Fort Belknap Indian Reservation
| Fort Belknap Indian Reservation | |
|---|---|
| Reservation | |
Gros Ventre Camp, 1906
|
|
| Anthem: none | |
| Established | June 1, 1888 (city) |
| Tribal Council | 1904 |
| Capital | Fort Belknap Agency |
| Regions |
2 Regions
|
| Government | |
| • Body | Fort Belknap Tribal Council |
| • President | Mark L. Azure |
| • Vice-President | George Horse Capture, Jr. |
| Area | |
| • Total | 2,626.415 km2 (1,014.064 sq mi) |
| Population (2010)Enrolled tribal members | |
| • Total | 2,851 |
| • Density | 1.1/km2 (2.8/sq mi) |
| Time zone | MT/MDT |
| Website | http://www.ftbelknap-nsn.gov |
The Fort Belknap Indian Reservation is shared by two Native American tribes, the A'aninin (Gros Ventre) and the Nakota (Assiniboine). The reservation covers 1,014.064 square miles (2,626.41 km2), and is located in north central Montana. The total area includes the main portion of their homeland, as well as off-reservation trust land. The tribes reported a total of 2,851 enrolled members in 2010. The largest city on the reservation is Fort Belknap Agency, at the reservation's north end. This is just south of the city of Harlem across the Milk River.
In 2013, the tribes received part of a herd of bison and have re-introduced them to the local range. In June 2015, the US Department of Interior sent some 3500 offers to buy back fractionated land worth more than $54 million, affecting the future control of 26,000 tracts of land within the boundaries of the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation. This was under the Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations, established as part of the federal government's 2009 settlement of the landmark Cobell v. Salazar suit over federal mismanagement of revenues due Indian landowners under the trust program.
In October 1855, near the confluence of the Judith and Missouri rivers, the Blackfoot Confederacy signed an agreement to remain at peace with other Native American tribes and with citizens of the United States. The Nakota Nation, along with the Sioux (Lakota and Dakota), Mandan, Arikara, Hidatsa, Cheyenne, and Arapahoe had signed the Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1851 with the United States government in what is now North Dakota. These treaties established the tribes' respective territories within the continental United States.
The Fort Belknap Reservation was established in 1888 in north central Montana. It comprises a small portion of the vast ancestral territory of the Blackfoot Confederacy, which consisted of the A'Aninin (Gros Ventre), Northern and Southern Piegan, and Blood tribes. Their former territory extended across all of north-central and eastern Montana and portions of eastern North Dakota. Fort Belknap Reservation was named after William W. Belknap, the Secretary of War in President Ulysses S. Grant's administration. Belknap was later impeached for corruption.
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