Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1931-11-05

cal height above the stream. There are
interesting chapters connected with the
history of these reclamation projects:
they have not been perfected without
some hard fighting. Some of these
chapters will probably never be writ
ten; others of them have been told or
will be told n of these days.
Some years ago, / had a pleasant
trip up Sun river. AS the road ran
then from Great Falls, it skirted for
some distance a ditch-then dry and
grassgrown-which had played an i'm
portant part in the early reclamation"
work of that region, work whose aim
was to reclaim great areas of land
from the public domain and to trans
fer 1t to the holdings of the cattle bar
ons, through the medium of the opera
ton Of the then loosely constructed
desert-land law.
This ditch, along which we drove that
summer day, crossed places which must
have been the camping grounds of the
Stevens party. 1t looked as if it were
old enough to have been in use in 1855.
1t was so neglected and overgrown with
weeds and grass that it seemed as if
it had not carried water for more than
a generation 1t wasn't a very big ditch
when it wa new. 1t was even smaller
then, choked as it was by the accumu-
lations of several summers. 1t was
easy to step across it anywhere.
Yet, some men whose names are
prominent in Montana history had, in
testimony given at a hearing in the
general latad office in Washington,
testified that this ditch was so large
that they had seen>a boat sail through
1t. Their testimony won for them
many broad acres Of land. 1 knew of
this testimony and / looked at the
ditch
How did they do it?" I asked of my
friend In the blackboard. WAS it just a
plain lie OF a vanished one?"
1T was well vanished" was the re-
ply. when they finished this ditch,
they built an alleged boat and placed
it in the trough where the water should
have been. Then they hitched a team
to the boat and dragged 1t along on the
dry bottom OF the ditch. There never
any Sun river water in the ditch;
all the flow 1t ever had was from the
water which drained into it in the
spring. But that was the way they
reclaimed land in those days"
However, Governor Stevens was not
retaining land and was not building
bitches. He was seeking to reclaim the
savages from the warfare and he went
about it honestly. Had he been digging
bitches. he would have done it on the
square, for he was an honorable man
and he dealt with the Indians on a
fair -play basis. Otherwise, the history
Of Montana would be different from
what it is. Governor Stevens dealt
honorably with the Indians; the prom
Uses he made them were made to be
kept. Until the civil bar removed him
from this field of labor and, eventual
ly, from all earthly strife, he saw to
it that the Indians were given all that
had been promised them. How diff
ficult this was, the Benton council
showed.
When Governor stevens left He'll
Gate, he expected to find Alfred Cum
mings, superintendent Of Indian agen-
cies, waiting for him at Fort Benton.
MIR. Cumming had been named as
commissioner to act with Stevens in
the council with the Blackfeet. Gen
eral Palmer of Oregon, the third com
missioner, had declined to take the
risk OF the trip across the mountains.
Governor Stevens had impressed upon
the authorities at Washington the ne
cessity for having Cumming on time,
as he was to bring the treaty supplies
and the rations for the expedition.
The governments promptness In this
respect would have a good influence