Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1911-10-04
BLACKFEET INDIANS BECOME
AGRICULTURICT
ST. PAUL, Mimi, Oct 4.-Having

! ST. PAUL, MIMI, Oct 4.-Havins
secured moving pictures to preserve
for posterity the last great grass
dance of the Blackfeet Indians whose
reservation Of 100000 acres in north
western Montana will be thrown open
; for white settlers next spring, Louis
! w. Hill, president of the Great North
ern railway, has seized upon the New
! York Land Show as a vehicle for a
| novel primer lesson in assimilation,
| loking to the civilization of this tribe.
| The experiment has the sanction OF
| the officials at Washington and its
| working out no doubt will be watched
| with keen interest by President Taft
and Secretary of the Interior Fisher.
The most intelligent Blackfeet
braves that could be found upon the
reservation will be brought to the
Madison Square Garden exposition.
November 3, and the hope is they
will go back to their people imbued
with the agricultural idea. Before
the land of the Blackfeet reservation
is opened to the white man each In
dian is to be allotted farm. The edu-
cation which the picked representa-.
derive from attending the greatest
land show on earth is expected to
have great influence in simplifying
the United States governments pro-
cess of assimilating the other 5,997
Indians These three red emissaries
certainly will have wonderful tales
to tell of New York and the land
show exhibits when they return to
the council tepee near Browning,
Montana.
The native environment of the
B1ackfe.at tribe has gradually dis
appeared with the thinning out OF
their numbers. Congress last year
dealt severe blow to them when it
set aside a territory larger than the
state of Rhode Island and established
Glacier National Park Glacier Park
adjoins the reservation on the west
and this vast area was of course
closed to the Indians as a hunting
ground. The area of Uncle Sans
newest national park abounds in big
game of all kinds, but the Blackfeet
Indian was left only to look at this
inviting hunting section with tears in
his eyes-for the forest rangers patrol
the dead line and keep the red man
out
So, with this great natural game
preserve of the Rocky Mountains
gone from him and his reservation |
about to slip from his domain, the
Blaockfeet brave now must give up |
his rifle and bow to the inevitable. !
The transformation comes with a
cruel suddenness to the Blackfeet. |
There is nothing left for him but try !
and be a farmer.
Sympathy for poor Lo runs deep |
in Louis w. Hill. railway magnate. !
whose duty it is to help develop the
northwest. Himself lanscape ar
fist and lover of things natural,
his heart goes out to these fated |
people at the crossroads in their life. ,
IF this is to be. helping hand
is what they most need now, and
proper guidance will be great fac
tor in adjusting them to such COM
plete change in their mode of liv-
ing" Mr.. Hill soliloquizedA And
he secured the United
States governments approval to have
the most promising progressives of
the Blackfeet tribe selected to go to
the New York land show, that they
might see for themseles what agri-
culture really means. What i'm
pressions the redmen will carry back
to their prairie homes is matter
of much anticipation to the son of
the great railway builder. who hit