Petitions and Passes: Responses to Regulation on the Fort Belknap Reservation, 1887-1921

FAIN: FT-52748-04

Mindy Jean Morgan
Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI 48824-3407)

This study uses archival sources to investigate how the Gros Ventre and Assiniboine residents of Fort Belknap viewed English language documents during the early reservation period. Specifically, it examines how the U.S. government and its various agents used the regulatory power inherent in standardized English to control reservation communities and how this use shaped ideas about the role of both English and indigenous languages among the residents. This type of ethnohistorical study is critical in understanding how residents perceived the connection between language use and cultural identity, and the legacy that these understandings have within the contemporary reservation community.