ise amendment. Of course
the only argument I use is to tell them that one course will be for their
material advancement, and is the way a white man would act, while the other
will tend to keep them always poor.

Some years ago, the Blackfeet made a new treaty, by which they sold to the
government a large portion of their lands. By this treaty, which was
ratified by Congress in May, 1887, they are to receive $150,000 annually
for a period of ten years, when government support is to be withdrawn. This
sum is a good deal more than is required for their subsistence, and, by the
terms of the treaty, the surplus over what is required for their food and
clothing is to be used in furnishing to the Indians farming implements,
seed, live stock, and such other things as will help them to become
self-supporting.

The country which the Blackfeet inhabit lies just south of the parallel of
49 deg., close to the foot of the Rocky Mountains, and is very cold and
dry. Crops can be grown there successfully not more than once in four or
five years, and the sole products to be depended on are oats and potatoes,
which are raised only by means of irrigation. It is evident, therefore,
that the Piegan tribe of the Blackfeet can never become an agricultural
people. Their reservation, however, is well adapted to stock-raising, and
in past years the cattlemen from far and from near have driven their herds
on to the reservation to eat the Blackfoot grass; and the remonstrances of
the Indians have been entirely disregarded. Some years ago, I came to the
conclusion that the proper occupation for these Indians was
stock-raising. Horses they already had in some numbers, but horses are not
so good for them as cattle, because horses are more readily sold than
cattle, and an Indian is likely to trade his horse for whiskey and other
useless things. Cattle they are much less likely to part with, and besides
this, require more attention than horses, and so are likely to keep the
Indians busy and to encourage them to work.

Within the past three or four years, I have succeeded in inducing the
Indian Bureau to employ a part of the treaty money coming to the Blackfeet
in purchasing for them cattle.

It was impressed upon them that they must care for the cattle, not kill and
eat any of them, but keep them for breeding purposes. It was represented to
them that, if properly cared for, the cattle would increase each year,
until a time might come when each Indian