{"id":5,"featured":0,"modified":"2026-04-17 19:40:05","latitude":48.50275838574300024674812448211014270782470703125,"longitude":-109.793715476989973467425443232059478759765625,"title":"Fort Assinniboine Historic District","subtitle":"","fullsize":"https://mail.historicmt.org/files/fullsize/1391ec5369023d1352c8aa29becb67de.jpg","address":"County Road 82nd Avenue West, 0.5 mi. SE of US 87, Havre, Montana","all_locations":[],"zoom":15,"creator":["Montana National Register Sign Program"],"description":"For centuries, Plains people hunted and gathered resources on both sides of today’s U.S./Canadian border. However, the border grew in significance after 1869 as both governments sought to control and contain Indigenous populations. During the 1870s and 1880s, tensions mounted as Canadian Cree and Métis (people of mixed Indigenous and European descent) fled to the U.S. after armed uprisings—organized to maintain control over their homeland—failed. Conflict also spiked in 1876-77 when Nez Perce and Lakota families, pursued by the U.S. military, fled into Canada seeking safety. In response, the U.S. government built Fort Assinniboine beginning in 1879. Soldiers and local civilians, including Métis people, constructed one of the largest posts ever built in the U.S. With the fort completed, soldiers deported Cree and Métis people and monitored cross-border immigration and trade. Removal efforts culminated when the all-Black 10th Cavalry enforced the 1896 Cree Deportation Act, which enabled ethnic cleansing of “Canadian Cree Indians.” The soldiers destroyed Cree, Chippewa, and Métis encampments, herded more than six-hundred people (including people born in the U.S.) onto train cars, and shipped them across the border to Canada. Many quickly returned home. The same troops later fought in the Spanish-American War. Changing political priorities led to the fort’s closure in 1911. The state purchased the buildings, establishing the Northern Agricultural Research Center in 1913. Congress allocated most of the land for grazing and 9,000 acres for Beaver Creek Park. In 1916, after a successful campaign by landless Chippewa and Cree leaders, 56,000 acres became Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation.<br /><a href=\"https://historicmt.org/tours/show/41\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Click here to tour the district.</a>","sponsor":null,"accessinfo":"Public","lede":"","website":"<a href=\"https://fortassinniboine.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Learn more about Fort Assinniboine Historic District</a>","related_resources":["<a href=\"https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/8448e908-ee2f-4275-acd3-616d970e8ffa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Read about Fort Assinniboine Historic District</a>","<a href=\"https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/44b2deeb-b5e9-4bb0-aab0-c506828ea306/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">See photos of Fort Assinniboine Historic District</a>"],"factoids":[],"files":{"https://mail.historicmt.org/files/fullsize/1391ec5369023d1352c8aa29becb67de.jpg":{"id":48,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Fort Assinnaboine, Montana from the east","description":"&quot;Fort Assinnaboine [sic], Montana from the east&quot; [Fort Assiniboine] Summer, 1880<br />\r\nCatalog # H-378 | Haynes Foundation Collection, Montana Historical Society Research Center Photograph Archives, Helena, Montana | Summer, 1880 | F. Jay Haynes","thumbnail":"https://mail.historicmt.org/files/square_thumbnails/1391ec5369023d1352c8aa29becb67de.jpg"},"https://mail.historicmt.org/files/fullsize/26a50acf62522f8f1002ba4286430459.jpg":{"id":206,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Post map, Fort Assiniboine","description":"Date of situation 1889. Shows area from the Cypress Hills in Canada south to Fort Benton, and from St. Marys Lake east to Malta.; relief indicated by hachures.; Panel title: Fort Assinniboine, Montana, post map and supplement.; Includes legend, list of authorities used, and notations on topography, water, wood, minerals, and coal.; On verso: Table of distances and notes on timber, fuel, and roads. | <a href=\"https://www.mtmemory.org/nodes/view/87698\">Montana History Portal</a> | 1889 | Hill, R.G. (Rowland Gardner)","thumbnail":"https://mail.historicmt.org/files/square_thumbnails/26a50acf62522f8f1002ba4286430459.jpg"},"https://mail.historicmt.org/files/fullsize/4a680b54a18d1a4eba2bd56dbe3da955.jpg":{"id":6014,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Fort Assiniboine","description":"Photo of exterior of Fort Assiniboine.  | Montana Historical Society | 27 September, 2021 | Tom Ferris, photographer","thumbnail":"https://mail.historicmt.org/files/square_thumbnails/4a680b54a18d1a4eba2bd56dbe3da955.jpg"},"https://mail.historicmt.org/files/fullsize/336b788dd654d5b49f7fee045ade23fe.jpg":{"id":6015,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Fort Assiniboine","description":"Photo of house in Fort Assiniboine Historic District.  | Montana Historical Society | 27 September, 2021 | Tom Ferris, photographer","thumbnail":"https://mail.historicmt.org/files/square_thumbnails/336b788dd654d5b49f7fee045ade23fe.jpg"},"https://mail.historicmt.org/files/fullsize/56fefdec89f98a6b6c46f3493a5ad56f.jpg":{"id":6016,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Fort Assiniboine","description":"Photo of building facade.  | Montana Historical Society | 27 September, 2021 | Tom Ferris, photographer","thumbnail":"https://mail.historicmt.org/files/square_thumbnails/56fefdec89f98a6b6c46f3493a5ad56f.jpg"}}}