9781422286210

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Upper Plains: Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota

Americans migrated to the West from the Great Lakes and Mississippi River Regions. The Sioux, along with the Cheyenne and the Chippewa, arrived in Montana during the 1800s. The Blackfeet, Assiniboine, the Crow, Cheyenne, and the Atsina lived on the flat, grassy and rolling lands of Eastern Montana. Other tribes, such as the Kalispel Indians, Kietanai, the Bannack, Shoshone, and the Salish Indians, lived in Montana’s mountain- ous areas. During the 17th century, European countries claimed Montana and other parts of North America. Eventually a few hardy explorers and French fur trappers began to explore the region. During the late 1730s and early 1740s, brothers Francois and Louis Joseph de La Vérendrye entered Montana from Canada, searching for valuable beaver fur. Spain took control over Montana from France in 1762, but returned control of the vast, unexplored territo- ry to France in 1801. Two years later, the French government sold this

freezing nearly two-thirds of the year. Here daytime temperatures hover at around 10ºF (–12ºC) during the winter. History Tens of thousands of years ago, Paleo- Indians arrived in North America by crossing a land bridge that once con- nected Asia (Russia) to Alaska. They traveled along a route known as the Great Northern Trail, which extended from Alaska into the continental United States. When the Paleo-Indians reached the area of modern-day Montana, they found mountains covered with thick forests, miles of grassy prairies, herds of bison and other types of large ani- mal for hunting, and rivers and streams for trout fishing. Paleo-Indians were the forerunners of the Native American tribes that would live in the region when the first Europeans arrived. The Shoshone tribe settled in Montana’s Great Basin region during the 1600s. Next came the Crow, then the Blackfeet, Atsina, and the Assiniboine. These Native