Editing Crow Agency, Montana (section)

===The First Crow Agency (1868-1874)===

The Fort Laramie "Treaty with the Crows, 1868",<ref>{{cite web|title=Treaty With the Crows, 1868.|url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/cro1008.htm#mn5|publisher=Compiled and edited by Charles J. Kappler. Washington : Government Printing Office, 1904.|accessdate=4 October 2013|archive-date=4 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004220136/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/cro1008.htm#mn5|url-status=dead}}</ref> was one of a series of treaties that recognized the encroaching presence of the Sioux tribes into the Powder River Basin, and gave them that entire area as a hunting preserve.<ref name="1868 Sioux">{{cite web|title=Treaty With the Sioux-Brulé, Oglala, Miniconjou, Yanktonai, Hunkpapa, Blackfeet, Cuthead, Two Kettle, Sans Arcs, and Santee—And Arapaho, 1868.|url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/sio0998.htm|publisher=Compiled and edited by Charles J. Kappler. Washington : Government Printing Office, 1904.|accessdate=7 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111126131814/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/sio0998.htm|archive-date=26 November 2011|url-status=dead}} The Treaty with the Sioux in 1868, in Article 16 gave the Sioux "the country north of the North Platte River and east of the summits of the Big Horn Mountains" as "unceded Indian territory", and this same Article committed the U.S. to abandoning the military posts in this area, and the "road leading to them" (i.e. the Bozeman Trail) "shall be closed".  This huge grant of an area had only a western and southern boundary, and presumably had a boundary on the western edge of the ceded lands of the Sioux reservation, but had no northern boundary.</ref>   The separate 1868 treaty with the Crow moved the center of the Crow lands to the west of the Powder River Basin, into the western portions of the Yellowstone Valley.  The 1868 Treaty provided for annuities and other federal support, and stipulated that the Crow would have an agency "on the south side of the Yellowstone, near Otter Creek", close to present day [[Big Timber, Montana]]. The first Crow Agency (1869-1874) was eventually constructed about eight miles east of present-day [[Livingston, Montana]] on Mission Creek, and became known as [[Fort Parker]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Fort Parker: The First Crow Indian Agency|url=http://fortparkerhistory.org/|publisher=The Fort Parker Project|accessdate=4 October 2013}}</ref> This first Crow Agency was located in the western reaches of the Yellowstone River Valley, north of the [[Absaroka Range]] of Mountains.  The Crows continued a largely nomadic life style hunting on the buffalo ranges to the east, though this brought them in constant but sporadic conflict with the Sioux who dominated the Powder River area.