The first comprehensive history of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, commissioned by the tribes themselves, The History of the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes, 1800?2000 is an authoritative scholarly exploration of the struggles and triumphs of the Native Americans who were relegated by the federal government to a small portion of northeast Montana in the late 1880s. Written by five scholars of Native American studies, many of whom are native themselves, the narrative tracks the tribes from pre-contact with whites through the brutal early reservation period, two world wars, the turbulent 1960s, and into the twenty-first century. Drawn mostly from primary sources, including federal archives and private materials, The History of the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes, 1800?2000 is a benchmark in the publication of tribal histories with a native point of view.
Co-published with the Fort Peck Tribes.
Joseph R. McGeshick, Ph.D., is a poet, novelist, and educator of Chippewa/Sioux/Assiniboine ancestry. He has taught American Indian Studies and history at the high school, community college, and university levels and published his poems, short stories, and non-fiction in many magazines and journals. His first collection of poems, The Indian in the Liquor Cabinet and Other Poems, was published in 2006. His latest book, a collection of short stories titled Never Get Mad at Your Sweetgrass, was published in 2007. He is currently finishing a novel, Sister Girl.
David Reed Miller, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Indigenous Studies at First Nations University of Canada, a federated college of the University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan. A longtime student of the transborder region, Miller is currently writing a monograph about Little Bear and his Cree followers who arrived in Montana Territory after the 1885 Northwest Rebellion, and were deported en masse in 1896.
James Shanley, Ed.D., has been president of Fort Peck Community College for the past twenty-four years. He has a long and distinguished history of advancing American Indian concerns. A veteran of the Vietnam War, Shanley earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Education from Eastern Montana College; a Master of Arts in Education from Arizona State University; and a Doctorate in Educational Administration from the University of North Dakota.
Caleb Shields has had a long and active life in tribal affairs at both the local and national level. He was first elected to the Fort Peck Tribal Executive Board in 1975 and served twenty-four consecutive years before retiring from politics in late 1999. He served as tribal chairman for his last three terms. Shields is an enrolled Sioux of the Fort Peck Tribes and is the grandson of the last chief of the Fort Kipp Community, Chief Andrew Red Boy Shields.
Dennis John Smith, Ph.D., has worked in Native American education since serving as Dean of Instruction at Fort Peck Community College from 1983 to 1985. Since 2002, he has been Assistant Professor of History and Native American Studies Program at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Smith’s studies and research have similarly focused on Native Americans, especially the history of the Fort Peck Reservation. His revised dissertation, Fort Peck Assiniboines and Sioux: Struggles of the Fort Peck Agency to 1888, is presently being reviewed for publication by Texas Tech University Press. He is an enrolled Assiniboine on the Fort Peck Reservation, a member of the Hudeshabe (Red Bottom) Band, and a descendent of Chief Red Dog.
