Editing Basin, Montana (section)

=== First peoples ===
Archeologists think it likely that the first people to live in Montana crossed from Asia to North America over the [[Bering Land Bridge]] that existed during the last major [[Last Glacial Period|Ice Age]] about 12,000&nbsp;years ago. Because the middle of the continent was covered with sheets of ice, people who migrated south did so on trails along the edges of [[glacier]]s melted by seasonal warming. One such trail, called the Great North Trail, is thought to have followed the [[Rocky Mountain Front]] into Montana, passing close to Helena, {{convert|24|mi|km|0}} north of Basin, and continuing into the east-central part of the state. Evidence of these early Paleo-Indians or [[Clovis culture|Clovis]] people has been found at three sites, one of them the McHaffie site near [[Clancy, Montana|Clancy]] about {{convert|20|mi|km|0}} north of Basin. The age of the Clancy artifacts is estimated to be 10,000&nbsp;years. The Clovis people are thought to have disappeared in about 4,000 to 5,000&nbsp;BCE when the Montana climate became more dry and would not support the animal populations the Clovis needed to survive.<ref name=bryan>{{cite book  | last = Bryan  | first = William L.  | title = Montana's Indians: Yesterday and Today  | publisher = Farcountry Press  | year = 1996  | location = Helena  | pages = 6–7  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=kTX_SsG7M10C&q=Montana's+Indians:+Yesterday+and+Today  | isbn = 1-56037-064-5  }}</ref>

About 2,000&nbsp;years ago, a new prehistoric people known as the Late Hunters appeared in Montana, thriving on a [[bison]] (buffalo) population living in open grassy areas on the plains and in river valleys. The earliest tribes are thought to have been the [[Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation|Kootenai]], who stayed west of the Continental Divide, and the [[Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation|Flathead]] (Salish), and [[Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation|Pend d'Oreilles]], who ventured east of the mountains into and east of the [[Three Forks, Gallatin County, Montana|Three Forks]] country, {{convert|46|mi|km|0}} southeast of Basin. In the 17th century, the [[Crow Nation|Crow]] entered Montana from the east and the [[Shoshone]] from the south. Pressed by other tribes retreating west from white European settlers, the [[Blackfoot Confederacy|Blackfeet]] moved into Montana around 1730. Acquiring horses and firearms, and numbering about 15,000, they formed alliances with other incoming tribes, the [[Assiniboine people|Assiniboine]] and the [[Gros Ventres]], and by the mid-18th century dominated the state. When the white explorers [[Lewis and Clark Expedition|Lewis and Clark]] traveled up the [[Missouri River]] to Three Forks, they found only Blackfeet and Blackfeet allies. Heavily dependent on bison, the nomadic life of the Blackfeet "came to an abrupt end in the early 1880s when the buffalo became almost extinct."<ref name=bryan />

During the 1870s, a few years after the first white miners began looking for gold near Basin, the last large-scale battles between the U.S. government and the Indians took place in Montana. The [[Marias Massacre]] (also known as the Baker Massacre), occurred in 1870 about {{convert|150|mi|km|0}} northeast of Basin. Others, the [[Battle of the Little Bighorn]] and the [[Battle of the Rosebud]], were fought in 1876 about {{convert|250|mi|km|0}} from Basin in the southeastern part of the state. By then, most first peoples had been moved to [[Indian reservation|reservations]], which were far from Basin.<ref name=bryan />