The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1881-05-04

AssAssl.
EasaNAsz
YNHTaN
letter From Granville SemaFf, and Pc
efqxou go sne Secretary oE a72e
Interior
LITTER.

the etocknen Of your vicinity and SEND 70
Sun River with request for sll there to sign it
as soon as possible, by sending 9 messenger
around with it il. necessary, and have them
then send it to First National Bank OF
Helena, and I will in the meantime instruct
them to obtain the signatures Of stock-men
there and then forward it to Hon. KirkWood
atonce, for we have 20 time to lose for Il
something is not done, these cursed Indians
will all be back among our cattle by Septem-
Ter 1st, and we don't want anymore OF that
If we can avoid il. Those id Blackfeet
end Crees are now back somewhere between
Box Elder and Musselshell and don't intend
to 90 north at all, but we will see that they
do, by some means.
Respectfully yours,
GRANVILLE STUART.
PETITION.
To Hon. SAME. J. KIRKwooD,
Sec. Of the Interior, Washington. DC,
We, the undersigned citizens, who
are resident, and engaged in the business Of
stock-growing, in the counties Of Meagher
and Choteau, in Montana Territory, would
respectfully represent, That since last August
these two counties have been oVerrun with
hordes Of alien (British) Indians, principally
Blackfeet, Bloods, Piegans and Crees, to the
number Of about $50 lodges. That these
Indians, ostensibly here for the purpose of
hunting buffalo, have killed and eaten many
Of our cattle, and this, too, in instances where
there was an abundance of buffalo within ten
miles of their camps. They keep dogs with
out number, which are Of q wild, half-wolf
breed, uncomfortable by the Indians or others
and these dogs chase orr cattle necessarily,
killing many calves, reducing the cattle in
flesh, and rendering them wild and uncon-
trollable, TO our great loss and damage.
This state Of affairs being rendered more
insupportable by the fact that this is not q
reservation, but the land has been, to a great
extent, surveyed by Government and is now
open to settlement. And none Of these In
dams have a shadow of right to be camping
al will upon II, to the great injury of peace
able, laW-abiding citizens. And as if this
were not enough, upon the approach of
spring, they have raided all the region be-
tween the Yellowstone and the British line,
stealing horses unfortunately from the
whites, and American Indians, and running
the same across the boundary.
Their presence here compels us to keep an
armed guard with our horses while grazing
in day time, and to keep them in In%dian-proof
corrals at night, to the injury of the horses,
and at great expense to ourselves.
Our experience during the last nine months
has demonstrated that stock raising cannot
be successfully carried on If Indians are
allowed to roam over the ranges, and our
ruin must speedily follow.
They nave been known In numerous cases !
to kill large beef steers and only take the
tongue, and at other times would also take a |
few Of the choicest parts, leaving the remain
der lying upon the range.
The rapid extinction of all the large game
renders 1t, as a general thing, difficult for the
Indians to live by the chase, and the inevita-
BILE result will be that they will prey upon our
herds in q constantly increasing ratio, al
though our losses are now too great to be
borne. ~
There is also q crying evil which passes
unnoticed by the u. S. Marshals; it is that
all this region swarms with whiskey traders,
who follow the Indians from place to place,
trading to them vast quantities Of the worst
liquor thai Is to be found on earth, the guam
tity traded being only limited by the ability
of the Indians to purchase, and as it is a we'll
known fact that they will give all they
possess for whiskey, they are being rapidly
reduced to q condition of poverty and demon
~alization that Is painful to witness, and which
is liable to light the flames of war at any
moment.
Some weeks ago these Indians began NOV
ing north, and we thought we would have at
cast . temporary respite from their depreda-
tons, but we now hear that Crow Foot's band
Of 140 lodges OF Blackfeet, and some forty or
fifty lodges Of Crees, have turned back from
Carroll, IN the Missouri River, saying that
will not return to their own country but
here.
AS the buffalo have mostly gone Sc, to the
Forcupine Greeks, and north across the Miss
oufl, these Indians, if suffered to remain,
viii subsist largely upon our cattle as hereto
fore we therefore earnestly petition thatyou
will take the proper steps to have them all
across the boundary line without
delay, and that they, IS well as those already
gone be officially notified to remain there J