The Fort Peck Indian Reservation (, ) is located near
Fort Peck, Montana, in the northeast part of the state. It is the home of several federally recognized bands of
Assiniboine,
Lakota
Lakota may refer to:
*Lakota people, a confederation of seven related Native American tribes
*Lakota language
Lakota ( ), also referred to as Lakhota, Teton or Teton Sioux, is a Siouan languages, Siouan language spoken by the Lakota people of ...
, and
Dakota peoples of
Native Americans.
With a total land area of , it is the ninth-largest
Indian reservation
An American Indian reservation is an area of land land tenure, held and governed by a List of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States#Description, U.S. federal government-recognized Native American tribal nation, whose gov ...
in the United States. These lands are spread across parts of four counties. In descending order of land area they are
Roosevelt,
Valley
A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains and typically containing a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over ...
,
Daniels, and
Sheridan counties. Its resident population was 10,381 in 2000. The largest community on the reservation is the city of
Wolf Point.
History
1850s–1870s
The federal government established the
Great Sioux Reservation under the Treaty of 1851, encompassing much of the area of
West River in what is now
South Dakota
South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state, state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Dakota people, Dakota Sioux ...
, as well as portions of North Dakota and Nebraska. As some bands of the Sioux agreed to come into agencies, others chose to resist. Army efforts to bring in the other Sioux (characterized as "hostiles") led to battles in the Rosebud country and culminated in the
Battle of the Little Bighorn
The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to the Lakota people, Lakota and other Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, and commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota Si ...
in 1876. The United States forces were roundly defeated there.
As the victors dispersed, Sitting Bull led followers north into the Red Water country. The
Hunkpapa
The Hunkpapa (Lakota: ) are a Native American group, one of the seven council fires of the Lakota tribe. The name ' is a Lakota word, meaning "Head of the Circle" (at one time, the tribe's name was represented in European-American records as ...
and assorted Teton peoples gained some supplies from contact with the Sioux at what was then known as the Fort Peck Agency. When military pressure increased in 1877,
Sitting Bull
Sitting Bull ( ; December 15, 1890) was a Hunkpapa Lakota people, Lakota leader who led his people during years of resistance against Federal government of the United States, United States government policies. Sitting Bull was killed by Indian ...
led most of his followers over the border into Canada. The federal government increased its military forces in the area in an effort to induce Sitting Bull to surrender.
In 1878, the
Fort Peck Indian Agency was relocated to its present-day location in Poplar, Montana, because the original agency was located on a flood plain, which flooded every spring. The current Camp Poplar (located at Fort Peck Agency) was established in 1880. That year, Presbyterian missionary
Rev. G.W. Wood, Jr. came from Northern Michigan with his family to lead the Poplar Creek mission. Without supplies and barely tolerated by the
First Nations
First nations are indigenous settlers or bands.
First Nations, first nations, or first peoples may also refer to:
Indigenous groups
*List of Indigenous peoples
*First Nations in Canada, Indigenous peoples of Canada who are neither Inuit nor Mé ...
peoples in the area of present-day southern
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...
, who were dealing with limited resources, Sitting Bull returned to the United States. He surrendered at
Fort Buford on July 19, 1881. Some of his Hunkpapa stragglers intermarried with other Native Americans at Fort Peck and resided in the Chelsea community.
1880s and 1890s
By 1881, the wild
American bison
The American bison (''Bison bison''; : ''bison''), commonly known as the American buffalo, or simply buffalo (not to be confused with Bubalina, true buffalo), is a species of bison that is endemic species, endemic (or native) to North America. ...
had been hunted to near-extinction by commercial hunters. By 1883–1884, more than 300 Assiniboine died of starvation while forcibly incarcerated at the Wolf Point sub-agency. Rations were insufficient, and the suffering reservation-wide was exacerbated by particularly severe winters.
In 1884, Wolf Point was suffering from extreme poverty and starvation, so the
Indian Rights Association convinced Congress to make a special appropriation for them. In the spring of 1884, residents built a dam to enable irrigation. From 1885 to Montana Statehood in 1889, the tribes participated in agreements with the US government to re-drawing the Fort Peck reservation boundaries in exchange for federal subsidies.
In 1887, Congress passed the
Dawes Act, which provided the general legislation for dividing the allegedly tribally-owned Indian reservations into parcels of land under individual titles. Around the start of the 20th century, non-Indians continued to violate the Reservation boundary areas, then encroached into the prime grazing and farmland areas within the Reservation territories. As more and more homesteaders moved into the surrounding areas, pressure was placed on Congress to open up the Fort Peck Reservation to homesteading.
1900s to 1930s
On May 30, 1908, Fort Peck Allotment Act was passed by Congress. The Act called for the survey and allotment of lands now embraced by the Fort Peck Indian Reservation and the sale and dispersal of all the surplus lands after allotment. Each eligible Indian was to receive of grazing land in addition to some timber and irrigable land. Parcels of land were also withheld for Agency, school, and church use. Land was also reserved for use by the
Great Northern Railway. All lands not allotted or reserved were declared surplus and were ready to be disposed of under the homestead's general provisions, desert land, mineral, and townsite laws.
In 1913, approximately of unallotted or tribal unreserved lands were available for settlement by the non-Indian homesteaders. Although provisions were made to sell the remaining land not disposed of in the first five years, it was never completed. Several additional allotments were made before the 1930s.
Modern
In June 2015, the Department of Interior sent offers to buy back land worth $230 million to nearly 12,000 individual owners at the Fort Peck Indian Reservation and the smaller
Fort Belknap Indian Reservation. This was under the
Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations, established as part of the federal government's settlement of the landmark ''
Cobell v. Salazar'' suit over federal mismanagement of revenues due Indian landowners under the trust program.
["DOI sends over $230M in offers to Indian landowners in Montana"](_blank)
''Indianz.com,'' 8 June 2015; accessed 28 October 2016
Education
Educational history on the Reservation includes a government boarding school program that was begun in 1877 and finally discontinued in the 1920s. Missionary schools were run periodically by the Mormons and Presbyterians in the first decades of the 20th century, but with minimal success. The Fort Peck Reservation is served by five public school districts, which are responsible for elementary and secondary education. In addition, an independent post-secondary institution is located on the Reservation:
Fort Peck Community College, which offers nine associate of arts, six associate of science, and ten associate of applied science degrees. In recent years, the quality of education delivered to the Reservation's children has become a matter of scrutiny.
For some years, the Fort Peck Indian Reservation was the location of a branch campus of the
NAES College.
Description

The reservation is home to The Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes (
Assiniboine: ''įhą́ktuwąna''). Though separate, the two tribes speak related
Siouan languages
Siouan ( ), also known as Siouan–Catawban ( ), is a language family of North America located primarily in the Great Plains, Ohio and Mississippi valleys and southeastern North America with a few other languages in the east.
Name
Authors who ...
. Fort Peck Reservation is home to two separate Indian nations, each composed of numerous bands and divisions. The Sioux divisions of Sisseton/Wahpetons, the Yanktonais, and the Teton Hunkpapa are all represented. The Assiniboine bands of Canoe Paddler and Red Bottom are represented.
The Fort Peck Tribes have an estimated 11,000 enrolled members, half of which reside on the reservation. Many associate members mean they have Indian blood but not enough to be enrolled with the tribe. To be enrolled, or recognized as an official tribal member, a person must be at least 1/4 Fort Peck Indian blood. This is done through blood quantum measurements kept by the tribe.
The Reservation is located in Montana's extreme northeast corner, on the north side of the Missouri River. The Reservation is long and wide, encompassing . Of this, approximately are tribally owned and are individually allotted Indian lands. The total of Indian owned lands is about . There are an estimated 10,000 enrolled tribal members, of whom approximately 6,000 reside on or near the Reservation. The population density is greatest along the southern border of the Reservation near the
Missouri River
The Missouri River is a river in the Central United States, Central and Mountain states, Mountain West regions of the United States. The nation's longest, it rises in the eastern Centennial Mountains of the Bitterroot Range of the Rocky Moun ...
and the major transportation routes, U.S. Highway 2 and the Amtrak routing on the tracks of the
Burlington Northern Railroad
The Burlington Northern Railroad was a United States–based railroad company formed from a merger of four major U.S. railroads. Burlington Northern operated between 1970 and 1995.
Its historical lineage begins in the earliest days of railroad ...
.
The Fort Peck Tribes is the largest employer on the reservation and in the region with over 350 employees.
Big-game hunting on the reservation is limited to enrolled tribal members only. Upland bird seasons are open to the general public.
Government
The Fort Peck Tribes adopted their first written constitution in 1927. The Tribes voted to reject a new constitution under the Indian Reorganization Act in 1934. The original constitution was amended in 1952 by then-Chairman William Knorr. It was completely rewritten and adopted in 1960 by then-Chairman Austin Buckles. The present constitution remains one of the few modern tribal constitutions that still includes provisions for general councils, the traditional tribal type of government. The official governing body of the Fort Peck Tribes is the Tribal Executive Board, composed of twelve voting members, plus a chairman, vice-chairman, secretary-accountant, and sergeant-at-arms. All members of the governing body, except the secretary-accountant, are elected at large every two years.
The Tribal Government has control over most activities inside of the reservation borders. The Tribe has its own court system, jail, and treatment center. In addition to the Tribal Government, there are also city and county governments, as well as a Sisseton Wahpeton Sioux Council. The Tribal Headquarters are located in
Poplar, widely viewed as the capital of the Reservation. The
Bureau of Indian Affairs
The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States List of United States federal agencies, federal agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior, Department of the Interior. It is responsible for im ...
has the
Fort Peck Agency located in Poplar.
Bison
In March 2012, 63
American bison
The American bison (''Bison bison''; : ''bison''), commonly known as the American buffalo, or simply buffalo (not to be confused with Bubalina, true buffalo), is a species of bison that is endemic species, endemic (or native) to North America. ...
from
Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States located in the northwest corner of Wyoming, with small portions extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U ...
were transferred to the Fort Peck Indian Reservation prairie, to be released to a game preserve north of
Poplar. There are many other bison herds, but this is one of the very few not cross-bred with cattle. Native Americans celebrated the move, which came over a century after bison were nearly wiped out by hunters and the government. The Assiniboine and Gros Ventre tribes at the
Fort Belknap Indian Reservation will also receive a portion of this herd.
In November 2014, an additional 136 American Bison from Yellowstone National Park were added to the Fort Peck Herd. The preserve has also been enlarged to as Fort Peck Fish and Game works toward their target goal of 1,000 bison, which scientists feel is the minimum herd size necessary to restore the Bison to the role they once had in the environment. The tribe continues to receive Yellowstone bison for quarantine and transfer to other tribes.
Communities
*
Brockton
*
Frazer
*
Lustre
*
Poplar
*
Reserve
*
Wolf Point
*
Fort Kipp
*
Oswego
Notable tribal members
*
Dolly Akers, legislator
*
Amber Midthunder, actress
*
James Allen Red Dog, serial killer
*
Chaske Spencer
*
Minnie Two Shoes (1950–2010), journalist, activist, co-founder of the
Native American Press Association
*
Frank W. Warner
*
Horse's Ghost
References
External links
Official siteFort Peck Reservation and Off-Reservation Trust Land, MontanaUnited States Census Bureau
{{authority control
Geography of Daniels County, Montana
American Indian reservations in Montana
Federally recognized tribes in the United States
Geography of Roosevelt County, Montana
Geography of Sheridan County, Montana
Geography of Valley County, Montana
1878 establishments in Montana Territory