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THBALS from US Indian Agent Major R.A. Allen Detailing Blackfeet Indians' Starvation Winter
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LiveJun 26, 2020
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ALS from US Indian Agent Major R.A. Allen Detailing Blackfeet Indians' Starvation Winter
Allen, R.A., Indian Agent. ALS on US Indian Service letterhead, 5pp on 4 sheets. December 21, 1887. Blackfeet Agency, Montana. Addressed to brother and sister in Freeport, OH, relating conditions of the Blackfeet Indians. Signed with illegible first name, postscript signed "R.A.A."
Writing to family, Allen apologizes for not writing sooner, to the extent that "I am almost ashamed to write." He has not had the "leisure" to write, but things are now under control. The previous agent, John Young, resigned in 1883 when budget cuts caused serious problems on the Blackfeet reservation, but Washington did not seem to care at all about conditions there. The bison were gone, crops failed, and government stores ran out. The conditions were so bad that an estimated 600 people died at the agency during the years 1884-1885, about one-quarter of the tribe. It was so notable that the starvation was reported in the New York Times, June 25, 1884 (p.5).
Allen writes: "The terrible condition these poor people were in when I came here made it necessary for me to do everything I possibly could to aleviate [sic] their suffering from starvation and I am proud to say I have succeeded. I can now give them plenty to eat." He then lists some of the supplies he has on hand including the amounts that must last until the end of March. Included are items such as bacon, beans, beef cattle, flour, hard bread, hominy, oatmeal, mess(?) pork, potatoes, turnips, rice, syrup, sugar, tea, coffee, dried buffalo meat. He also acquired blankets, quilts, shawls, shoes, stockings, scarfs, mittens, calicoes, muslin, and even needles and thread.
He also relates that during a severe snow storm in September, about 100 head of their beef cattle got away and went back to the range. Allen found them scattered over about 130 miles. It took 12 days to bring in about a third of them and he notes they would have to go out again when the weather permitted. Fall weather was nice (after the early snow) but since about the first week of December "...the mercury has never got above zero and from that to 30o below for the past 24 hours it has not risen above 22 below zero." His postscript requests his brother to "Be on the lookout for something for me to make a living at in Ohio for I presume some [illegible] Democrat will want this place soon and I shall not envy him."
Additional information can be obtained from R.A. Allen's reports, which are housed at the University of Montana's Mansfield Library, Archives and Special Collections.
For one analysis of the causes of the starvation, see West, Helen B. "Starvation Winter of the Blackfeet." Montana, the magazine of Western History, Winter 1958: pp 2-19.Folds and handling wear as expected. Overall very good.Condition
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