Fort Belknap Indian Reservation

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The Fort Belknap Indian Reservation is inhabited by two tribes, the A'aninin ( Gros Ventre ) and the Nakota ( Assiniboine ). The reservation covers 2,626.41 km² and is located in northern central Montana . Most of the area consists of traditional tribal areas. The two tribes reported a total of 2851 registered tribal members in 2010. The largest city on the reservation area is Fort Belknap Agency at the northern end of the reservation, south of the city of Harlem on the opposite side of the Milk River.

history

In October 1855, near the confluence of the Judith and Missouri rivers, the Blackfoot Confederation signed a treaty guaranteeing that they would live together peacefully with other tribes in the area and with the US citizens of North Dakota. The Sioux tribes of the Nakota, Lakota and Dakota as well as the Mandan , Arikara , Hidatsa , Cheyenne and Arapaho had signed a treaty with the United States in Fort Laramie in 1851, which guaranteed the tribes territories within the United States.

The Fort Belknap Reservation was established in 1888 in the north-central part of Montana. It comprises a small part of the large tribal area of ​​the Blackfoot Confederation, which consisted of the A'Aninin (Gros Ventre), Northern and Southern Piegan, and the Blood tribes. Their original area extended over the northern central and eastern parts of Montana and parts of the eastern North Dakota. The Fort Belknap Reservation was named after William W. Belknap , Secretary of State in the War Department during the administration of President Ulysses S. Grant . Belknap was later removed from office for corruption .

Introduction of a bison herd

In March 2012, the Fort Belknap community received part of a bison herd from Yellowstone National Park , the other part was intended for the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. The tribes there introduced locally roaming bison after these animals had been considered extinct on their territory for a hundred years. The same principle was implemented in the Fort Belknap Reservation in 2013.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "Bison Return to Fort Belknap after a Century," Indian Country Today, August 23, 2013