Fergus County argus., 1886-12-09

ply in your last issue to the villainous
slander aglins. the cattlcmc,l OF Mon
tana which appeared in your paper Of
Nov. 25th. felt indignant and hurt
that you should publish so plainly
false and malicious an articlefor some
one under an anonymous signature.
I without even one word of comment or
defence OF those assailed. thereby
sending it forth to the world with
your endorsement. DO you think this
fair or right?
Lest those living at n distance
should be misled by this malicious
and envious IDIOT. I will reply to him:
/ Cattlemen do not own any more
land in Montana to each person than
do those engaged in farming, or in
sheep raising, or horse raising. No
cattlemen own any large bodies of
hand in the territory. They have
always aided the settler, and have
never tried to prevent settlement on
| the public lands. and on the contrary
they have caused the northern and
eastern parts Of Montana to settle mp
much faster than would have been the
ease without them, as is well known
/ to all.
Now. as to their trying to prevent
the opening up of the reservations
and to gobble up the land. So
far from this being the case they
have done more than all the rest OF
the people in trying for years to have
all these immense and worse than
useless reservations opened up for
settlement. They have repeatedly in
troduced and help pass memorials
through the legislature begging con-
gress to open them to the settler, and
at the very time this anonymous liar
was concocting his vile falsehoods, !
was introducing the following resOlu-
ton in the convention of cattlemen
lately held in Chicago. which contained
delegates from thirty states and ter
rit Ories:
| Whereas, In the territory Of Montana
more than 10000 square miles of land is
set aDart as Indian reservations, and
Whereas, The greater portion ot the said
land lies along the International boundary
between the United States and the Domin-
ion Of Canada; and
| Whereas. The Indians in the western part
Uf the reservation are of the same blood
and speak the same language ms the adia-
cent tribes ON the Canadian side; and they
visit back and forth at will, and when they
/ return hume they almost invariably steal
the horses and kill the cattle of the set tiers
on both sides OF the boundary line; and
! Whereas. This state Of affairs can never
lie relnedied so long as there is an Indian
reservation along the Canadian border
which affords a secure asylum for thieves
| and desperate characters, both Indian and
1 wiIitr, from whence they constantly prey
upon the settlements in every direction. to
their great detriment and continual loss
and damage: and,
contains more than 5000 acres to each
man woman and child Of the tribes for
/ whom they are set apart, and of which
I they make no use whatever, and from
which under the present system they can
derive no benefit. Therefore. he it
/ Resolved, That the President, congress-
and the proper departments be requested
! to remove the Indians from the great
/ northern reservation above described to
some more suitable locality, and thereby
prevent international complications which
will otherwise happen in the near future;
and be it further
Resolved. That change is imperativcly
demanded in the present system of Indian
management. which is an injury to the In
dians, an outrage to the citizens of the
great and growing west. aud a disgrace to
/ the National Government; and be it
| further
Resolved. That the proper solution OF
| this question, and one directly in the inter
est of all parties, is to give the Indians in
severalty a sufficient quantity of land for
all his needs, with title inailenable for fifty
years. throw open all the rest Of these vast
! reservations to settlement, and with the
money received from the actual settler for
these lands, establish a fund to aid the In
dian to become IL self-supporting and RES
pcctable citizen.
Resolved, That the secretary of the con-
vention is instructed to forward copies oi
this resolution to the president, to the
presiding officers of both houses of con-
gress, and to the delegate in congress from
Montana territory.
These resolutions received the hearty
support of every cattleman present
and passed unanimously, and at the
cattlemens' conventions held in Chi
cago and st Louis in the years 1884
and 1855, also introduced similar
resolutions which were also passed.
Does this look Ike they were pre-
venting the opening of the reserva-
tions? And great many cattle men
bought the land they now own from
the actual settler ut II very high price,
and quite n number of cattleman do
not own an acre of land at all.
This envious traducer is grieved to
think that the cattlemen, by Use OF
money and brains have utilized the
grass which for millions of years rot
ted or was burned npon the plains and
/ foothills, aud have converted it into
millions OF dollars worth of beef, thus
enrichins themselves. the coninuni-
/ ties in which they live, and the general
government. and all this without in
jury to any one. And yet this anony-
nous anarchist. who never had the
energy or enterprise to utilize any o!
natures waste products, would have
others prevented from doing So
so lar from cattlenen being an in
jury to the territory they are its ben
efactors. for they create vast wealth
in the aggregate, out ofwhat WAS going