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Roosevelt County - From Homelands to Present

Background Info/ Historical Story:

“Although not fully authenticated, the Froid Boy Scouts with Richard Moothart as leader, presented good

information that in the early 1800's the Hudson Bay Fur Trading Company had a base camp for trading and collecting furs in the Froid area on Sheep Creek. Their information came from a Historical Society at Regina. A group of archaeological and geological students from Montana State University at Bozeman in about 1956 also indicated that the area between the lagoon and Holger Christoffersens had at one time been a fort area-or a possible trading post. Part of a spear with Hudson Bay stamped on it, and a kind of round seal with a trading company engraved on it were found by these students.”- Roosevelt County’s Treasured Years

“The Fort Peck Reservation covers 2,000,000 acres of rolling prairies in eastern Montana, bounded on the south by the Missouri River and encompasses the Big Muddy on the east boundary and the Porcupine Creek on the west {in Valley County) and extends north through Township 33 then east across three counties; from the Porcupine in Valley to the Big Muddy in Sheridan County. The land rises gently to the north and is cut by the valleys of several streams. There are a few isolated badland areas, but these are not extensive. The elevation varies from 1900 to 3100 feet. Of the more than two million acres allotted to this reservation only about 932,000 remain in their control. In 1887 Congress passed the Dawes Act which divided tribally owned lands into individual parcels. In 1907 the government signed an agreement with the Fort Peck tribes for the allotment of the reservation and the sale of surplus lands. Each Indian was to have 320 acres of grazing land plus some timber and irrigatable land. Some was withdrawn for agency buildings, school and church use and the Great Northern Railroad. All lands not allotted or withdrawn were to be disposed of under the general provisions of the homestead, desert-land, mineral or townsite laws. Although provisions were made to sell the remaining land not disposed of within five years, they were not carried out. If they had been, the tribes would have lost what little land they had left. Today about 237,000 acres are owned by the tribes; they maintain control over another 86,000 acres of the so-called sub- marginal land; and about 608,000 is owned by individual allottees. The land available to the Indians now comprises about 432,000 acres of open range land; close to 471,000 of dry land farm and pasture land; 17,000 acres of irrigated land; and about 12,000 acres of timber land or used for other purposes. Indians are losing their land at about 7,000 acres a year through sales to non-Indians. In 1973 the Fort Peck Tribes borrowed $1,500,000 from the Farm-Home Administration for land purchase of 26,000 acres of allotted land . Another FHA loan in 1974 will enable them to purchase another 15,000 acres.”- Roosevelt County’s Treasured Years

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