Blackfeet farmer wins appeal in land lease dispute

MISSOULA, Mont. — Monti Pavatea Gilham and her two youngest sons each packed a suitcase before leaving their ranch behind on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana. The only other thing she grabbed was a briefcase filled with documents from the Farm Service Agency, which was a $90,000 debt.

The quick departure signaled the moment Pavatea Gilham decided to get her life back on track. The family moved to Bozeman, Mont., in 2018. It’s also the year she began a long legal process to right a land lease gone wrong. The quest included two legal appeals and a six-year fight with the Farm Service Agency, or FSA.  More than two years later, she finally received a favorable resolution regarding her debt with the federal agency.

Her story begins on the Blackfeet Reservation where she ranched with her mother, Mary Devereaux Garrett. Her step-father, Bill Devereaux, also worked on the ranch prior to his death. In all, the family ranched on the land for more than fifty years. Devereaux joined a Glacier County Farm Service Agency program in the 1980s. The federal program allowed the family to lease land through the Blackfeet Tribe, an agreement that was approved by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. 

After her step-father passed, Pavatea Gilham continued the leasing program with the Farm Service Agency. All that had been well changed in 2013 when she began experiencing a string of personal life crises. She separated from, and later divorced, her husband. In 2015, she moved to Missoula, Mont. to finish her master’s degree in business at the University of Montana. She was assaulted during the fall semester that year.

“I had severe, paralyzing anxiety attacks, and I was in and out of the hospital and E.R,” she said. As her life unraveled, Pavatea Gilham had no idea she was in trouble with the Glacier County FSA. At the time, the agency was attempting to contact her about maintenance on the leased land. “I didn’t adhere to any of the mail or messages or anything like that,” she said. 

The mother who had moved her family to an undisclosed location didn’t notify the agency or update her mailing address. Consequently, the FSA canceled her leases. “So, in the fine print on those contracts, when they get cancelled, if you’re not in compliance, you have to pay all that money back,” she said.

Now strapped with a debt amounting to tens of thousands of dollars, she began to seek help. After the assault in Missoula, Pavatea Gilham moved back to the ranch on the Blackfeet Reservation. Once she was back home, she gathered her police reports and hospital documents and went to the Glacier County FSA office to explain her circumstances to its then-director, Dennis Garcia. 

“He literally threw the papers back across the table and told me this was totally irrelevant,” she said. Garcia was unavailable for comment as he is no longer working for the agency. At this point Pavatea Gilham sought additional help. She went to the Blackfeet Agency’s Bureau of Indian Affairs, the co-signer of her lease. 

In addition to reaching out to the BIA, she also sought assistance from the Blackfeet Nation’s land department. Neither the BIA or the tribe stepped forward to help. “Here, I am thinking I’m doomed,” said Pavatea Gilham. “There’s nothing I can do. I don’t have any advocacy or anything.” The BIA and tribal representatives declined interview requests.

Judd Jensen, the lawyer representing Pavatea Gilham, said when a Native person signs a Conservation Reserve Program contract, especially involving trust land – land held in trust by the U.S. Interior Department — the BIA signs the contract. When Gilham’s leases were about to expire, the FSA did not communicate with the other co-signer, the BIA.

“Anytime you’re dealing with a federal bureaucracy, and you’re struggling, I encourage people to reach out to your resources and ask for help,” said Jensen. “It could be an attorney, or a family member or it could be someone that can navigate the process and find a more positive resolution. I always preach patience and perseverance.”

After the Glacier County FSA denied her first appeal, she then appealed higher within the agency ranks to the National Appeals Division of the USDA. The appeals division granted her a hearing and appointed Administrative Judge David Hoveskeland to her case. 

Originally, Hoveskeland was going to oversee the hearing in fall 2020 by way of a video hearing given Covid protocols. Jensen, however, felt it was important for the hearing to be in person. The judge agreed to attend the appeal hearing in Bozeman, Mont.

When the hearing was over, Hoveskeland agreed to write a letter to the director of the appeals committee. Finally, in a review determination from the USDA National Appeals Committee, Pavatea Gilham was granted complete equitable relief in February 2021. She no longer owed $90,000, plus she received a monetary award.

Today, she lives in Belgrade, Mont. and works full time at Montana State University. She expects to graduate in December with her Master’s Degree in Native American Studies. She remarried her husband Graig Gilham in 2019. The couple now operate their own business, Gilham Insulation.

Pavatea Gilham said she’s happy she returned to college. She’s since celebrated her third year of sobriety. She and her family plan to move back to Browning to live and ranch once her degree is complete. 

Overall, she’s happy she decided to fight for her rights as a woman rancher. “It was life-changing for the best.”

JoVonne Wagner is a journalism student at the University of Montana.