Blackfeet Indian Reservation
The Blackfeet Indian Reservation , English Blackfeet Reservation , is an Indian reservation of the Blackfeet Nation ( Southern Piegan or Amsskaapipikani ) in the northwest of the US state Montana . The Blackfeet Nation is the largest Native American population in Montana. Browning is the largest city on the reservation and also the seat of the Indian government .
geography
The reserve covers an area of over 1.5 million acres (approximately 6,210 km² ) in Glacier County and Pondera Counties . It is bordered by the Rocky Mountains to the west and Canada to the north . In the east the reserve boundary runs approximately from the mouth of the Cut Bank Creek in the Marias River to the north. The area consists mostly of hills and prairie landscape .
population
The Blackfeet Nation has an estimated 15,560 enrolled members , of which approximately 7,000 live on or around the reservation.
Almost 27 percent of the tribe members have a Blackfeet “blood quantum ” of three quarters or more.
history
With the Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1851 - without their consent - a reserve area for the Blackfeet in Montana was designated. The area was significantly larger than today's reserve. In 1855 the Blackfeet (like the neighboring Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes ) signed a reservation agreement with the American government. Negotiations about the former tribal area south of the Missouri River failed. From 1873 to 1896 the reserve was reduced in size several times, partly opened for non-Indian settlement, and most recently the area of today's Glacier National Park was relocated.
politics
According to the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, the reservation residents founded the Blackfeet Indian Tribe as a political government as well as an economic organization ( corporation ). All tribal members are joint owners of the corporation. The Tribal Business Council ( Blackfeet Tribal Business Council ) is composed of nine members, who come from the four districts of the reservation - Browning, Seville, Heart Butte and Old Agency - in a secret election of the tribal members every two years (with an even year) each for be elected for a four-year term. The tribal council regulates the political and economic affairs of the reservation.
Water rights
Negotiations to clarify water rights have been taking place in Montana since the 1970s . The first water rights agreement of an Indian tribe in Montana ( Water Rights Compact , often simply called "Compact") was concluded in 1985 by the Assiniboine and Sioux in the Fort Peck Reservation . The settlement of the Blackfeet to settle the water rights issue was passed in 2009 (penultimate) by the House of Representatives from Montana and has yet to be confirmed by the US Congress in order to be legally effective.
economy
The reserve's main industries are livestock, arable farming, oil and gas extraction, and timber harvesting and trading. Typical crops are wheat , barley and hay . About half of the reserve residents of working age are unemployed.
Culture
In 2006 the Blackfeet were granted the right, enshrined in historical contracts, to hunt bison again north of Yellowstone National Park in parts of the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness for cultural reasons .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c d Montana Governor's Office of Indian Affairs: Blackfeet Nation . Retrieved May 3, 2016
- ↑ a b c d e Office of Public Instruction: Montana Indians: Their History and Location ( Memento of the original from April 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF), version of March 2, 2016. Pages 5–14. Retrieved May 3, 2016
- ^ A b c American Indian Relief Council (AIRC): Montana: Blackfeet Reservation
- ^ Blackfeet Nation: Water Compact
- ^ Montana Public Radio: The last water rights settlement on tribal land in Montana, still unsettled , May 30, 2014
- ↑ Sean Reichard: Crow Tribe Wants to Join Tribal Hunts of Yellowstone Bison. Article on yellowstoneinsider.com, February 16, 2018, accessed February 18, 2020.
