The killing of the  buffalo between 1868 and 1872 made room for cattle.
By 1884 the Crow Reservation had begun the allotment  system which allotted each person 160 acres, hopefullyto develop farmers of the Indians. Within the confines of the new Reservation  boundaries, they could choose their places-and they did choose favorite ceamp places, family by family. The difficult change with this new concept was private land ownership and small family groups, when from time immemorial they had extended families.l

(Bond School history.) Rev. Bond was from Massachusetts, a Harvard graduate at 20 years of age in 1840 (born in 1820),subsequently a traveler to many places of the world to observe other cultures. He then went  to

Harvard Divinity School and was ordained in 1846. He had several pastorates in New  England until in 1869 he went  to  Omaha, Nebraska, to begin a Unitarian Church there.  It was there  that he first learned something about the  condition  and need of the

"remnants of the Indian tribes still living or wandering in the Missouri Valley and became deeply interested in the problem  connected with heir adaptation to civilization". In 1871, when the government tasked religious denominations to help with the administration of th ereservations according to treaties, the Unitarians were assigned the Utes of Colorado.

"The Propagation Society" lists Rev. Bond as amissionary "in other states" in 1874.8 9 In 1874 he was appointed Agent for the Utes in Pinos, Colorado, but by 1876 he was body-weary  from the work,  and  returned to   two pastorates  in Massachusetts

  Rev. Bond and his wife went enthusiastically on this journey West, beginning in April that year (1886) to seek a logical place for such an industrial school. They were to go first to the Utes, then to the Crows and Cheyennes in Montana, and then to the Siouxs

in the Dakotas. When they got to the Utes where he had been Agent from  1874-1876 he found that neither the government nor the Indians were interested in such a school, it was poor farming land and the Indians were still migrating.  Thus the time spent with the Utes was short.

                    Choosing The Montana Site  for the BOND SCHOOL

    Thus Rev. Bond  and Mrs. Bond were off to Crow Agency, Montana, arriving  in early June. And why Crow Agency? Two  U S. Army  officers, Capt. Henry Romeya and Lt. G.LeRoy Brown, stationed at Fort Custer, Montana in 1886,  who had formerly been

instructors at Hampton, and were part of the "Marshall Connection".

They had recommended the Crow Reservation, Rev. Bond reporting that "they were familiar with the various tribes and their conditons". No doubt they met with the officers  early on arrival, forin letters from Mr. Bond back to Gen. Marshall, there are references

to them, quoted also in a report  in "The Christian  Register ."Apparently Capt. Romeya showed Rev. Bond around the Reservation in early July, traveling by stage, wagon, horseback and afoot,and whether it was a site Capt. Romeya  had in mind or  not,  on

July 7 he wrote he had found the best place. It was seven miles south of the Custer Railroad Station, with mail passing each way once aday by stage, and with freighters going by. There was a good spring of water, good stands  of cotton wood and pine trees near the site.

Rules:

   You must obey your teachers.
 Your parents and friends can come sometimes to see you. We wish them to, but they can-

   not eat here or stay over night."

Then he wrote further, "One Indian said they loved their children,and that we must take good care of them."

    He sent a list of thirteen children, attempting to put their Crownames in writing, as well as that of the

 father's and then translatingthem both. Then he gave more  "Anglo", more spell-able names,

sometimes in relation to the  father's name, sometimes the child'sname and sometimes for Unitarian friends. This list does not include

the children of white fathers, whose  names were kept (i. e. Kaiser, or Myers.),

Comments on these same children in a letter April 3 was:

   "All appear healthy except one.  They are hearty enough

eaters and such a happy set you never saw. They seem perfectly

willing to work. . .little stick-to-ativeness. . obedient, affectionate.

They like the new clothing, and are learning to sleep between

sheets not blankets. Last night for the first time they wore night

gowns!"

In May  he wrote about them:

    "They are all bright promising boys How such good appearing fellows come  of an ignorant,

lazy squalid, orphanedrace is a constant surprise to us. I shall dread the time, if thatcomes, when

 they slip back into their old abodes and possibly leave.