The people's voice., 1958-04-11

| sales have continued. 10 date, O,OOt
acres have been sold on the Fort Peel
Reservation alone-"due to want"
state the tribal leaders.
At this time last year, the State
Legislature passed House Joint Me-
mortal 6 which asked extension of
family assistance programs (federal)
to off-reservation Indians" No one
anticipated then that we would be
seeking one year later to hold the
Indian Bureau to it's subsistence obli-
cations on the reservations. The cur
rent refusal of the Indian Bureau to
sponsor distribution of surplus foods
to Indians is in line with the present
federal policy to push all such serv-
ices upon the tribes and the state.
The restricting of Bureau well
fare programs and the present hard
ship situation on Montana's seven
reservations are cause and conse-
quence.
On August IL, 1857, an assistant
commissioner of Indian affairs wrote
in response to a query from Senator
Murray that only 100000 had been
budgeted for Montana's Indians, for
the reservation program of general
assistance was Limited to those tribes
without sufficient resources to pro-
vide assistance to their needy men,
bers." Z
You can learn all about the "needy
1000 in two of our
tribes: and the sufficient resources"
in the tribal welfare programs-$750
and $5.33 respectively averaged a
month per person-from the Flaherty
Study of Indian General Assistance.
For the two reservations which are
presently serviced by the Indian Bu-
reau welfare, the program begins late
in November and ends in April, be-
cause the Bureau follows the state
welfare policy, if you please.
Scarcely a month has gone by dur
ng the past two years without the |
sending of letters to our Montana |
delegation in Congress from the city |
Of Great Falls about the relief policy
on the reservations. Our delegation
las been tireless in trying to broaden
he Bureaus mind on the subject.
Again this year the Great Falls Trib-
Inc for February 18, 1858, carried
/ Letter to the Editor from Max
which noted that the COM
ng years budget of $100,169, 900 for
he Bureau of Indian Affairs should
,e made to include provisions for an
,pen relief office the year around
IN all the reservations for those tribal
members, particularly family heads,
Who are unable to compete.
No city in Montana is more aware
han Great Falls that starvation on
he reservation is our city's problem,
or very many disturbed and poorly
quipped tribal people have come of
ate to find jobs. They are ineligible ,
or relief if they fail to find employ
lent, and how helpless they are to ,
leet the crises! The story for the ,
reater number is "Starve on the
eservation these days, or starve in
own." The research of Dorothy Bohn l.
S regards school attendance last fall
ldicated more than 800 Indians resi- :
ent for the winter.
Citizens here protest continual +
ly, as i have said, that the surge of
newcomers creates hazards for t
themselves in an exceptional de- C
gree, and for those who may have n
found success. One Indian will
never turn another Indian out. We u
,f Great Falls would have some t.
effect upon the National Admins L
ration and the Congress if other L
titles in Montana and the states Y
major organized groups would pro- W
est likewise through their affiliates c.
lcross the nation. h
Do you think that unskilled Indian
borers, thrust from their ranches by
edit at 8 per cent and land sales
ocking water holes for the cattle
at such labor dumped upon the de-
essed labor markets of this state
d other western states is of no con-
rn to the unions and to manage
snt? rocessing unprepared and emo