The 1925 Fort Union Indian Congress: Divergent Narratives, One Event

On Saturday, July 18, 1925, a trainload of guests arrived close to the site of old Fort Union, near the mouth of the Yellowstone River on the border between Montana and North Dakota. The group of eastern politicians, journalists, and socialites were guests on the Upper Missouri Historical Expedition, a weeklong event organized by the Great Northern Railway. The purpose of the expedition, according to the program produced by the railway, was to "commemorate fittingly the notable explorations and discoveries of several distinguished pathfinders of the Great Northwest."¹ Although there were several stops along the route, the Fort Union visit and the "Indian Congress" that would welcome the guests was to serve as the centerpiece of the expedition.² The Great Northern sponsors chose the site to celebrate Kenneth McKenzie and other members of the American Fur Company and the Northwest Company, who established the fort as a trading post almost a century earlier.³ The entire day was carefully planned, with a variety of educational and entertaining events for the benefit of the tourists, including the Indian Congress—so named and conceived by event planners—with a number of speeches.

The letters, pamphlets, articles, and photographs chronicling the Indian Congress at Fort Union shed light on the organizers' values and goals in planning this event; those goals explain why these items were so carefully and conscientiously preserved at the Minnesota Historical Society archives with the Great Northern Railway collection. But what can this collection—saved to ensure the endurance of the organizers' actions and perspectives—tell us about the meaning of this event for the Native people who acted as the main attraction in the Great Northern tour? Although the ceremonies at Fort Union occurred on a single day in 1925, certainly the event was experienced in multiple ways. According to ethnohistorian Raymond Fogelson, events have traditionally been considered as the primary elements in the study of history, but the meaning in an event is culturally constructed.⁴ Especially in a context of cross-cultural exchange, focusing on a single recounting or perspective does not take into account cultural processes and casings (values, worldview, and symbolism) of historical events, both real and imagined.⁵ The transcription of oral speeches made by Indian participants held in the Great Northern Railway collection offers the opportunity to take another look at the process of constructing an event from multiple directions; what made the Indian Congress important or memorable to those involved depends upon the narrative of historical experience in which it can be situated. The Indian Congress may be viewed as an event that epitomizes Euroamericans' long-term colonialist methods as well as American Indians' avenues of subverting these forces. It is a part of a larger process of colonization on one hand and a process of reclaiming cultural autonomy and sovereignty on the other. This essay will investigate how these perspectives differ and converge in the span of an afternoon, thus illustrating how divergent narratives, through their very difference, enhance our understanding of the past.

While the expedition was still in the planning phase, W. R. Mills, the Great Northern advertising agent, responded favorably to railway president Ralph Budd's suggestion for an Indian Congress at Fort Union. "I believe the interest in the occasion at Fort Union would be greatly stimulated," Mills agreed, "and we would get much greater returns in the form of national publicity if we were to hold an Indian Congress there for two days, one preceding and one on the occasion of the arrival of the special party to raise the flag at Fort Union."⁶ While Budd and Mills used the term "Indian Congress," they were not necessarily planning an event for the purpose of bringing Indians together to discuss common political issues; they most likely had their white audience in mind. Indian shows had been popular tourist draws since Bill Cody's Wild West Shows in the 1880s, and Indian congresses (or encampments) were increasingly included in fairs and expositions as a blend between entertaining performance and ethnological exhibit after the 1890s.⁷

In 1898 organizers of...