The 150th Anniversary of Fort Browning

One of the most notable events that took place on the Hi-Line during 2015 was the 100th anniversary of the Phillips County Fair, Montana's longest running fair. A far less publicized anniversary, but something that deserves recognition, is the 150th anniversary of the establishment of Fort Browning two miles southwest of the Dodson fairgrounds.

In 1868 the U.S. Government built a trading post/agency for the Gros Ventre (A'aninin). The buffalo were numerous in this area at the time. The site chosen was the south side of the Milk River at the original mouth of People's Creek. Constructed from green cottonwood logs were several small buildings surrounded by a stockage with two bastion and two cannons. On the west side of People's Creek were 30 crude log buildings to house the Gros Ventre people.

The Indian Agent was Major Alonso S. Reed. The traders were A.J. Smith, James B. Hubbell and A.F. Hawley of the Northwest Fur Company. A.F. Hawley had abandoned Fort Hawley near the Missouri River and moved his merchandise 75 miles northwest to Fort Browning. Alex Culbertson and William Bent served as interpreters. A dozen men were stationed at the Fort.

The winter of 1868 and 1869 the Gros Ventre were infected with small pox disease which turned into an epidemic. Major Alonso S. Reed recorded 741 people died at Fort Browning, however many Gros Ventre moved out to the Little Rocky Mountains during epidemic, later died, and were never counted.

Julia Schultz, one of the Dodson area's earliest settlers whose mother was a Gros Ventre named Pipe Woman (whose English name was Mary), said over one half of the Gros Ventre died from the small pox epidemic. Pipe Woman and her husband Lazare "Curly" Ereaux lost two of their children that winter while Curly was employed to help build the Fort.

In November of 1870, the new Indian Superintendent removed Agent Alonso S. Reed from Fort Browning for gross mismanagement. Whiskey had been openly traded at the Fort and provisions sent to issue the Gros Ventre people were instead traded to them for their furs and robes.

Alonso S. Reed's successor placed in charge of Fort Browning was C.L. Clark, a deputy U.S. Marshall. In 1871 Andrew Simmons followed as the Indian Agent, and he appointed James Stuart as the Fort's Post Trader. James was the brother of Granville Stuart who became widely known as "Mr. Montana" due to his prominent role in the early history of the Montana Territory and the state of Montana. During the fall of that same year, Companies B & H of the 7th Infantry were stationed at the Fort.

By 1872 Fort Browning was abandoned and the agency was moved to Fort Peck. Following this, the U.S. Government purchased a trading post near Chinook that was owned by T.C. Power and Company and this became a sub-agency and trading post for the surviving Gros Ventre known as Fort Belknap. Tom O'Hanlon was the Post Trader. In 1888 Fort Belknap was relocated and moved to its present day location, east of Harlem.

The Indian Agent at Fort Browning said the decision to move the agency to Chinook was because of hostilities between the Sioux and the Gros Ventre. However, Pipe Woman also said that the Gros Ventre's had named the creek by Fort Browning "Many Dead People's Creek." She said the fear of further small pox contagion and the burial grounds of those that had died were other reasons the remaining Gros Ventre refused to trade at Fort Browning.

Curley and Pipe Woman (Mary) Ereaux, who lost two children from smallpox at Fort Browning, eventually came back to settle around Dodson and People's Creek area in the late 1880's. They raised three daughters and one son: Julia Schultz, Rosalie Stevens, Cecilia Minugh, and Frank Ereaux. Numerous descendants from Curley and Pipe Woman still live around the Dodson area and on "Many Dead Peoples Creek," or what has officially been shortened to People's Creek.

Sources:

Great Falls Tribune, "The Old Milk River Agency & Fort Browning" Sunday January 24, 1937, by Clyde McLemore

Gros Ventre Archives, Washington D.C.

Julia Schultz's Written and Oral History

Thunderstoms and Tumbleweeds of Blaine County