05/22/2026
Tribal election season is here again and there are going to be many stories about the candidates. The former BTBC representatives will totally ignore all the criticism and negative stories because they are selling proven leadership. A former councilman's main qualifications are they have previously been on the BTBC so they know how to act like a councilman. They never say that when they get back in office they are once again going to fill their pockets with tribal money without telling the members.
In the other barn are the regular neighborhood candidates who practically have to write a court statement or do a polygraph test or file criminal charges for defamation so the big mouths (relatives and critics) are not judge and jury. You never let your critics be judge and jury. The best advice is to just stay away from your critics so you do not have to listen to their hate and jealousy. Like a Christian woman would always said when someone was exaggerating, the devil is a lair.
I, Larry M. Reevis, am announcing my 2026 candidacy for the BTBC. I am seeking the job for Browning District position 2.
I am starting the 2026 campaign at the short end because my campaign manager only has one tooth and stays up at night (nocturnal). Dysfunction is also part of the mantra for my staff who can not speak English or take notes.
This year's campaign is as confusing as real life because my friends are openly endorsing other people in my district. I can only sit in the passenger's seat and chew my cud while I listen to all the great things this and that candidate will do for the tribe. When I count my fingers, the votes do not add up thanks to my friends.
Besides the shortcomings of the 2026 campaign, I am campaigning against so many siyapi wanting to be a councilman that I feel I am seeking a seat on the provisional government of the Saint Laurent district of the Red river colony. I often wanted to ask some of the descendants who are naturalized members which side of the north Saskatchewan river were their homestead. Did they live in the capital and which guys were your neighbors. Remember in 2017 many of the yes votes to terminate the federal status for Blackfeet tribal members belonged to naturalized siyapi.
The issues I want all the candidates to address are tribal land and tribal money which are the issues my grandpa talked about at the kitchen table. In today's tribal government members can not talk about tribal land or tribal money because the BTBC does not disclose tribal finances to tribal members. I challenge anyone in the tribe to show me a tribal budget that shows revenues and long term debt from all the tribal owned business enterprises. I want the members and the candidates to ask all current BTBC representatives and former councilmen why they took a satanic pledge to a gangster's oath to keep all the tribe's business affairs a secret (criminal cabal) from enrolled members and the federal government.
I also agree with all the ways to streamline tribal government to make it more efficient. Reforming tribal government must include lower wages, and lateral transfers to tribal owned businesses so we can retain professionally trained office workers. Lateral transfers is a way to address over staffing (a secretary having a secretary) and furloughing tribal workers when a program or project budget is spent. There should be no budget amendments for payroll (if they do not have money they can not work) and absolutely no bank loans for payroll. It is a government not a criminal organization.
Besides the tribal budget the BTBC never sends a summary report on tribal lands to the members. Who is on tribal land (conversion). Where is tribal land located. How many land titles have been transferred to private parties. How can tribal lands be used for new reservation neighborhoods. Like the tribal budget, members do not know about tribal land transactions because everything in tribal affairs is a secret.
Visual aids like pie charts and bar charts is a way for members to understand tribal affairs. Pie charts shows who gets the biggest share of the budget and bar charts shows when they spent tribal money. A Blackfeet corporate summary report sent in the mail to 1934 Blackfeet IRA corporate stockholders is usually used by a corporation to share confidential facts about tribal owned business enterprises is another way to educate members on tribal finances.
Because the BTBC travel budget is over 4 million dollars a year, I want all BTBC representatives to only do telecommunications conferencing to cut costs. If a BTBC representative participated in telecommunications conferencing to BTBC representative will save the tribe 200 hundred thousand dollars a year. Having telecommunications conferencing allows a BTBC representative to participate in a business meeting in the morning, write a summary report in the afternoon and eat dinner at home after the work day is done. When you stay at home you keep your family and you keep you community relationships.
When you travel to the city for a meeting a councilman will often have an affair with the secretary and then he abandons his wife and kids who stood by his side before he got instant fame and slept in hotel rooms in far away cities. If you are a real leader you will stay at home and write reports because if someone wants to talk to you they will travel to Browning.
When I was younger I was told the story about Melton Born with the Tooth to remind me that Indians only had political power when they are on reservation soils. Melton Born with the Tooth was an activist and he was the leader of a group of Indians who took over the Old Man dam near Brocket Alberta. After Born with the Tooth occupied the dam for a few months, the provincial government set up a meeting in Calgary to negotiate.
When Born with the Tooth and the other Indian leaders sat at the negotiating table they were arrested by the RCMP. Meeting on TV will lower the travel budget and keep tribal leaders on the reservation. If you are an Indian leader you never leave the reservation unless you are visiting relatives or are on a private vacation. A tribal leader only has political power when they are on the reservation.
My employment solution is for the hundreds of adult members who do not work for tribal government. I believe a tribal member should have an entire career working for the tribe just like many members had with summer work as a wildlands fire fighter. The employment solution I think will work on the reservation are a 7 day a week temp service office and a Blackfeet constitution article 6 day labor program.
A temp service office operated by the tribal personnel department is a common way to match the worker with the day job. Weekend job assignments can range from an emergency replacement worker at a local business or doing yard work. A tribal temp service can also get contracts with businesses for emergency replacement workers (washing dishes and making beds). A temp service is for all residents living on the reservation.
The Blackfeet constitution article 6 tribal day labor program is for enrolled members. The tribal day labor program would issue a 3 day work voucher once a month for enrolled members. Using the computer, members can see who is eligible for a work voucher that particular week. I could see bus loads of Heart Butte residents going to the work site each morning and afternoon. The goal for the tribal day labor program is to have members asking for jobs instead of asking for a person loan.
Jobs for members living on the reservation is a no brain reality. I personally know dirt road pilgrims and individuals slinging goodies that will get a different crew of day workers each day of the week until the project is finished because the reservation has a large pool of day laborers. You can always get a new day laborer, all you have to do is pay them cash at the end of the day.
I heard if you gave one of the boys a couple bindles they will work for 2 days straight before he drops. When he is lying on the ground you go out an kick him every so often to make sure he is still breathing. When he shakes off his sudden body collapse fit you give him some coffee and another blast so he can finish the job. When he heads home he is happy because he has gas money, beer money and some goodies. A good worker that never complains.
Building transition housing units is a day labor job assignment done by unemployed members. Day laborers would get job training in carpentry, plumbing, electricity, masonry and blue print skills when they are building a 1 room studio apartment.
You can build transition housing units in existing town lots and HUD housing lots. There are a lot of existing town lots and HUD lots or adjacent prairie land where a back yard apartment can be built. The transition housing units are individual units so you can lock the door and have a private life without anyone changing the music.
There is an East Glacier housing complex that has small home apartments that give the tenant privacy and safety. If small apartment are what the teachers and doctors that live in when they are staying on the reservation than tribal members can also have small apartments in reservation towns so members can have a private life like all the temporary residents.
The groups that will use the transition housing units are the homeless and individuals living in multiple family households. Remember every family has brothers and sisters who do not have their own place. Transition housing is a way out for all our relatives who hate their kin and hate the reservation but are to afraid to move to a white man town. Give them a home where they can continue to be part of the community and continue to disagree and hate everything reservation. We are their older brothers and older sisters so we have to make sure they are not outsiders on their own reservation. Housing is a treaty right.
The case study I used for the transition housing unit proposal was done by a non status community of Nooksack Indians of Washington to address tribal housing needs. The non status Nooksack Indians bought land in a Washington county that were Nooksack ancestral territory.
On the land the Nooksack built homes for its members. The non status Nooksack bought all the building materials for all the houses the Indian community built for its members including the Nooksack members that were illegally enrolled and were kicked off the enrollment rolls of the federal status Nooksack. The non status Nooksack have no mortgage payments on Indian housing but the Indian community does pay utilities and state property taxes. The Blackfeet has to use tribal money to build transition housing because the tribe has not got HUD funding for new units since 1982.
I also want the Heart Butte community to put together concept drawings of a small business district south of Thompson's store. The business district would consist of a gift shop, a public lobby and a 12 unit motel.
The gift shop would specialize in beaded moccasins so the community has an alternative economy for people living in Heart Butte. I could see rows of moccasins in fiberglass cabinets. Regular buckskin moccasins without bead work for adults, teenagers and babies will also be sold. If you want some moccasins come to Heart Butte.
A public lobby is a large rectangle building. On the north side is a snack shop and a 20 table seating area with booths. On the south end are two (2) attached buildings. One building is for the cops and two (2) conference rooms. The other building has an industrial kitchen with 14 convection ovens, 4 grills, 10 fryers, 10 rows of work tables to prepare food, 2 walk in freezers and 8 food pantries so the community can cater all public meals and emergency service meals. You want an industrial kitchen like a kitchen at a large army base so workers have plenty of room to make meals for an entire fire fighting camp or public meals at events like Heart Butte Indian days.
A public lobby should have benches along the walls so people can sit without a table and chair. The public lobby should also have built in lecture pods so the community can host job fairs and educational conference lectures. Along the outside sidewalk is a walk way with benches where community members can sit and look at the road and the community. A fiberglass canopy with a row of cement posts to protect the walkway and building from the weather and intruders. The walkway would be accessible all year long so community members can visit outside. A public lobby is an air port size lobby where members interact and fellowship with other community members. The 12 unit motel is an auxiliary business that rents out rooms to visitors staying the night in Heart Butte.
The cultural event I want to be added to the cultural calender is Blackfeet Song Service. The cultural events I want to move are the Two Medicine Indian days and the New Year's Slickfoot social dance.
Blackfeet Song Service is a nightly practice session for new drums and drums that want to practice their favorite songs. Blackfeet Song Service is a 4 day cultural event during the week of North American Indian days (NAID). Blackfeet Song Service is from Sunday to Wednesday. North American Indian days starts on Thursday and ends on Sunday.
Moving Two Medicine Indian Days to Browning is being done so the reservation has a fall fair during labor day weekend. Having a fall fair is another way the reservation can hold a cultural event that can be enjoyed by all reservation residents and cultural oriented members.
I also want the Slickfoot social dance moved to Heart Butte. The New Year's Slickfoot social dance is a Blackfeet cultural event and since Heart Butte still has a lot of cultural oriented members the community would socially benefit from hosting this event. I am totally against foreigners destroying Blackfeet culture (The slickfoot was renamed the swing and sway pow wow) so it is appropriate to move the slickfoot social dance to Heart Butte.
The biggest problem with tribal government is the BTBC keeps the tribal budget and tribal business deals a secret. Keeping the books a secret is why groups like the Concerned Pikuni wants audits on the books. Remember the tribe is suppose to give you a job, a house and a corporate dividend payment because it is your treaty right.
Vote
Larry M. Reevis
Browning Position 2
