The Montana Fort Assiniboine.

Author's note: This is an old blog that I wrote back in November of 2007. I'm dusting it off and reposting it to show some of the history of the Hi-line and to also get something up that will help me fall back into my "groove" so to speak.

To have simply named this article "Fort Assiniboine" would have been too ambiguous, as there is another Fort Assiniboine further north in Canada. This is the story of the U.S. Ft. Assiniboine near Havre, Montana. Most of my research is simply looking for articles and references to Fort Assiniboine and my realization of the two different forts occurred to me when reading an entry in Father Pierre Jean DeSmet's journals about his description of Ft. Assiniboine and it didn't describe the one near Havre. Father DeSmet (of historical importance to the Bitterroot Valley) was describing lakes and streams and large mountains....describing the second oldest fort in Alberta, Canada.

The namesake of Fort Assiniboine is a quite remarkable tribe of the Great Sioux Nation. Some times referred to as the Assnipaw, the Ojibwa word for Stone Sioux, primarily because they would use fire-heated stones to boil water for cooking meat . The Assiniboine were found in the vast Great Northern Prairies of North America.

They were allies and trading partners with the Cree, often warring alongside the Cree in their battles against the Gros Ventre (pronounced gro-von) and later the Blackfeet. Ironically, the Assiniboine now share Fort Belknap Reservation with the Gros Ventre in North Central Montana.

During the expedition, Corp of Discovery, led by Lewis and Clark, there were rumors that the Assiniboine were a hostile people and the Corp made every effort to avoid these people, and never encountered them during their expedition. Later in history, it was discovered that the Assiniboine were not as hostile as once believed and became great trading partners with the Europeans that were moving into the area.

The following is the story of the large fort that was named in their honor, Fort Assiniboine.

During railroad expansion in the 1870s many Lakota Sioux fought the survey and construction crews that were found in the Black Hills area of the Dakotas. The Lakota had defeated the Cheynne in 1776 and had taken the land known as the Black Hills. The Black Hills were very sacred ground for the Lakota and the "white man's" trespasses were not welcome.

During the economic Panic of 1873, the U.S. Government sent General George A. Custer and the U.S. 7th Cavalry to the Dakotas as a deterrent to the Lakota attacks. The first clash in what would become the Black Hills War occurred on August 4th, 1873. This is were history gets a little fuzzy, because it was Gen. Custer that discovered gold in the Black Hills, in 1874, during an expedition and while under different auspices. This discovery led the U.S. to attempt a purchase of the Black Hills, which the Lakota refused and this was the beginning of the Black Hills War, a year after the 1873 battle that supposedly start it.

General Custer and the U.S. 7th Cavalry were completely defeated by the Lakota at the Battle of the Little Bighorn on June 25th, 1876.

The following year, near the Milk River in North Central Montana, a massive fort "rose out of the ground."

Fort Assiniboine was constructed as a result of the devastating loss at the Battle of The Little Bighorn.

Chief Sitting Bull, the spiritual leader of the Lakota Sioux that led the attack at Little Bighorn, had fled to the Cypress Hills just over the Canadian border, to hide from the repercussions that were sure to follow the defeat of the 7th Cavalry. The U.S. Cavalry needed to construct a large fort to thwart any attack that Sitting Bull may engage in. The fort was also part of General William Sherman's vision of a line of forts along the Northern and Southern borders of the United States.

The fort was constructed on the edge of what is now The Rocky Boy Reservation (Chippewa Cree). Indians in the area were so impressed by the speed with which the soldiers, led by Colonal Broadwater, were fabricating bricks on the spot to building the structures, that they described it as the fort "that rose out of the ground." Over a four year period, 104 buildings were constructed on Fort Assiniboine, under the direction of L.K. Devlin, a civilian architect hired by the U.S. Government.

Fort Assiniboine was the largest post in the U.S. at the time of its construction. It also was constructed without a perimeter wall, unlike the other frontier posts. The reason for this was that Fort Assiniboine was an Offensive fort and not a Defensive fort. At it's peak, Fort Assiniboine was home to 36 officers and 720 enlisted.

Of those enlisted men of the fort, were two units of the 10th Cavalry, known as the "Buffalo Soldiers". The 24th and 25th units were stationed at Fort Assiniboine between 1895 and 1897. These "black" soldiers had been given their name by local Indians who referred to their curly hair and likened their fighting abilities to that of the sacred buffalo.

The First Lieutenant in charge of the Buffalo Soldiers was also the most famous military man to ever serve at Fort Assiniboine, John J. Pershing, also known as "Black Jack", a nickname given to him later while teaching at West Point, it is a softer version of the more bigoted moniker that he was originally given.

While at Fort Assiniboine it has been written that Pershing showed his superior marksmanship while on many hunting expeditions in the region, taking impossible shots at the local Prong Horn (antelop) and killing them with one shot. During his orders at the fort, Pershing's only expedition in the Indian Wars was to round up a renegade band of Chippewa Cree that had been spotted in the area of Great Falls, Montana and leading them back to Canada. In June 1897, Pershing was assigned to West Point as an assistant instructor in Tactics. He was not a popular officer there because the cadets thought his discipline was too strict. John J. Pershing went on to become the highest ranking officer in U.S. military history. His appointment to General of The Armed Forces during World War I was a specially designed rank, a Gold Five Star which has never been achieved before or since.

Another important reason for the construction of Fort Assiniboine was the Nez Perce. The Nez Perce, led by Chief Joseph, were trekking their way across Oregon, Idaho and Montana to escape to Canada after the Battle of Canyon Creek, where they had defeated Colonel Samuel D. Sturgis.

On September 30th, 1877, the same year that construction started on Fort Assiniboine, The Nez Perce, camped out in the Bears Paw Mountains near Fort Assiniboine, spotted their pursuer, Colonel Nelson Miles. Without enough time to retreat, but enough time to fortify, the Nez Perce prepared to battle Miles' forces. The outcome of this battle, The Battle of the Bears Paw, was Chief Joseph's surrender and Chief White Bird's fleeing with 50 Nez Perce to Canada

At the end of this battle, Chief Joseph handed his Winchester rifle to Colonel Miles and is quoted as saying: "I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever."

After the Surrender of Chief Joseph and a majority of the Nez Perce, Fort Assiniboine's mission included, not only the threat from Chief Sitting Bull, but also the threat of Chief White Bird and a hand-full of Nez Perce.

Today there isn't much left of Fort Assiniboine. In 1916 a portion of it was ceded to the Rocky Boy Reservation and its buildings were torn down. A larger portion was ceded to Hill County Montana as part of the 10,000 acre Beaver Creek Park, the nation's largest county park. The few remaining buildings on the post are under the use of the Montana State University system as an agriculture experimentation facility. Tours are rare, but I am planning to see those buildings someday.

The plight of the Nez Perce is an excellent segue to my next blog which will also tie my Bitterroot heritage to that of Havre. Be on the look out for my Nez Perce blog.