Qualla: Fort Buford

Fort Buford: Introduction

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Farragutful, CC BY-SA 4.0. On July 19, 1881, the most famous warrior on the Northern Plains handed his rifle to his young son and told him to present it to the commanding officer. Sitting Bull wanted history to remember that he surrendered to no one but his own child. The ceremony took place in a modest building that still stands today at Fort Buford, where the muddy waters of the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers merge in the emptiness of western North Dakota. This was no accident of geography. The confluence had been chosen precisely because it marked the gateway to Lakota hunting grounds, and the Army intended to control that gate.

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Image: Farragutful | CC BY-SA 4.0

Fort Buford: Besieged from the Beginning

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided, Public domain. Company C of the 13th Infantry arrived on June 15, 1866, with orders to build a fort using whatever they could find. What they found was adobe mud, cottonwood trees, and trouble. The second night, Sitting Bull himself led a Hunkpapa raiding party against the camp. For the next ye...

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Image: Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided | Public domain

Fort Buford: Timber from an Old Trading Post

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Author Unknown., Public domain. In 1867, the Army purchased old Fort Union, a fur trading post two miles away that had been operating since 1829. They dismantled parts of it and hauled the aged timber to Fort Buford. The reason was practical: thirty years of seasoning had made the wood far superior to the green...

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Image: Author Unknown. | Public domain

Fort Buford: Unlikely Neighbors

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Around 1870, an unexpected community formed two miles northwest of the fort. Some 150 to 200 Hidatsa and Mandan people, led by chiefs Bobtail Bull and Crow Flies High, had fled the Fort Berthold Reservation nearly 100 miles downstream. They built log cabins and sought protection ...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Fort Buford: Adobe Crumbles, Memory Endures

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided, Public domain. Fort Buford was never meant to last. The original adobe and cottonwood buildings began collapsing almost as soon as they were built. The 1889 attempt to install water mains failed because workers could not bury pipes deeper than eight feet, not nearly enough to prevent freezing i...

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Image: Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided | Public domain

Fort Buford: What Remains at the Confluence

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Philkon Phil Konstantin, Public domain. Today the North Dakota State Historical Society maintains Fort Buford as a state historic site, though only 40 acres of the original square mile remain in public hands. A reconstructed adobe barracks built in 2004 shows what Company G's quarters looked like in 1876, based on arch...

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Image: Philkon Phil Konstantin | Public domain