The Blackfeet Territory

1871– An Act of Congress that removed Indian tribes from the status of foreign powers and made them wards of the U.S. government. After this, agreements with tribes were no longer called Treaties.

1874– An Act of Congress to establish a reservation for certain Indians, including the Blackfeet, in the territory of Montana.

1887– An Act of Congress granting to the St. Paul, Minneapolis and the Manitoba railway Company right of way through the Indian Reservations in Northern Montana and Northern Dakota. 

1905– An Act of Congress confirming the title of the St. Paul Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway 

Company to lands in the State of Montana. 

1907– An appropriation Act of Congress establishing that the Blackfeet reservation was to be surveyed and a new land allotment made. Irrigation systems irrigation systems were to be implemented and 320 acres each were allotted for the Holy Family Mission and the Mission and the Mission of the Methodist Episcopal Church. After this was done the rest of the land was to be surveyed and opened up for sale. 

1911– An act of Congress establishing that lands to which the rights of the Indians were “extinguished” became a part of public domain of the United States and were opened to entry, sale or disposal. 

1919– An Act of Congress making appropriations for the current and contingent expenses of the Bureau of Indian affairs. A new allotment was to be made and the sale of surplus land stopped.

1920– An Act of Congress to authorize the Secretary of Interior to acquire certain Indian lands necessary to reservoir purposes in connection with the Blackfeet Indian reclamation project.

1922– An Act of Congress to authorize the leasing for mining purposes of un-allotted lands on the Fort Peck and Blackfeet Indian Reservations in the State of Montana.

1923– an Act of Congress authorizing the Secretary of Interior to enter into an agreement with Toole County Irrigation District, of Cut Bank Montana, for the settlement of the extent of the priority to the water of Two Medicine, Cut Bank and Badger Creeks of the Indians of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. 

The districts were to finish in advance the entire cost of those streams to which the Indians were entitled to priority.

1924– An Act of Congress for the relief of certain nations or tribes of Indians in Montana, Idaho and Washington. It set up the Court of claims, with the right to appeal to the US Supreme court of the United States, to consider and determine all legal and equitable claims against the United States. 

1924– An Act of Congress to provide for the disposal of homestead allotments of deceased allottees within the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana.

1930– An Act of Congress authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to accept title to certain real estate, subject to a reservation of mineral rights in favor of the Blackfeet Indians.

1931– An Act of Congress for the enrollment of children born after December 30, 1919 whose parent or parents are members of the Blackfeet tribe of Indians in the State of Montana.

1932– An Act of Congress to accept the grant by the State of Montana of concurrent police jurisdiction over the rights of way of the Blackfeet Highway and over the rights of way of its connection with Glacier national Park road system.

1934– The Indian Reorganization Act or “Wheeler Howard Act”, to conserve and develop Indian lands and resources; to extend the Indians the right to form business and other organizations; to grant certain rights of home rule to Indians.

Tribes were authorized to exercise their residual sovereignty through elected governments based on tribal constitutions. 

1937– An Act of Congress to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to relinquish in favor of the Blackfeet tribe of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation the interest in certain land acquired by the United States under Federal Reclamation laws. 

1946– Indian Claims Commission is established to consider claims of Indian tribes and other recognizable Indian groups for monetary judgments against the United States.

1955– Responsibility for directing medical care and health services for Indians is transferred from the Bureau of Indian Affairs to Public Health Services, Department of health education and Welfare. Division of Indian health is organized for this purpose.

1968– Civil Rights Act, Title II, “Rights of Indians”, limited the power of tribal governments by guaranteeing the individual Indian citizen most of the same kind of civil rights and protections afforded by the United States Constitution to the non-Indian individuals in relation to their state and local governments such as: freedom of speech and peaceable assembly, freedom of the press, protection against unreasonable search and seizure, equal protection under the law, due process, protection against excessive fines or cruel and unusual punishment, etc.. 

1975– Indian self Determination and education Assistance Act (Public Law 93-638), provides for maximum Indian participation in the government and education of Indian people by giving tribes the option of contracting for any service usually operated for them by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.