A Forgotten People : A Photo Essay on the Blackfeet and the Chippewa Cree Native Americans in Montana

Padden Guy Murphy (A&S 2009) is Discourse’s founding editor and an IGL Synaptic Scholar majoring in International Relations and Chinese. He also co-founded the civil-military relations initiative ALLIES (Alliance Linking Leaders in Education and the Services), and is a member of Tufts University’s improvisational comedy troupe Cheap Sox. His home and family are in Great Falls, Montana. - This photo essay offers a glimpse into two of the seven American Indian reservations in Montana. The Blackfeet and the Chippewa Cree Nations, while very different, continue to fight to preserve their cultures in the face of modernity and societal crises. These nations exist as states within a state, answering to federal authority while maintaining partial national sovereignty. Governance and accountability are often lost to legal ambiguities and exploitation. Both reservations struggle with tribal and federal governmental issues, drug and alcohol abuse, and pervasive poverty. The populations of the Blackfeet and Rocky Boy reservations are approximately 10,000 and 3,000, respectively.