Picture shows Oliver and two of his children at his home.

Oliver Racine, Blackfeet Tribe

Picture shows Oliver and two of his children at his home.
Picture shows Oliver and two of his children at his home.

Allottee No. – 524
Age – 42
Degree – ½
Status – Fee Pat.
Family – 7 Children

Home on Badger Creek near Old Agency. Forty horses, seven cattle, no chickens. Has twenty acres wheat, eight acres oats, garden. Family in good health.

Picture shows Oliver and two of his children at his home.

Date of survey ———- May 11, 1921

Oliver Racine is a patent in fee Indians and lives on one of his children’s allotments near the day school. He was formerly married to Miss Belle Alvares of the Fort Peck reservation. They have seven children. These people were recently divorced and his wife, Belle, is married to a young Indian boy by the name of John Tatsey living in the Heart Butte district.

Oliver is farming cooperatively with one of his sons who is about eighteen years of age, also with Louie Little Plume just mentioned. They have twenty acres in wheat and eight acres in oats. While he is batching he has a very well kept house and everything looked clean and neat and he does his own housekeeping. This young man was a former school boy of mine and he and his wife were married at Fort Shaw while I was superintendent there. They had every prospect for a happy home but unfortunately it was broken up.

He has a house twenty by eighteen, well floored and a shingle roof. He has one of the best barns on the south side although the roof which is rubberoid is becoming deteriorated. He borrowed $800.00 on his patented land and while he says he did not use all of it judiciously he had made good use of part of it. He has forty horses and seven head of cattle. Last year he had thirteen head of cattle and four were stolen and he has butchered two. He feels that it is impossible to continue in the cattle business because of the heavy toll taken by the cattle thieves. He would like in some way to start in the sheep business and would be very glad to get twenty head of good ewes and a good ram. We are not pushing the sheep activity among these Indians but it is our plan to make careful inquiries and wherever we find someone that seems to have the right attitude and proper facilities with which to take care of sheep to encourage them to start in a small way. I think this is once place that we might extend encouragement and while I do not know just how he would finance them, he could probably do so from the sale of some of his horses. He has sufficient shed room already for that number and an abundance of grazing and some very good hay land. He has cattle shelter in addition to his improvements and a good open spring of warm water that is always available for stock.

He has his children growing up around him and I think it is worth while to start a family of this kind and one or more of the children may become interested and later on become successful. Oliver is a very good mechanic and at present is doing the black smithing and general repair work for the Indians of the Old Agency district. He is a man that needs helpful advice and encouragement and I believe would respond very generously to advice in the way of handling and taking care of a small sheep activity such as I have mentioned if there is any way to get him started. He is also a good steam engineer. Mr. Stone informs me that he had him in charge of the dipping vat and that he handled the boiler very successfully.

His reimbursable indebtedness amounts to $65.93


Surnames:
Racine,

Topics:
Blackfeet,

Collection:
Partridge, Dennis N. Heart Butte District Blackfeet Indian Reservation. Web.

Search Military Records - Fold3

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Pin It on Pinterest

Scroll to Top