Frequently Asked Questions

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What is the Old Agency on the Teton?

At Old Agency, north of Choteau, the three tribes of the Blackfeet — the Piegan, the Blood, and the Northern Blackfeet — encountered white traders, missionaries, treaty makers, soldiers, teachers, and U.S. Indian agents.

Known as "Four Persons" Agency by the Blackfeet, the seond Blackfeet Agency (the first was at Fort Benton) was completed in early 1869 at a location selected by the Indians. Chief White Calf called the Teton River Valley "the fairest portion of their reservation."

Enclosed in a stockade, the agency buildings stored annuity goods and supplies promised to the Blackfeet by government treaties. Sadly, the encounters with white culture exposed the Blackfeet to smallpox, liquor and corrupt Indian agents.

Once the dominant power on the northwestern plains, the Blackfeet tribes were changed forever by these encounters and by the extermination of the buffalo that followed.

Over Chief Little Plume’s objections, an Executive Order in 1873 and 1874 changed the reservation boundary from the Sun River and later Teton river to the Birch Creek-Marias River line, stripping the Teton River Valley from the reservation.

In 1876 Blackfeet Agent John Young moved the agency to Badger Creek within the present boundary of the Blackfeet Reservation. He moved some of the building parts there and abandoned the site north of Choteau. The federal government opened the land to white settlers who founded the town of Choteau seven years later.

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What happened to the buildings at the second Blackfeet Agency?

Some were taken down and moved to Badger Creek in 1875-1876. Others were dismantled and became the framework for buildings around Choteau.

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What is on the agency site now?

The site is now PRIVATE grazing land; however, it was never plowed by the landowners. There are impressions in the ground from the stockade walls, the building foundations, wagon roads and a travois trail. In addition, the site has a burial ground where Indians who died during 1869 and 1875 were buried including Mountain Chief and his oldest son, Sits in the Middle and Chief Bulls Head, according to old sources. The Friends are attempting to gather the names of the people buried there.

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Last Updated   6/26/18

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