History of Montana

In 2014 a group of scientists released the results of a major project in which they successfully reconstructed the genome of the Anzick boy, providing the first genetic evidence that the Clovis people were descended from Asians.

Prior to the reservation era, they inhabited the Northern Great Plains area of North America, specifically present-day Montana and parts of Saskatchewan, Alberta and southwestern Manitoba around the US/Canada border.

The lands of present-day Montana were practically unknown and too distant from the seats of power for this political boundary change to have much impact upon them, but the Louisiana Purchase would prove a sea-change for the area.

The soldiers mainly guarded the Benton-Helena Road, the major supply-line from Fort Benton, which was the head of navigation on the (trigger) Missouri River, to the gold mining districts in southwestern Montana Territory.

While exact numbers are difficult to determine, it is commonly estimated that the Northern Cheyenne and Lakota outnumbered the 7th Cavalry by approximately 3:1, a ratio that was extended to 5:1 during the fragmented parts of the battle.

Later, the Sioux were defeated in a series of subsequent battles by the reinforced U.S. Army who continued attacking even in the winter, and most were forced to move onto reservations, mostly outside of Montana, primarily by tactics such as preventing buffalo hunts and enforcing government food-distribution policies to "friendlies" only.

However, in 1877 pressure from white settlers led to several incidents of violence and a significant number of the Nez Perce were forced from their home region and fled rather than submit to being moved to a reservation.

General Howard, leading the United States cavalry, was impressed with the skill with which the Nez Perce fought, using advance and rear guards, skirmish lines, and field fortifications.

Finally, after a devastating five-day battle during freezing weather conditions with no food or blankets, having lost the major war leaders, Chief Joseph formally surrendered to General Miles on October 5, 1877.

At first the railroad sold much of its holdings at low prices to land speculators in order to realize quick cash profits, and also to eliminate sizable annual tax bills.

The Northern Pacific depot reflects the desire to impress the tourists who disembarked here for Yellowstone Park, and the railroad's machine shops reveal the city's industrial history.

During 1910–13, the Great Northern launched its own program of demonstration farms, which stimulated settlement (during 1909–10 acreage in homesteads quadrupled in Montana) through their impressive production rates for winter wheat, barley, oats and other grains.

In an area better suited to grazing cattle, inexperienced newcomers locally called "Honyockers" undertook to grow wheat, and met some early success when ample rainfall and high prices were the rule.

At Anaconda, the company town, the great Washoe Stack smelted the ore from Butte, bringing immense wealth to the region but also spewed pollutants that left the landscape downwind of the smelter wasted and barren.

Simon Pepin (1840–1914), the "Father of Havre",[citation needed] was born in Quebec in 1840, emigrated to Montana in 1863, and became a contractor furnishing supplies for the construction of forts Custer, Assiniboine, and Maginnis.

[46] In the rural areas farmers and ranchers depended on general stores that had a limited stock and slow turnover; they made enough profit to stay in operation by selling at high prices.

By the 1920s and 1930s, large mail-order houses such as Sears, Roebuck & Co. and Montgomery Ward provided serious competition, so the department stores came to rely even more on salesmanship as well as close integration with the community.

The documentary Butte, America depicts its history as a copper producer and the issues of labor unionism, economic rise and decline, and environmental degradation that resulted from the activity.

At its height, Comet was a town of 12 blocks and 6 streets and by 1911 had extracted $13 million worth of metals (gold, silver, lead, zinc, and copper ore), but is now abandoned and decaying.

Thus huge swaths of timber resources were made available to private railroad and mining interests, usually in a checkerboard pattern of ownership interspersed with sections of publicly held land.

Murray, an Irish Catholic, practiced law in Butte and was active in the Democratic Party, working closely with labor unions to build his liberal political base.

In 1938 the state's labor federations (AFL and CIO) and the Farmers Union formed the "Montana Council for Progressive Political Action" to coordinate support for New Deal liberals like Murray.

[67] Since the 1970s, the western third of the state has grown and attracted tourists, retirees, and up-scale part-time residents seeking spectacular mountain scenery as well as an interest in outdoor recreational activities, including hiking, hunting and fishing.

[69] Simultaneously the shift to a postmodern service economy has led to growth in service-oriented cities such as Billings (with medicine and the energy industry) in the eastern part of the state, and in the western half, Missoula (with higher education).

In the 1890s the efforts of George Bird Grinnell (a naturalist) and Louis W. Hill (the president of the Great Northern Railway) and others led to the creation of Glacier National Park, which was set apart by Congress in 1910.

[80] We the people of Montana grateful to God for the quiet beauty of our state, the grandeur of our mountains, the vastness of our rolling plains, and desiring to improve the quality of life, equality of opportunity and to secure the blessings of liberty for this and future generations do ordain and establish this constitution.

[84] There continues to be a clash between the forces favoring business development of natural resources (especially coal, oil, gas, electricity, timber and pipeline companies), and environmentalists who put a higher priority on preservation and protection of scenery and wildlife.

[85] For example, after the age of coal mining arrived in eastern Montana in the late 1960s, the issue became use of Yellowstone River Basin's water to cool the coal-burning electricity plants planned for Colstrip.

His book as numerous speeches and magazine articles, were based on his ideals of community awareness and identity, his hatred of the Anaconda Company, and called on readers to retain an idealistic vision contesting the deadening demands of the modern corporate world.

Howard presented themes that reverberated in environmentalist thinking for over a half century, alleging that the white invaders destroyed "the natural economy of the northern Great Plains" and in return built little that lasted.