More often, discrimination may be a matter of perception. A person with color may see it as racism. Unlike Yarlott, most landowners have given up any dreams of living on their land. You need money to make money. When he left the BIA leasing department after 29 years of service, Whiteman used his severance pay to help his wife outbid Knutson's lease.
Owners wanting to invest in their land face other obstacles as well.
The Whitemans, for example, had 3,000 bushels of wheat in storage they wanted to use as collateral for a loan until they sold it at higher market prices. Knutson co-signed for them a year ago at the First Interstate Bank in Hardin to confirm their wheat stock. If I know you, and I know your word is good, then to hell with the bank. Knutson tends about 3,000 acres - farming wheat and hay and running cattle. Some of it he purchased as fee land, but he estimates that he leases a lot of it from about 250 owners.