Chapter 5, Note 59 (pages 193 and 268)

With their urging and financial support, Little Bear and Rocky Boy’s bands were permitted to remain in Great Falls and Havre respectively, and rations were shipped to them at the encampments until spring. (p. 193)

for sources and discussion of Chippewa and Cree reluctance to return to the Blackfeet Reservation for the winter, officials’ communication on their wintering in Great Falls, and public comment on the plan. (p. 268)

Division arose between allies of the Chippewa and Cree cause and the local press, who predictably expressed frustration with their wintering nearby.[1] As the year progressed, others worried that Natives were becoming dependent on aid and losing will to support themselves. Secretary Lane wrote to William Bole, explaining, “The gratuitous issuance of supplies to Indians or other person when remunerative employment is available is demoralizing and degrading in its influence, and has a tendency to pauperize them and make them permanently dependent. For this reason, the Indian Office has directed the discontinuance of the issuance of rations to all able bodied Indians who are able to procure remunerative employment.” Linderman and others countered via Blackfeet Reservation Superintendent McFatridge, who offered a detailed list of Crees with Little Bear that were either too old or sick to attain work.^[2]

[1] “Indians Cost Great Falls,” The River Press, Decmeber 24, 1913, 5; Great Falls businessmen to Arthur McFatridge, January 12, 1914, RG 75, RB Files, NARA-DC, Part 4; William Bole to Cato Sells, January 12, 1914 RG 75, RB Files, NARA-DC, Part 4; and H. H. Miller to Arthur McFatridge, February 6, 1914 and February 12, 1914, RG 75, Records of the Blackfeet Agency, Entry 5, Superintendents Subject Files (Blackfeet Superintendent Files), Box 19, Folder 228, NARA-RMR.

[2] Franklin K. Lane to William Bole, June 2, 1914, Linderman Papers, MSHS. See Arthur McFatridge to Office of Indian Affairs, July 15, 1914, RG 75, RB Files, NARA-DC, Part 5.