Editing Milk River (Alberta–Montana) (section)

== History ==
[[File:Round-up camp on Milk River, Alberta.jpg|thumb|left|Alberta round-up camp next to river, 1912]]
The Milk River was given its name by Captain [[Meriwether Lewis]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu/read/?_xmlsrc=1805-05-08.xml&_xslsrc=LCstyles.xsl | title=The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition | publisher=University of Nebraska|access-date=2016-12-04}}</ref> of the [[Lewis and Clark Expedition]], who described the river in his journal:

{{Blockquote |text=The water of this river possesses a peculiar whiteness, being about the colour of a cup of tea with the admixture of a tablespoon full of milk. from the colour of its water we called it Milk river.}}

This appearance results from clays and silts suspended in its waters.  These fine-grained sediments result from the erosion of soft clay-rich rocks along the Milk River basin in southern Alberta, such as the [[Foremost Formation|Foremost]], [[Oldman Formation|Oldman]] and [[Dinosaur Park Formation|Dinosaur Park]] [[Formation (stratigraphy)|formations]].<ref name="Map600">{{Cite web|url=http://www.ags.gov.ab.ca/publications/pubs.aspx?series=map|title=Bedrock Geology of Alberta. Alberta Geological Survey, Map 600|author=Prior, G. J., Hathaway, B., Glombick, P.M., Pana, D.I., Banks, C.J., Hay, D.C., Schneider, C.L., Grobe, M., Elgr, R., and Weiss, J.A.|year=2013|access-date=2013-08-13|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130925225910/http://www.ags.gov.ab.ca/publications/pubs.aspx?series=map|archive-date=2013-09-25}}</ref>

At the time of Lewis's exploration, the Milk River drainage was legally part of the United States as a component of the [[Louisiana Purchase]].  However, in 1818 U.S. negotiators [[Anglo-American Convention of 1818|swapped a portion]] of the Milk River watershed that lay north of 49° north latitude, receiving in exchange for a parcel of [[Red River of the North]] drainage that had previously been part of [[British North America]].{{citation needed|date=July 2015}}

The project to take water from St. Mary River into the north fork was authorized in 1905. It provides drinking water to 14,000 municipal users and irrigation to {{convert|120,000| acres}} of ranchland along Montana’s [[Hi-Line (Montana)|Hi-Line]] region.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Scott |first=Tristan |date=2024-06-18 |title=Tribal, Federal Officials Say ‘Catastrophic’ Breach of St. Mary Canal Siphon will have Dire Consequences Across Montana |url=https://flatheadbeacon.com/2024/06/17/tribal-federal-officials-say-catastrophic-breach-of-st-mary-canal-siphon-will-have-dire-consequences-across-montana/ |access-date=2024-06-18 |work=Flathead Beacon |language=en}}</ref> In 1908, the waters of the Milk River were the subject of a [[United States Supreme Court]] case clarifying the [[water rights]] of the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation. This precedent setting ruling for [[Indian reservations]] is known as ''[[Winters v. United States]]''.