Garrison Dam is an earth-fill embankment dam on the Missouri River in central North Dakota, U.S. Constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from 1947 to 1953, at over 2 miles (3.2 km) in length, the dam is the fifth-largest earthen dam in the world. The reservoir impounded by the dam is Lake Sakakawea, which extends to Williston and the confluence with the Yellowstone River, near the Montana border. The dam and resulting reservoir inundated approximately one-sixth (16.6%) to one-fourth (25%) of Fort Berthold Indian Reservation's land, resulting in the loss of homes, farmland, and community infrastructure for the Three Affiliated Tribes.
The Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation, also known as the Three Affiliated Tribes, is a Native American Nation resulting from the alliance of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara peoples, whose native lands ranged across the Missouri River basin extending from present day North Dakota through western Montana and Wyoming.
The Treaty of Fort Laramie is an agreement between the United States and the Oglala, Miniconjou, and Brulé bands of Lakota people, Yanktonai Dakota, and Arapaho Nation, following the failure of the first Fort Laramie treaty, signed in 1851.
The Hidatsa are a Siouan people. They are enrolled in the federally recognized Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. Their language is related to that of the Crow, and they are sometimes considered a parent tribe to the modern Crow in Montana.
Arikara, also known as Sahnish, Arikaree, Ree, or Hundi, are a tribe of Native Americans in North Dakota. Today, they are enrolled with the Mandan and the Hidatsa as the federally recognized tribe known as the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation.
The Mandan are a Native American tribe of the Great Plains who have lived for centuries primarily in what is now North Dakota. They are enrolled in the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation. About half of the Mandan still reside in the area of the reservation; the rest reside around the United States and in Canada.
The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 was signed on September 17, 1851 between United States treaty commissioners and representatives of the Cheyenne, Sioux, Arapaho, Crow, Assiniboine, Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nations. Also known as Horse Creek Treaty, the treaty set forth traditional territorial claims of the tribes.
The Great Sioux Reservation initially set aside land west of the Missouri River in South Dakota and Nebraska for the use of the Sioux, who had dominated this territory. The reservation was established in the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. It included all of present-day western South Dakota and modern Boyd County, Nebraska. This area was established by the United States as a reservation for the Teton Sioux, also known as the Lakota: the seven western bands of the "Seven Council Fires".
The Crow Creek Indian Reservation, home to Crow Creek Sioux Tribe is located in parts of Buffalo, Hughes, and Hyde counties on the east bank of the Missouri River in central South Dakota in the United States. It has a land area of 421.658 square miles (1,092.09 km2) and a 2000 census population of 2,225 persons. The major town and capital of the federally recognized Crow Creek Sioux Tribe is Fort Thompson.
Four Bears Bridge is one of two bridges built over the Missouri River on the Fort Berthold Reservation in the U.S. state of North Dakota. It carries North Dakota Highway 23. The current bridge which opened in 2005 is the second largest bridge in the state and replaced an earlier bridge built in 1934. The 1934 bridge was moved in 1955 following the construction of the Garrison Dam and the creation of Lake Sakakawea.
Like-a-Fishhook Village was a Native American settlement next to Fort Berthold in North Dakota, United States, established by dissident bands of the Three Affiliated Tribes, the Mandan, Arikara and Hidatsa. Formed in 1845, it was also eventually inhabited by non-Indian traders, and became important in the trade between Natives and non-Natives in the region.
Edward Lone Fight served as Chairman of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation from 1986 to 1990. In 1988 Lone Fight met with President Ronald Reagan, a meeting which was the catalyst for the Just Compensation Bill, introduced based on the findings of the Joint Tribal Advisory Committee, which provided the tribes partial compensation for the flooding of reservation due to the construction of the Garrison Dam under the Pick-Sloan Legislation.
The Fort Belknap Indian Reservation is shared by two Native American tribes, the A'aninin and the Nakoda (Assiniboine). The reservation covers 1,014 sq mi (2,630 km2), and is located in north-central Montana. The total area includes the main portion of their homeland and off-reservation trust land. The tribes reported 2,851 enrolled members in 2010. The capital and largest community is Fort Belknap Agency, at the reservation's north end, just south of the city of Harlem, Montana, across the Milk River.
Fort Berthold was the name of two successive forts on the upper Missouri River in present-day central-northwest North Dakota. Both were initially established as fur trading posts. The second was adapted as a post for the U.S. Army. After the Army left the area, having subdued Native Americans, the fort was used by the US as the Indian Agency for the regional Arikara, Hidatsa, and Mandan Affiliated Tribes and their reservation.
Twin Buttes is an unincorporated community in Dunn County, North Dakota, United States. It is a community on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, which is home of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Three Affiliated Tribes. Twin Buttes is 2 miles (3.2 km) south of Lake Sakakawea, and 12 miles (19 km) north-northeast of Halliday.
Alyce Spotted Bear was a Native American educator and politician and an enrolled member of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation.
A number of different Native Americans living in present-day Montana entered into treaties with the United States during the 19th Century. Most of the treaties included an article that established the territory of the tribe entering into it. More and more of this Indian land turned into public or U.S. territory with the signing of new treaties..
Native Americans from various tribes lived in North Dakota before the arrival of settlers. With time, a number of treaties and agreements were signed between the Indians and the newcomers. Many of the treaties defined the domain of a specific group of Indians. The three maps below show the treaty territories of different Indians living in North Dakota and how the territories changed and diminished over time in the 19th century.
Raymond "Ray" Cross was an American attorney and law professor from the U.S. state of North Dakota. He was a member of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation, also known as the Three Affiliated Tribes, and a former professor of American Indian Law at the University of Montana. As an attorney, Cross represented Native Americans in multiple landmark trials, including two U.S. Supreme Court cases, and successfully won a compensation claim against the U.S. government for the flooding of 156,000 acres of tribal land in North Dakota due to the construction of the Garrison Dam.
Elbowoods is a ghost town that was located in McLean County, North Dakota, United States, on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. It was founded in 1889 along the Missouri River as the agency seat for the reservation of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation. After the creation of the Garrison Dam and Lake Sakakawea, rising water levels threatened the town, slowly engulfing its buildings until the entire town was submerged in 1954.
