The History of the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, 1600–2012 by David Miller et al. (review)

A Montana state constitutional amendment in 1972, coupled with American Indian connection to education and representation in the state legislature, led to the Montana Indian Education for All Act. This law gave Montana tribes support in writing their own histories.

The collective work of Miller, Smith, McGeshik, Shanley, and Shields provides a historical foundation for the Great Plains’ original peoples as they establish their own histories in the curriculums of their public school systems.

The authors, in addition to prolific historical accounts, use a bifurcated system of delivery that examines the tribes separately. This maintains that all tribes represented on the reservation have their specific and distinctive histories, cultures, and ontologies. The work includes an examination of the complexity and continuous development of intertribal relationships. The book is comprehensive in its approach in addressing the way in which the Assiniboine and Sioux tribes have experienced multiple administrations and continue to operate in relation to federal Indian policy.

Critique can only be related to missing stories in the history presented. The content and therefore the responsibility of these stories belongs to the respective families, and may or may not be shared depending upon one’s context and perspective. The duplication of photographs (p. 252 replicated on p. 281, and p. 434 repeated on p. 522) and misspellings (p. vi) reveal proofreading oversight.

The majority of the book’s content is comprised of information extracted from historical documentation around tribal leadership, history, and development in a context specific to the particular tribes. This is an integral part of the broader story of the Great Plains and highlights the people, policies, and practices of the Northern Plains specifically in and around Montana. Scholars from the Fort Peck Indian community authored this book, providing an authenticity often missed when written by scholars from outside.

From the delineation of homelands inhabited at the time of contact through the twenty-first-century context, the information in this book potentially prompts further academic work (i.e., tribal leadership, the North American bison, American Indian education including the tribal college movement, and economic development). In conclusion, this work provides information essential to the future of the indigenous peoples of the Great Plains.