Response to Hays Mission School Abandonment

Dear Editor,

Open letter by Bill Fisher (Traveling Wolf): I was born on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in 1943. I’m sharing my paternal history as taught me by my elders and relatives:

1855 My 3rd-great paternal grandfather, Bear’s Shirt signatory of the United States Treaty with the Blackfeet is the only relevant connection to current inheritance of Belknap water rights. This 1855 Treaty signaled the first written claim to all Fort Belknap land aquifer rights, et al to maintain health, life and hunting. In 1855 the Blackfeet Nation lands extended (known now) east to Nashua, south to the...