Blackfeet history lesson given at centennial

Several hundred people turned out to recognize the 100th birthday of the Glacier Park Lodge in East Glacier Park, but the celebration was not without its awkward moments.

The event was supposed to include a rededication by Blackfeet Tribal leader Earl Old Person and Blackfeet dancers, but at least a portion of the proceedings turned into a long history lesson.

Reportedly, the Blackfeet decided not to come just a few days before the event. Instead, Blackfeet scholar Jim Kipp gave an oral history on the ceded strip — a large swath of land that makes up most of the eastern half of Glacier National Park.

Kipp said Blackfeet oral history contradicts the 1895 ceded strip agreement. He said tribal leaders never agreed to sell the lands outright and agreed only to a 50-year mining lease.

“That lease expired in 1940,” he said.

Kipp said the Blackfeet still believe they own the land, which runs “from peak to peak” from Canada along the eastern half of the Park. The ceded strip agreement gave the Blackfeet the right to hunt, fish and gather timber from lands that are now in the Park.

“We still believe we never sold those mountains,” he said. “This is an open-ended book for me.”

The dispute has come up in recent history. In 2000, two Blackfeet tribal members shot and then cut the heads off two bighorn sheep inside the Park boundaries. They were later charged and one was convicted for illegally hunting inside the Park.

The federal courts ruled the act that created Glacier Park and subsequent laws supersede the agreement, and since the newer law specifically prohibits hunting in the Park, Blackfeet can’t hunt there, old treaty or not.

The audience at Glacier Park Lodge politely listened to Kipp’s talk or about 20 minutes and then had a free lunch in the lodge. Also attending the event were Viad Corp. chairman and CEO Paul Dykstra and Glacier Park Inc. chairman Joe Fassler. GPI is owned by Viad.

Fassler gave some brief remarks, saying the lodge would last another 100 years and the region was a benefit for the American people.

“This is a very calming area,” he said. “You stay here and your blood pressure goes down. You’re having fun.”