing.
Where my stories are ultimately going to head is that tribal membership became based on degree blood and the starting point for this degree blood membership is based on these original tribal membership rolls that involved, as noted, neither magic nor DNA analysis. Who knew how much Gros Ventre blood or Assiniboine blood was truly reflected in the people who made up this membership. And membership involves a lot of consequential stuff like money, educational and employment opportunities, and housing.
While this land was being given away to individuals it is critical to bear in mind that neither the Gros Ventre or the Assiniboine nor any of the tribes across the Americas believed that a human being could own land. Land ownership was a very European notion that was not found among our indigenous peoples. Thus, the entire notion of owning land and consequently inheriting land was a totally foreign concept. The original recipients of allotment weren’t writing wills to determine who would receive this property when they died. Thus, all their heirs received an equal portion of this land. In just a couple of generations, this acreage was split up so many times into smaller and smaller parcels until it became worthless to try to raise crops or graze cattle. This heirship land problem has resulted in much of this land being leased out (sometimes to white farmers and ranchers) and the many owners only receive very small amounts of this money. But then, who cares?
Allotment did nothing to change the condition of the people on the reservation. Health problems continued, poverty continued, and degrading living conditions continued.
The Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) of 1934 represented a dramatic change in Indian policy. These changes happened so often and so abruptly that it was no wonder that the tribes did not trust the government or its representatives in any way, shape or form. They were being yanked in so many different directions. Each of these programs failed to succeed because they were always done half-assed and fairly often were administered by people who were far from being the cream of the crop of American society. The IRA was a reform program which acknowledged that this whole individualist and self-reliance thing was failing miserably. The IRA represented significant reform recognizing the importance of the communal nature of the tribe and tribal land ownership, self-government and the respect for the traditional tribal religious beliefs and practices. They just spent decades beating the traditional religion the hell out of them, and now they’re figuring out that maybe we ought to respect these practices and beliefs. Hey, does anyone remember how to do the Sun Dance?
During this period, public schools were being built around the reservation. Education took a significant set-back when the St. Paul’s Mission school burned down in 1931. The school was back up and running by the 1940s and public schools were established in both Hays and Lodge Pole. A much-needed modern hospital was built at the agency along the Milk River in 1931.
The drought and depression in the 1930s became a great opportunity for the tribes of Fort Belknap. Roosevelt’s New Deal and the many work relief programs that were established across the US, found their way onto the reservation. Programs such as the Civil Conservation Corp, the Public Works Administration and the Federal Emergency Relief Administration brought critically needed jobs and income to the reservation. Many important infrastructure projects were completed at this time, including the 40 mile stretch of Hays to Agency road, a number of cattle reservoirs around the reservation and water source improvements, such as drilling wells. One of the programs involved the WPA Writer’s Project. Fred Gone, (Bertha, Ray, Edith and Caroline’s father) participated, recording traditional stories. These stories can be found in Bozeman at the Montana State University Library.
Through the 1930s, the people continued to receive supplies and rations through the Federal Surplus Commodities Corporation. Also in the 1930s, many people came to the reservation in search of relief assistance. These were landless Indians. I’ll come back to this subject momentarily.
In 1936 there was a devastating fire in the Little Rockies that destroyed more than 20,000 acres. The fire started in the Little Ben Mines. You can still see the horrible results of this fire today. Reclamation didn’t happen because who cares.
In 1933, as a part of the Indian Reorganization Act, two BIA lawyers came to Fort Belknap to assist in a plan for self-government. A constitution and by-laws were adopted by the tribes in 1935.
Many Gros Ventre and Assiniboine enlisted during World War II, and eight of them died in action. There were 99 in the army, 6 marines, 27 in the navy and 7 women served in auxiliary forces. They served valiantly to protect the freedom of this nation that has so miserably abused them and repeatedly and consistently ignored their freedoms. There is a monument in the middle of Hays honoring all of those who served. Every time I passed by that monument, I thought about the great irony reflected in their service. These people love and honor this country that has so thoroughly crapped all over them.
Congress decided that it wanted out of all the legal (and financial) obligations that came with the treaties. Whoa, what ever happened to all those great reforms recognized in the Indian Reorganization Act? Congress awoke from their stupor and realized that their programs designed to make these tribes into independent and self-sufficient white people had failed miserably. They decided to wash their hands of the entire proposition. For the few tribes that ended up being terminated, it was a total, unmitigated disaster. It was not imposed on Fort Belknap. Termination would have created enormous economic burdens for the state of Montana and for the counties in which the reservation was located. With termination, all federal resources would have been withdrawn and the state and counties would have become responsible for the people living in their counties. Most of the reservation is in Blaine County with a small section in Phillips County. Both counties immediately freaked out about the possibility of going bankrupt. They complained loudly enough that the act was not seriously considered for the Gros Ventre and Assiniboine.
The reservation was established as the home of the Gros Ventre and Assiniboine Tribes. There is a large community in Hays that during the 1970s was significantly intermarried with the Gros Ventre and some of the Assiniboine. During the late 1800s, there were a large number of Crees, Metis and Chippewa who were landless and roamed the region for hunting and then relief assistance. Some of this group ultimately settled in Hays during the depression. During the establishment of public schools, the states took possession of one section in each township for the purpose of the education of children. One of these sections, or one square mile, is in the middle of Hays and was the location of the Hays/Lodge Pole elementary and high school at the time I was doing my research. As this was one weird place where the state has authority and not the federal government, these landless Indians were able to build log homes on this site.
Over time, the Crees, Metis and Chippewa intermarried. The mixed bloods or Metis were primarily the descendants of Chippewa women who had married French trappers and traders. The Chippewas had come from the Turtle Mountain Reservation in North Dakota. These was a group that refused to settle on the Turtle Mountain Reservation when it was established. As noted, over time and with intermarriage, the distinction between these three groups has blurred.
In 1915, a reservation was established in the Bear Paw Mountains south of Havre for the Chippewas and Crees. Many of the Metis, mixed bloods, did not get accepted onto the rolls at Rocky Boy and they continued to roam landless. These are likely the largest group that ended up settling in Hays during the most difficult times in the depression.
The Little Shell Band of Landless Chippewa Indians of Montana became a recognized Tribal Nation by Montana and then a federally recognized tribe in 2019. The Little Shell band is composed of Chippewa or Ojibwa, Metis and Cree, as a result of the intermarriage I described. Senator Tester was instrumental in getting this process done. His opponent has made numerous disparaging comments about Native Americans. That was an unpaid political endorsement.
The following is Barry’s conclusion from his history of the Fort Belknap Reservation from 1855 to 1955:
While learning a new way of life and preparing to accept land in severalty, the Fort Belknap Indians had also to acquire white social behavior, values and religion. In short, they had to assimilate to another culture, creating for themselves an Anglo-Indian culture to supersede that of the equestrian hunter. The Fort Belknap people succeeded in the task of assimilation. They retained only vestiges of their earlier heritage and developed a culture reflecting that of local settlers, missionaries, and Indian Service employees. At allotment, the Indian people of Fort Belknap lived with a culture essentially English-speaking, Roman Catholic, and rural in its important elements. Adaptation to nineteenth century ideas of individualism, self-reliance, desire for education and private property neared completion in the 1920’s. The Indian became acculturated to white society at a time when its values, under pressures of war, disillusionment, and depression, changed rapidly. The Fort Belknap people found themselves with an obsolete value system soon buffeted by the ideas of the Indian Reorganization Act, events of World War II, and termination. They had, by 1955, been caught up with the rest of us in constantly accelerating change. (266)
I would characterize this history, and the forces of change imposed on the A’aniii in a slightly different manner. The Tribe had its way of life entirely dropped on its head by force. Their food supply was purposely killed off in order to make them entirely dependent on the government and compliant to their will. They were forced onto the reservation and were then subjected to programs that were administered without a care or concern for the people. So much was stolen from them. There was so much negligence, mismanagement, and theft that the people never really had a chance to succeed. Their land, their entire way of life and their language were forcibly taken away from them and they were never offered a satisfying replacement. So many of the social problems on the reservation can be attributed to poverty. These problems are also borne from living a way of life that lacked the meaning and purpose that was defined and derived from their traditional culture. What Barry describes as successful acculturation, I would characterize as a veneer of acceptance. This new way of life with the attendant beliefs and values did not exist for these people in the same ways as did their traditional culture.
Thus, from my perspective and experience, Barry’s observations about the amount of acculturation that had taken place on Fort Belknap were not entirely accurate. For the generations of A’aniii who bore the brunt of this forced change, they experienced a collective form of PTSD. It is near impossible to imagine what it must be like to have a language and way of life that in a very short time is forcibly taken away from you. Change is difficult even when it happens slowly enough that people are given the opportunity to adapt. For the A’aniii, it was neither slow nor voluntary. There was no chance to adapt. There were no programs to deal with communal PTSD or communal grief. In addition to the lost way of life, they had also lost so many lives. They lacked immunity to smallpox and tuberculosis. They were exposed to these diseases from their earliest contact with whites. Their populations were decimated. Poverty and other endemic health problems only made these problems worse. And then there were all the people who had their children ripped away from them, some of whom died at the schools and were never returned. That kind of crap doesn’t get repaired in a generation or two or three.
What kind of services were offered to the people to treat this communal PTSD, depression, and grief? Is there really any wonder as to why self-medicating might become an issue? If anyone cared, these questions would be asked in the most serious manner. In fact, if anyone cared, they might want to do something about it – just out of plain old compassion. Remember, the pope told us they are human.
When people are faced with the situation I described above, and this kind of thing occurred around the world to indigenous peoples who ran into the buzz saw of European colonization, they sometimes adopt revitalization movements. This kind of movement occurred frequently enough to indigenous peoples, that anthropologists observed it and defined a category for this behavior. In the plains of North America, the Ghost Dance was one of these revitalization movements. In short, the people who participated in this movement believed that their practice would result in all their ancestors returning from the dead along with the buffalo and the old ways would reappear. Of course, the federal government saw this as a direct threat to all of what they were trying to accomplish and had the army curtail the movement forthwith.
And then try to imagine that while you are mourning your way of life while starving, dependent, experiencing serious health crises as a community and destitute, you are forced to adopt a new language and way of life. The changes were observable. How thoroughly were the changes accepted? How much of this forced change was really internalized?
The tribes were never compensated for this loss of culture, language and human life, and for the incredibly negligent and reckless ways it was imposed. What is the value of the collective mental health that was stolen from these people? I’m sure some guys on Wall Street could monetize it for us.
By the time Susie and I were living and working in Hays and doing our fieldwork research with the Gros Ventre, the tribe had experienced enormous change. They were highly acculturated. So much of the traditional culture and language had been lost. There were fluent speakers of the A’aniii language, but they were elderly and there were not a lot of them. No one depended on hunting for their food. They lived in relatively modern homes with electricity. Most of the homes had indoor plumbing. If they had electricity, they also owned a television. They worked in a western economy. No one practiced polygamy. There was no evidence whatsoever of the traditional political organization in bands or the age graded societies. There were only vestiges of the traditional kinship system and religious beliefs and practices.
And yet, remarkably in the face of all this change, the Gros Ventre identity has endured. How one might characterize this way of life is complicated. In many ways, the culture appeared similar to any of the white towns off the reservation. The language, the dress, most jobs, housing, healthcare, recreation and entertainment, religion, as well as other elements appeared very much like rural, western America. Some of the ways of life were associated with endemic and deep-seated poverty. And some of the way of life appeared as vestiges of the traditional culture. And some of the behaviors and beliefs were found, not only among the A’aniii but also other Plains Indian Tribes across the west. These Pan-Plains Indian elements were also a part of and a foundation for the contemporary Gros Ventre identity that we observed in the mid-1970s. A most complicated identity borne of a most complicated, demoralizing, and depressing history of these proud A’aniii.
Fort Belknap From 450 Miles High
I thought an interesting way to conclude this piece would be to give you a perspective of the Fort Belknap Reservation as if you were an astronaut with binoculars on the space station. These are screen captures from Google Earth. They are taken by a satellite that is about 450 miles above the earth. The images are recent, and I will explain some of the changes that are most noticeable from the time Susie and I lived on the reservation.
This is an image of the Fort Belknap Reservation and the surrounding areas. The Upper Missouri River Breaks is just south and west of the reservation. Lewis and Clark made it up into this area. During hunting season, there were many families that camped and hunted in this area. It was also a popular place for fishing. And it is a beautiful area. North of the reservation, along the highline (Route 2), you can see the towns that are major shopping places for people on the reservation, particularly Malta, Harlem, Chinook, and Havre. Havre was the largest town of about 9,000 people. They also had the largest hospital in the region and was the home of Northern Montana College (which became a branch of Montana State University after we left). Just south of Havre you can see a mountain range and an Agency. The range is the Bear Paw Mountains. This is where my dear friends Mike and Ligia lived. The Agency is on The Rocky Boy Reservation.
Fort Belknap and the Surrounding Area
This is a close-up image of the reservation. The irregular northern border of the reservation is the Milk River. You can also clearly see the notch on the southern border that was taken out of a straight line when gold was discovered in the Little Rockies. The three main communities on the reservation are Hays (primarily Gros Ventre and Metis), Lodge Pole (primarily Assiniboine) and the Agency (both Gros Ventre and Assiniboine).
Fort Belknap Reservation
This image shows the relationship of Hays and Lodge Pole to the mountains. The DY Junction was also the location of the DY Bar which was about twenty miles south of the reservation. The road between the bar and Hays is through winding hills near and in the mountains. It was a dangerous trip home if one spent the evening drinking, and alcohol was illegal on the reservation until the early 1970s.
DY Junction, Mining Towns, Little Rockies, Hays and Lodge Pole
This is a better view of the mining towns and the notch. It offers some sense of just how large an area was lost (stolen) in these beautiful mountains.
Little Rockies and Lost Land - The Notch
There is a road that goes up Mission Canyon into the mountains. This is a meadow off of that road that the people of Hays have made into their pow wow grounds. That is the pow wow arbor in the middle of the grounds. This did not exist when Susie and I lived in Hays.
The Meadow in Mission Canyon and the Pow Wow Arbor and Grounds
This is a close-up view of the mining town of Zortman. The famous western artist and our friend, Clarence Cuts the Rope, had a studio in Zortman.
Zortman
This image shows the magnitude of destruction that was caused by the mining companies. They scared the land with the mines, they've destroyed acreage of good timber, and they also fouled the water with cyanide. As noted, the companies declared bankruptcy and left the mess as you see here.
The Mines
This is a view of Hays. The Hays Road begins at the canyon and winds its way through town to what we called the Highway (Route 376 or the Hays-Agency Road). It isn't clear from this image, but Hays sits down in a bowl, surrounded by the mountains to the south and east and ridges mostly to the west. I placed a blue dot at the location where Susie and I lived for most of the first year we were in Hays. If I had my way, I'd still be living in that spot. All the structures have been removed since we left - our trailer, two log homes, fences, and a corral. Our trailer was located at the mouth of Mission Canyon a bit less than a mile from the mission.
Hays
The center of this image shows the one square mile section where the Hays/Lodge Pole public school was located. At the time we were in Hays, the elementary students were in trailers and the high school students were in a brick school building. The teacher's living quarters were adjacent to the school. Also on this section were the homes of Metis/Chippewa-Cree who lived in Hays and were not eligible for HUD housing. To the north of this area, there was an IHS Clinic and also a small college (a branch of the College of Great Falls) where I taught anthropology courses. These buildings were taken down after we left Hays.
The State Public School Section and The WWII Veteran's Memorial
This is Whitecow Cayon, a major housing area in Hays. After we left, they also built a more modern IHS Clinic and a new Hays/Lodge Pole School. And because life is so incredibly weird, John Denver had a concert in this school. This occurred after we left and I don't remember how this transpired. I'm sure you can find the concert on YouTube.
Hays Lodge Pole School and Teacher Housing, IHS Clinic and Whitecow Canyon
This is a better view of the mission, the road up to the canyon and the field at the mouth of the canyon where our trailer was located. The school we taught in had burned down after we left (another school fire at the mission - are we counting). There was a beautiful new gymnasium that also burned down. The mission built a new school across the road from the main mission. Those are homes north of the mission.
Hays, St. Paul's Mission, The Siegel Homestead, Mission Canyon
There isn't much between Hays and the Agency. The land is mostly rolling hills or flat grazing land or agricultural fields. There are three interesting features on the way up to the Agency. The first of these is Three Buttes.
Three Buttes
The next feature you see on the plains heading north is Wild Horse Butte. Most people at the time we lived in Hays did not live on their land allotments because to do so would require the cost of running electric poles long distances to the middle of nowhere. Consequently, there were very few homes between Hays and the Agency. Bertha Snow and her family lived just south of this butte. They lived in the middle of some amazingly beautiful scenery. After 9-11, the government required that all roads be named. I found this out from my friend, Mike Ley, who lived on Ley Road. Thus, you are looking at Bertha Snow Road. Bertha was the older sister of Ray, Edith, and Caroline Gone - there are numerous brothers and sisters not named here. The Gone family was and is our family.
Wildhorse Butte and Bertha's Place
The last feature just south of the Agency is Snake Butte. There is a reservoir adjacent to the butte. This is an interesting outcropping; you have to see the photographs to appreciate it, and if you can hang in with these blogs, you will eventually see it.
Snake Butte and Reservoir
The Agency is a major housing area for both Gros Ventre and Assiniboine. It is also the primary location of both BIA and Tribal buildings. Thus, at the time we were on the reservation, most jobs were located at the Agency. The children who live at the Agency go to school at the Harlem Public Schools. The A'aniiih Nakoda College was just getting started when Susie and I were leaving.
The Agency
This last image is Harlem, just north of the reservation. You can also see Route 2 and the Great Northern Railroad tracks.
Harlem, The Highline (Route 2) and the Great Northern Railroad
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