Qualla: Fort Belknap Indian Reservation

Fort Belknap Indian Reservation: Introduction

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit USDA NRCS Montana, Public domain. The French traders got the name wrong. They watched the Aaniiih people make the sign language gesture for waterfall, passing their hands over their stomachs to describe the cascading water. The Frenchmen interpreted this as "big belly" and called them Gros Ventre. The Aaniiih actually called themselves the White Clay People, named for the white clay along the Saskatchewan River that they used in ceremony. They share this Montana reservation with the Nakoda, the Generous Ones, whose name the Chippewa rendered as Assiniboine, meaning "one who cooks with stones."

Image: USDA NRCS Montana | Public domain

Fort Belknap Indian Reservation: Last of the Wild Herds

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit USDA NRCS Montana, Public domain. Between the Bear Paw Mountains and the Little Rocky Mountains, in the lush valley of the Milk River, the last wild buffalo herd in the continental United States roamed through the final decades of the 19th century. The Aaniiih and Nakoda had followed these massive animals for gen...

Image: USDA NRCS Montana | Public domain

Fort Belknap Indian Reservation: Names and Histories

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tony Webster, CC BY 2.0. The Nakoda split from the Yanktonai Sioux in the 17th century, migrating from the Minnesota woodlands onto the northern plains alongside their allies, the Plains Cree. They heated rocks and placed them in rawhide containers to boil water and cook food, a practice that gave them t...

Image: Tony Webster | CC BY 2.0

Fort Belknap Indian Reservation: Treaties and Territories

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Made by : Unknown Indian boy in 1911, Public domain. In October 1855, near the confluence of the Judith and Missouri Rivers, the Blackfoot Confederacy signed an agreement promising peace with other tribes and with American citizens. The Nakoda had already signed the Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1851, along with the Lakota, Dakota, Man...

Image: Made by : Unknown Indian boy in 1911 | Public domain

Fort Belknap Indian Reservation: The Return of the Animals

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Department of the Interior. Bureau of Indian Affairs. Forestry Division. 9/17/1947-ca. 1961, Public domain. A century after the buffalo vanished from this landscape, they are coming back. The tribes received bison in 2013 and have reintroduced them to the local range. The Fort Belknap Indian Community Grassland Restoration Project, a partnership with the Bureau of Land Management, is r...

Image: Department of the Interior. Bureau of Indian Affairs. Forestry Division. 9/17/1947-ca. 1961 | Public domain

Fort Belknap Indian Reservation: The View from Here

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Lukas Eddy, CC BY-SA 4.0. Fort Belknap Agency sits at the reservation's northern edge, just south of Harlem across the Milk River. The Little Rocky Mountains rise to the southwest, and the Bear Paw Mountains loom to the west, the same ranges that once cradled the last wild buffalo. The reservation covers ...

Image: Lukas Eddy | CC BY-SA 4.0