Blackfeet Nation

Blackfeet Indian Reservation in the U.S. state of Montana

Blackfeet Reservation in Montana, summer 1997. Looking from the roadside of U.S. Highway 2 West just short of the town of Browning, towards northwest (Rocky Mountains with snowcaps on the left to the West)

The Blackfeet Indian Reservation or Blackfeet Nation is an Indian reservation of the Blackfeet tribe in the U.S. state of Montana, primarily made up of the Piegan Blackfeet branch. It is located east of Glacier National Park and borders the Canadian province of Alberta. Cut Bank Creek and Birch Creek form part of its eastern and southern borders. The reservation contains 3,000 square miles (7,800 km²), twice the size of the national park and larger than the state of Delaware. It is located in parts of Glacier and Pondera Counties.

Geography

Elevations in the reservation range from a low of 3,400 feet (1,000 m) to a high of 9,066 feet (2,763 m) at Chief Mountain. Adjacent mountains include Ninaki Mountain and Papoose. The eastern part of the reservation is mostly open hills of grassland, while a narrow strip along the western edge is covered by forests of fir and spruce. Free-ranging cattle are present in several areas, sometimes including on roadways.

Several waterways drain the area with the largest being the St. Mary River, Two Medicine River, Milk River, Birch Creek and Cut Bank Creek. There are 175 miles (282 km) of streams and eight major lakes on the reservation.

Demographics

Blackfeet Indian Reservation, looking at the mountains of Glacier National Park

The 2010 census reported a population of 10,405 living on the reservation lands. The population density is 3.47 people per square mile (1.34 people/km²). The Blackfeet Nation has 16,500 registered members. The main community is Browning, which is the seat of tribal government. Other towns serve the tourist economy along the edge of the park: St. Mary and East Glacier Park Village, which has an Amtrak station and the historic Glacier Park Lodge. Small communities include Babb, Kiowa, Blackfoot, Seville, Heart Butte, Starr School, and Glacier Homes. North American Indian Days is an annual festival held on pow wow grounds, near the Museum of the Plains Indian in Browning. Not on the reservation, but adjacent to its eastern edge, is the city of Cut Bank.

Communities

• Babb
• Browning
• East Glacier Park Village
• Heart Butte
• Little Browning
• North Browning
• St. Mary
• South Browning
• Starr School

Government

Relationship of the National Park and the reservation

As on other American reservations, the tribe runs the local government and provides most services, including courts, child welfare, employment assistance, wildlife management, health care, education, land management, and senior services, as well as garbage collection and water systems. The native police were replaced by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs in 2003 because of problems in the local force.

The reservation includes several types of land use. Of the total 1,462,640 acres (5,919.1 km²), 650,558 acres (2,632.71 km²) are held in trust for enrolled tribal members, 311,324 acres (1,259.88 km²) are held directly by the tribe, 8,292 acres (33.56 km²) are Government Reserve, mostly irrigation projects and the Cut Bank Boarding School Reserve. The remaining 529,826 acres (2,144.13 km²) are Fee land which is taxable and may be privately owned by the tribe, tribe members or non-tribe members.

The tribe leases land for homes, farms, grazing, and commercial uses. Leases must always be offered to tribe members first before non-members. The tribe also has the right of first refusal; all private land offered for sale must be offered to the tribe first. If they decline to purchase it, a waiver is granted.

Economy

Unemployment runs very high on the reservation. As of May 2016, the Montana Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) Program Preliminary Non-Seasonally Adjusted Data reports the rate is 11.0% on the reservation (for comparison, at the same time, unemployment was 3.6% for Montana and 4.5% for the U.S.).

In 2001, the BIA reported 69% unemployment among registered members of the tribe. Among those who were employed that year, 26% earned less than the poverty guideline.

The major income source of the reservation is oil and natural gas leases on the oil fields on tribal lands. In 1982, there were 643 producing oil wells and 47 producing gas wells. The reservation also has a significant tourist industry. Other economic activities include ranching and a small lumber industry, which supported the Blackfeet Indian Writing Company pencil factory in Browning.

There are no paved north-south roads in Glacier National Park. Access to sites on the east side of the park is provided by U.S. Route 89, which runs through the reservation to the Canada–US border, crossing near Chief Mountain, which provides access to the Canadian sister national park, Waterton Lakes. Both east-west routes for the park travel through the reservation, as does the passenger train service on the Empire Builder. Several hiking trails continue out of the park, across the reservation, and require Blackfeet-issued permits.

Farms located at least partially on the reservation reported a total income of $9 million in 2002. A total of 354 farms covered 1,291,180 acres (5,225.2 km²), the majority of the reservation's land. Most of these farms were family-owned, including the 198 farms which were owned by Native Americans. Eighty percent of the land was used for raising beef cattle, which also produced eighty percent of farm income. Other livestock included hogs, and chickens, with only small numbers of dairy cattle, bison, horses, and sheep. Of the 245,530 acres (993.6 km²) used for growing crops, only 32,158 acres (130.14 km²), or 13%, were irrigated. Crops raised included wheat, barley, and hay with a smaller amount of oats.

Wildfire firefighting is a major seasonal income source. In 2000, some 1,000 Blackfeet worked as firefighters, including the elite Chief Mountain Hotshots team. Firefighting income brought in $6.1 million that year. However, this income is highly variable depending on the severity of the wildfire season.

In a marathon session on Friday, April 30, 2010, the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council (BTBC) approved three major initiatives totaling $5.5 million to be paid from an upcoming oil exploration payment from Newfield Production Co.

The approved items include a $200 special per capita for all 16,500 members, initial funding for a new Browning grocery store, and over $1 million for land acquisition. It is anticipated the $200 per capita will be paid within 60 days. This special per capita is separate from the annual December per capita.

Notable people

• Gordon Belcourt (1945-2013), Former Executive Director of the Montana-Wyoming Tribal Leaders Council
• Elouise P. Cobell, Former tribal treasurer and founder of Blackfeet Nation Bank
• Donna Hutchinson, member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from Bella Vista, Arkansas, service from 2007 to 2013
• Earl Old Person, Tribal Chief and political leader
• Steve Reevis (b. August 14, 1962), actor (Geronimo: An American Legend, The Missing, Fargo (film))
• Misty Upham (1982-2014), actor
• Black Lodge Singers, traditional music and drum group

See also

• Tipi ring - information about study of tipi ring sites on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation

References

• Farr, William E. The Reservation Blackfeet: A Photographic History of Cultural Survival. Foreword by James Welch. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1984. ISBN 0-295-96040-X
• McFee, Malcolm. Modern Blackfeet: Montanans on a Reservation. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1972. ISBN 0-03-085768-6

External links

• Blackfeet Tribal Land Department
• Official tribe website
• Blackfeet Reservation and Off-Reservation Trust Land, Montana United States Census Bureau
• Singer/songwriter/storyteller/lecturer Jack Gladstone
• James Willard Schultz Papers, 1867-1969