Montana's Living History under Siege

Indian Memorial at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, Montana, USA.

—April 20, 2025 —

In early 2025, the federal government cut more than 1,000 National Park Service (NPS) positions nationwide. Montana’s National Historic Sites have been especially hard hit.

The Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site straddles North Dakota and Montana on the Missouri River. At this 139-year-old site, the NPS preserves and interprets a layered legacy of commerce, cultural exchange, and environmental transformation on the western prairie.

The site just canceled the 41st annual Fort Union Rendezvous—a four-day event celebrating the rich history of the 19th-century on the Missouri river—due to staff shortages.

Grant-Kohrs Ranch is operating without its own superintendent, folded administratively into Glacier National Park leadership. Even Little Bighorn and Big Hole are facing reduced hours, fewer ranger programs, and shrinking public engagement.

This is about more than inconvenience for summer tourists. It's about the slow erosion of Montana’s memory. We are losing something much deeper: the bond between history, land, and people.

Every historic site tells a human story, but every story is inseparable from the land itself.

At Little Bighorn Battlefield, it was the folds of the hills, the tall grasses, and the twists of the river that shaped the tactics and fate of the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors who stood against Custer’s forces. The site still pulses with their spirit, a reminder that the struggle for land was never abstract. It was, and still is, a fight for survival.

At Big Hole National Battlefield, the Nez Perce tried to shield their families among the trees and creekbeds, seeking a safe passage north toward Canada. The land offered both sanctuary and sorrow. Today, the Battlefield still bears the traces of that desperate stand, set within the delicate river valley ecosystem that supported both humans and wildlife for centuries.

Grant-Kohrs Ranch tells another essential story: that of the open-range cattle industry that defined Montana’s economic future. Today, the ranch remains a working landscape — a fusion of history and ecology where heritage cattle graze native grasses that have nourished generations.

At Fort Union Trading Post, the convergence of cultures — Assiniboine, Crow, Cree, Ojibwe, Lakota, and European traders — created a bustling hub of commerce. The Missouri River was the artery that connected these peoples, sustaining both their economies and their lifeways.

To protect these sites properly, we must recognize that historic preservation and environmental conservation are inseparable.

The land is not a silent witness. It is an active partner in history. Protecting a battlefield without protecting its grasses, waterways, and wildlife is hollow. Saving an old trading post means safeguarding the river that sustained it. Even Grant-Kohrs Ranch’s value is deeply tied to the health of its native prairie ecosystem.

This integration of cultural and natural stewardship has long been part of the National Park Service’s mission. As historian Richard Sellars notes in "Preserving Nature in the National Parks," early parks were conceived not just to protect scenic wonders, but also to preserve the human stories woven through the land.

Today, that vision is under threat — not from natural forces, but from political overreach.

When we slash park staffing, we lose more than tour guides. We lose interpreters, scientists, maintenance crews, trail builders, emergency responders, the people who keep the delicate relationship between history and ecosystem alive.

At Fort Union, the cancellation of the Rendezvous is more than a missed event. It is the loss of a living tradition that honored Indigenous trading practices, kept traditional crafts alive, and brought history off the page into real life for thousands of visitors each year.

At Grant-Kohrs, administrative overstretch means fewer opportunities to educate visitors about sustainable ranching, prairie ecology, and the fragile economics that shaped Montana’s open range.

Even at battlefields like Little Bighorn and Big Hole, reduced staffing risks turning sites of deep historical meaning into silent, unmarked fields — without storytellers, without ceremony, without understanding.

When understanding fades, so does stewardship.

Studies have consistently shown that visitors who engage with well-staffed, interpretive programming are far more likely to become advocates for public land protection. Interpretation builds not just knowledge, but emotional connection. Connection builds care. Care builds action.

Without action, we risk letting Montana’s living history wither into forgotten dust.

Montana’s identity is built on pride in our rugged landscapes, our independent spirit, and our deep, complex history.

We must demand that Congress restore full funding for the National Park Service, including staffing for historic sites. We must support local initiatives and nonprofits that partner with parks to keep events like the Rendezvous alive. We must champion the integration of ecological and historical preservation, recognizing that both are vital to Montana’s soul.

Most of all, we must show up.

Visit the sites. Learn their stories. Walk the grounds where history happened. Let the land speak to you, as it spoke to those who came before.

Montana’s story is not finished. We must defend the keepers of our past — the battlefields, the ranches, the trading posts, the rivers — or we risk a future severed from memory, from meaning, and from the land that made us.

Montana’s NPS National Historic Sites

1. Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument

   Site of the 1876 battle between Lakota, Cheyenne, Arapaho warriors and U.S. forces under Custer.

2. Big Hole National Battlefield

   (Part of Nez Perce National Historical Park) Site of the 1877 battle during the Nez Perce War. Adds crucial depth to the Nez Perce story

3. Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site

   Preserves Montana’s open-range cattle ranching history.

4. Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site

   (On Montana/North Dakota border) The most important fur trading post on the Upper Missouri, 1828–1867.

5. Bear Paw Battlefield

   (Part of Nez Perce National Historical Park) Final surrender site of the Nez Perce in 1877.

NPS Sites in Montana with Historic Importance

While not formally “National Historic Sites” by title, these NPS sites protect major historic landscapes/events:

1. Glacier National Park

   Includes Indigenous histories, early exploration, and natural heritage.

2. Yellowstone National Park

   First National Park in the world (1872) — historic and ecological significance.

3. Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area

   Includes Indigenous sites, historic ranches.

4. Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail

   Follows the Lewis and Clark Expedition route, with stops across Montana.