Office of Indian Affairs, 
 
 Bulletin 18 (1922). 
 
 TEE PROGRESS OB TEE BIACO?EST INDIANS . 
 
 (ByCharles H» Burke, Commissioner of Indian Affairs.) 
 
 The Blackfeet Indian Reservation, Montana, is located im- 
 mediately south of the Canadian border, and the winters are long and 
 severe the growing season being correspondingly short and the agri¬ 
 cultural possibilities of .the reservation limited, nevertheless, the 
 Indians of this reservation have made remarkable progress within the 
 past two years as the result of a comprehensive five-year program 
 adopted.in the-spring of 1921, This year practically every Indian 
 family m the Heart Butte District, where most of the full-bloods reside 
 had.a vegetable garden and small-patch of grain, and many of them not 
 only raised sufficient potatoes for their own use, but had a surplus 
 to sell,. 
 
 _/ ^ -^ our mill was installed for the purpose of making 
 
 flour from the wheat grown by the Indians. .This year for the first 
 time, not a pound of flour will be shipped in by the Government. 
 
 The agency.flour contract has been canceled, and the Indians will be 
 supplied with flour made on the reservation from wheat which they 
 themselves produced. 
 
 In 1921, the first year of the-campaign, 115. Indians 
 cultivated 3,750 acres, producing, among other, things * i 5,000 bushels 
 of wheat and 1,000 bushels of potatoes. This year Uj6 Indians culti¬ 
 vated 5,975 acres, producing 7,000 bushels of wheat-and 5;500 bushels 
 of potatoes. 
 
 A sawmill was .erected -for the purpose of providing lumber 
 to -improve the Indian homes. An old, blind, full-blood Indian was 
 highly elated when he heard the sawmill whistle for the first time 
 and said: "I was never happier: In: my- 1 ife ; than when I heard the saw- 
 mill whistle blow." He also had a friend take him out into the wheat 
 field so that he coulu feel the growing grain with his own hands as 
 he could not see it. 
 
 The total population .of the reservation is slightly over 3 000 
 which represents an increase of 250 in the past 10 years." During’the 
 winter of 1920-21 free rations were issued to over 2,000 Indians while 
 last winter the number on the ration roll was less than 1 000 
 
A prominent club woman of Terre Haute, Indiana, visited the 
 reservation several months ago, and after her return wrote me, in part, 
 as follows: 
 
 .. As for- the fields, it is amazing what has been accomplished 
 in the short year and one-half, which Mr, Campbell has had charge* 
 Think of walking in wheat fields extending to my cliest, and I am 
 no weakling, oats and barley -ditto. Of course, I realize that this 
 was the product of virgin soil, but also developed under unschooled 
 hands, except as to instruction, which must he more or less per¬ 
 functory, coming from the capacity of one map, the farmer in each 
 district. Never in Indiana and Illinoiswhere we believe we can 
 farm, have I seen such crops. 
 
 X walked over.the gardens where hidden in the'soil were 
 great tubers, potatoes, turnips, rutabagoes, beets* onions, and 
 cabbages all ready for.the-root cellar "thiswinter. 
 
 After a visit to the reservation last July, Mr. R. H. Russell, a 
 prominent citizen of Spokane, Washington, wrote me as follows: 
 
 I - spent eight days, driving in cars, going from one Indian 
 home to another. I visited dozens of them. I found the inside 
 of their homes clean, showing .every evidence of being well-kept 
 at all times.. At each home nice pieces of grain (wheat and oats, 
 wheat predominating in acreage) were to be seen which, had been 
 harvested or harvesting was. under way*- These, grain crops are good 
 notwithstanding nearly all of them'Y^ere sown in raw sod late last 
 'spring, 
 
 I found the Indians and their families enjoy-ing the best 
 of health. Their appearance and actions, were sufficient evidence 
 that they have plenty to eat and are' contented. .1 was out with .the 
 superintendent, Mr. F. C, Campbell, one day and we covered a large 
 territory visiting many homes and inspecting their grain and 
 gardens. They manifested great pride in showing Mr.' Campbell the 
 results of their combined efforts. They treated the superintendent 
 with the greatest respect,.respect almost bordering on adoration. 
 They listened closely to all his instructions,.beginning at once 
 executing his orders'with much pride. I noticed quite a rivalry 
 among them to excell in doing things,, thus bringing out the. results 
 that would be most pleasing to Mr. Campbell. ... 
 
 I have been in close touch with different Indian tribes. • 
 about all my life, and I am quite sure that the Blackfeet are the. 
 most intelligent and respond more readily to uplifting influences 
 than any tribe I have ever before observed. 
 
 General Hugh- L. Scott, U. S. Army, retired, a member of the 
 card of Indian Commissioners, also visited the reservation last fall 
 and wrote me as follows: 
 
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I have been going about all over the Blackfeet country at 
 the request of the superintendent, Mr. E. G. Campbell, and in 
 his company, and I think it will plea.se you to know the results 
 he is accomplishing. 
 
 He is a man of great sympathy for the Indians, of un¬ 
 tiring energy, firm and wise in his management. X see a vast 
 difference everywhere since my last visit. The town pump from 
 which water had heretofore been drawn by women in a Montana 
 blizzard, a disgrace to every administration, still stands but 
 has been replaced by an adequate water system, and tv/o new cot¬ 
 tages have relieved the crowded condition .of the employees. 
 
 But more than all, Mr* Campbell has regenerated the spirit 
 of the Indians* Everywhere we see crops; from 5 to 12 acres of 
 wheat and oats; 3 or 4 of potatoes with garden produce* The 
 flour and sawmills are in operation. The Indians show their 
 crops with the greatest pride and joy. Mr* Campbell goes about 
 among them for days at a time, into every field instructing and 
 encouraging the owners* His system of organizing them into 
 chapters in each section is bringing great results. They love 
 and. respect him highly, and he is gaining over the malcontents 
 common to every agency who must join with him or be left behind 
 by their own people. 
 
 He has waked up the hope and pride of the Blackfeet people, 
 and if given sheep and supported by your Office will in the 
 time set for the working out of his plan (five years) effect 
 the regeneration of his people. 
 
 Without making any invidious comparisons, I may say that no 
 tribe of Indians in the United States has made better progress during 
 the past two years than the Blackfeet, This progress was well ex¬ 
 emplified by their exhibition at the Montana State Eair this fall, 
 which attracted the attention of thousands of visitors. This result 
 has been brought about by the energetic prosecution of the industrial 
 program outlined for the Indians of this reservation, under the leader¬ 
 ship of Superintendent F. C. Campbell, who is a man of long and varied 
 experience in the Indian Service, thoroughly interested in the Indians, 
 and who is doing everything in his power to promote their welfare. 
 
 It may be of Interest to mention briefly the salient features 
 of the program. The Indians of the reservation have been organized into 
 what is known as the "Piegan Farming and Livestock Association," the 
 purpose of which is to promote agriculture and stock raising, to advocate 
 a higher standard of living with better homes and farm equipment, and 
 to promote a spirit of cooperation among the Indians. 
 
 This association is divided into 2S local chapters, each with 
 an Indian president, vice-president, and secretary. 
 
 Each chapter is provided with farming equipment consisting of 
 plows, harrows, seeders, mowing machines, hay rakes, and grain binders, 
 placed in charge of the president, who becomes responsible for its 
 disposition and care, for loan to the Indian farmers of his chapter, 
 
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The meetings of the separate chapters are held every two.weeks, 
 at which the members exchange ideas regarding farm work. There have been 
 two general meetings of the association* as a whole* during the present 
 year (1922), attended also by the wives of the Indian farmers, who show much 
 interest in the program as it affects them, their children, and their homes. 
 
 One of the principal workers in the association is Bird Rattler, 
 president of one of the local chapters, dhen recently interviewed through 
 an interpreter he said: 
 
 I am very much interested in what our people are doing, 
 and greatly pleased, with the way-they "are doing it, and that 
 they will be able to get through the coming winter with plenty 
 of food in'their houses., I am now using in my house flour 
 ground up from.my last, yearns crop of wheat. Last year I had 
 3 acres of wheat .and this year I doubled it, and besides had 
 in two big patches of potatoes. ***Mr. Campbell gave us a big 
 encouragement when he put in the flour mill, and when he 
 furnished us with machinery it made us anxious to put in much 
 more crops. 
 
 Besides the development along agricultural lines, the program in¬ 
 cludes getting the Indians started in the live stock industry on an individual 
 basis. To accomplish this t each Indian is being given sufficient wire to fence 
 a 40 -acre tract, and cows, sheep, pigs, and poultry will be sold to them to 
 be paid for in easy payments extending over a period of five years. 
 
 Last winter many of the Indians not otherwise employed earned 
 several thousand dollars by cutting wood in the forest and hauling it to 
 the agency, the superintendent paying them so-much a cord for it. When 
 ablebodied Indians applied to him for rations saying that they had no money 
 and could not get work, they were afforded the opportunity of cutting the 
 wood into stove-lengths, being paid therefor in cash. 
 
 There are., of course.,, many Indians oh the reservation too old to 
 work and who have no resources.- ' In order that they may be adequately pro¬ 
 vided for, a sort of "Old Bolks Colony” is.being established, which consists 
 of separate cottages for each such family, so as to simulate as far as pos¬ 
 sible the individual home life to which the occupants have been accustomed, 
 and thus avoiding institutionalism .i which the 'Indians do not like. 
 
 ( 7529 ) 
 
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