Qualla: Fort Shaw

Fort Shaw: Introduction

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bradljones, CC BY-SA 4.0. On July 4, 1885, soldiers from Fort Shaw rode into Great Falls for the town's first Independence Day celebration. By midnight, roaring drunk, they fired cannonballs down Central Avenue - the main street of the settlement they were ostensibly protecting. It was an appropriate summary of Fort Shaw's complicated relationship with the Montana frontier. Founded in 1867 and named for Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, the Civil War officer who commanded the all-black 54th Massachusetts Regiment, the fort served as a base for some of the most significant - and tragic - military campaigns of the Indian Wars. Its soldiers helped bury Custer's dead at Little Bighorn. They fought the Nez Perce at Big Hole. And after the Army left in 1891, the fort became an Indian boarding school where a team of Native American girls would earn the title of world basketball champions.

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Image: Bradljones | CC BY-SA 4.0

Fort Shaw: The Queen of Montana's Military Posts

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Qfl247 (talk) (Transferred by Citypeek/Original uploaded by Qfl247), CC BY-SA 3.0. Camp Reynolds, as it was first called, was established on June 30, 1867, by Major William Clinton and four companies of the 13th Infantry Regiment. The site on the Sun River, 24 miles west of present-day Great Falls, was chosen to guard the Mullan Road and protect mining settleme...

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Image: Qfl247 (talk) (Transferred by Citypeek/Original uploaded by Qfl247) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Fort Shaw: Blood on the Marias

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit USDA NRCS Montana, Public domain. The land around Fort Shaw was a crucible of violence in the late 1860s. After two Piegan Blackfeet were murdered in broad daylight in Fort Benton in mid-1869 - one the brother of the leader Mountain Chief - a cycle of revenge killings left about 25 white settlers dead. General Ph...

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Image: USDA NRCS Montana | Public domain

Fort Shaw: From Little Bighorn to Big Hole

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bradljones, CC BY-SA 4.0. Colonel John Gibbon took command of Fort Shaw in 1870 and led its soldiers through the climactic battles of the Indian Wars. In 1876, Gibbon formed the 'Montana Column' for Sheridan's campaign against the Sioux and Northern Cheyenne. His 450-man force was supposed to rendezvous w...

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Image: Bradljones | CC BY-SA 4.0

Fort Shaw: World Champions from a Boarding School

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bradljones, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Army abandoned Fort Shaw on July 1, 1891. The following year, the fort became the Fort Shaw Government Industrial Indian Boarding School. By 1898, it had 300 students from tribes across Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Wyoming. The curriculum was designed to strip away native ...

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Image: Bradljones | CC BY-SA 4.0