Name: Marvin Stewart
Tribal Affiliation: Crow
Interview No.: CR045MS042704 (Original – Tape 1)
Topic: Industrial Development
Language: Crow
Time Code In: 01:13:52:19
Time Code Out: 01:17:49:01
Tape 1 of 3 - Original
Q: Let’s talk about railroads. Do you know when the railroad was built through the Crow Reservation?
A: I don’t really know the year, but in the 70’s, 80’s around there, the one called Union Pacific came through Billings and toward Bozeman went through our land. At that time they wanted rights-of- way, that was the way it was from what I know of it. But now in late 1880’s, 1890’s there was another that came here from 01:14:39:20 [Crow speaking ends here.]
Tulooka it headed to Pryor Creek and then south up Pryor Creek through Pryor and the Gap and then into Wyoming. In 1908, prior to that they didn’t need that line through there anymore so what they done was in 1908 they reverted that right-of-way back to the Crow Tribe.
01:15:08:03 [Crow speaking begins here]: The Crow Tribe owns that right of way. [Crow speaking ends at] 01:15:11:07
In the meantime after that happened, in 1920 when they allotted lands, they didn’t reserve that right-of-way and I always contested that right-of-way that goes through an individual’s land without their permission. From ’87, by ‘87 where Pryor Creek Road starts to Pryor - the town of Pryor - then there’s a right-of-way brought from Edgar to Pryor to Plenty Coups Museum and then to town but going pass that again right there on the edge of town there, that railroad continues and not the right-of-way is still there but it belongs to individuals the way I see it. In the past, as you know, the BIA can build what they call individual roads for families. Indian Service Roads they call them. Indian S-e-r-v-i-c-e and they didn’t need rights-of-way because it benefited everybody but in order to turn that over to the County or the State, they’d have to get the landowner’s permission to do that. And a lot of those that are doing that work right now on from Pryor north to Blue Creek, they probably got the width. They made it wider. They might have got that strip but they didn’t get the old area that they should have because the government was saying that it was reverted back to them but when I worked at BIA, I seen a copy of that letter where the railroad gave that back to the Tribe – not the BIA or the Government. 01:17:09:20 [in Crow]: That was the way it was and then there’s another one in Wyoming - from Sheridan to Hardin. They did these kinds of things at that time. At the time this was done, they asked the Apsaalooke [Crow Tribe] and they thought about it and they waited to answer. While they were still considering it, they [the railroad] said, “We will let you ride the train for no charge if you do this [allow right-of-way].” Then the government was going to award a grant to the railroad. They said, “We will pay the Crow Tribe $5 an acre” at that time.