How a 130-year land reduction transformed a 12-million-acre indigenous territory
In short: In 1851, the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara tribes were granted nearly 12 million acres of land. By 1886, that territory had been systematically whittled down to a fraction of its original size, reshaped by government executive orders, forced farming policies, and massive federal engineering projects.
The Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in western North Dakota serves as a geographic record of land contraction. While the 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty originally allocated nearly 12 million acres across five states to the tribes, the U.S. government began a series of reductions in the late 19th century. By executive order on April 12, 1870, the government began carving out territory, eventually reducing the tribes' holdings to a specific area by July 13, 1880. A final agreement on December 14, 1886, saw the tribes cede even more land, leaving them with the current reservation of 988,000 acres. This contraction was driven by specific federal policies designed to alter the indigenous way of life. Under the Dawes Act and related laws in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the government attempted to break up communal tribal holdings into individual allotments.
The goal was to force tribal members into European-American style subsistence farming. While the tribe has since resisted the full distribution of individual allotments since reorganizing in the 1930s, these policies fundamentally altered the land's communal structure. In the mid-20th century, the landscape faced another radical shift through infrastructure. Between 1947 and 1953, the construction of the Garrison Dam and the subsequent creation of Lake Sakakawea in 1956 flooded vast areas of tribal land. This destroyed much of the Three Affiliated Tribes’ economy, which was based on farming and ranching, and replaced it with a water reservoir that now covers one-sixth of the reservation's surface area. Today, the reservation sits at the center of a modern industrial boom, positioned for significant oil production from the Bakken shale formation.
theme-key-value-pairs
Opens the Intellect+ feed with this card first. Swipe up for the next one.
Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Fort Berthold Indian Reservation
To cite this card, link to https://intellectplus.co.uk/app/wars-fort-berthold-indian-reservation.
How we source, check and correct cards: Editorial standards.
General information, not professional advice. Spotted an error? Flag the card or see corrections and complaints.
Intellect Plus is a visual educational discovery platform for exploring fascinating facts and ideas. Brain Food, Not Brain Rot. What is Intellect Plus?
Related
More in 19th-century wars · More in Wars & Conflicts · Latest · A–Z · All topics
