Living history: Visitors hear of Havre's rich past

Crowds turned out at historical locations throughout HIll County Saturday, as the annual Living History celebration took place.

Havre Beneath the Streets, the Wahkpa Chu’gn Buffalo Jump, Fort Assinniboine and the Frank DeRosa Railroad Museum opened their doors to visitors to get the word out about what local museums have to offer. At the same time, crowds gathered at the Great Northern Fairgrounds for the Everything Antique Show.

At Fort Assinniboine, visitors heard lectures from a variety of people, including Martin Holt, who played the role of Theodore Roosevelt.

George Horse Capture Jr., a Gros Ventre Indian from Hays, told the story of his people, and how they ended up on the Fort Belknap reservation.

His father, who recently died, was an expert in Native American history. He recalled his father tracing the nomadic tribe as far east as what is now Buffalo, N.Y., and as far north as what is now Canada.

“Indigenous people are pre-border people,” he said. In search for food, ancestors traveled into what is now Canada and back to what is now the United States.

Unlike some other tribes, Gros Ventre were often protected by the soldiers at Fort Assinniboine, which was in operation for about 30 years after 1881.

The problem facing the Gros Ventre and other Native Americans today, he said, is how to assimilate into the mainstream culture while remaining true to cultural traditions.

“It’s OK to assimilate some,” he said. “My leggins today are sewn together at the top,” he said, laughing. “But we must maintain our own culture.”

Visitors were invited onto the “Blackjack,” a tractor-driven vehicle that brought people to various sights along around the fort, while tour guide Jim Spangelo, whose great-grandparents were homesteaders just down the road from the fort, spoke.

Spangelo portrayed Gustoff Dunn, an officer and Indian expert at the fort during its prime.

As the Blackjack moved along, he pointed out key locations, some still standing, at the fort, which at its heyday was the largest city in Montana.

Officers and especially their wives, were sometimes shocked by how difficult their lives could be in the remote prairie.

Many came from Georgia, where they were close to the bright lights of Atlanta.

They came overland to Fort Assinniboine by oxen carts, he said. Still, it was considered a prime location for the troops. Up to 1,000 troops were located, here, roughly 5 percent of all the troops in the Army at the time.

Spangelo pointed out the building where troopers were educated. Unlike other forts, enlisted people at the fort were taught to read and write, especially the black troops, some of whom were once slaves.

Questions about buffalo that once roamed the prairies were popular with the Blackjack riders.

There were vast numbers of buffalo on the plains for centuries, he said. Native Americans used the buffalo carefully, he said. One bison could provide food and materials for a tent and clothing.

But when a patent was filed for making rawhide from buffalo skin, the animals were hunted without mercy.

But 1883, most buffalo were gone from the Montana plans, years after they were virtually extinct elsewhere.