The Glacier Reporter

Blackfeet Tribal Council representatives Walter S. Wetzel, Iliff McKay, Henry Magee, George G. Kipp, Robert LaFromboise and Superintendent Howard Johnson are in Billings this week to confer with Area Director, Percy Melis and his staff, on pertinent matters of importance to the Blackfeet Tribe.

Perhaps the most important issue to be discussed is the application for a loan of one million dollars from the Federal Government which is being requested for use in connection with the tribe's credit program presently in operation on the reservation.

Council members have spent a great deal of time for the past four months in preparation of this application.

The Blackfeet Tribal Council feels that members of the Blackfeet Tribe have come to realize that there must be some control over funds loaned to individual members of the tribe in order to safeguard these funds in which all tribal members have an interest.

Members of the tribe are aware that an adequate system to meet the needs of their members must be maintained if the social and economic level of the Blackfeet people is to be raised to that of their non-Indian neighbors.

Council members feel that the Blackfeet people are undergoing a period of marked transition and the Blackfeet people are becoming more and more land conscious. From experience they have also achieved a point of realization that some very definite planning for the future must be done if they and their children are to survive in a highly competitive economy.

It is in this spirit that the Blackfeet Tribal Councilmen are in Billings this week to discuss the possibility of a loan from Revolving Credit funds to the Blackfeet Tribe for the future benefit of Blackfeet tribal members, 2,437 of which maintain residence outside the boundaries of the reservation, and 4,957 of whom reside on the reservation.