Fort Belknap Indian Reservation

Little Rocky Mountains

Cutaway of Zortman-Landusky Gold Mine Superfund Site

Site Overview

Site Location

Fort Belknap Indian Reservation is located in western Phillips County and eastern Blaine County, Montana. The combined reservation is shared by the Assiniboine and the Gros Ventre tribes, with the reservation and additional tribal lands encompassing 650,000 acres of the plains and grasslands of north-central Montana. The reservation’s largest community, Fort Belknap Agency, is located at the reservation's north end.

Map of Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, and Blaine and Phillip counties, Montana

Location of Fort Belknap Indian Reservation (blue)

in Blaine County (red) and Phillips County (green), Montana

Site Description

Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, established in 1888, is located in north central Montana, in Phillips and Blaine counties, and is home to the Gros Ventre and Assiniboine Tribes, referred to as the Fort Belknap Indian Community. Natural boundaries mark the perimeters of the reservation on the north (the Milk River) and the south (Little Rocky Mountains), while survey lines mark the western and eastern boundaries. The Zortman-Landusky Gold Mine and Superfund Cleanup activities resulted in extensive surface and groundwater contamination that continues to impact the Milk River due to cyanide heap leach process used to remove gold from mine waste tailings.

Map of Milk River Drainage Basin in Montana and Canada

Milk River Drainage Basin in Canada & Montana

(source: pubs.usgs.gov)

In 2001, the Fort Belknap Tribes were selected for a Brownfields Assessment Pilot project. The Tribes identified several community-wide problems, including dump sites and landfills, as well as abandoned rock quarries and buildings as potential brownfields sites Currently, two sites have been designated as Brownfields Assessment Sites; the Old Agency Landfill and the Snake Butte rock quarry, both of which are located wholly on tribally owned lands.

The Old Agency Landfill, which is located approximately one mile east of Fort Belknap Agency, was an operating landfill from the early 1900’s until 1970. During the approximately 60 years of its operating lifetime, the landfill received residential, industrial and agricultural wastes, including pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).

Old Agency landfill site, Fort Belkhap

Old Agency Landfill Site, Ft. Belknap (www.epa.gov/region8)

(Photograph from 2003 EPA Publication)

The Snake Butte rock quarry, located approximately 10 miles south of the Agency was utilized by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers in the 1930's for obtaining rip rap during the construction of the Fort Peck Dam. Upon completion of the dam, the butte was abandoned without any form of clean up.

EPA-funded Phase I and Phase II assessments were completed on the two sites. These assessments revealed that the Snake Butte property did not contain significant contamination, however numerous contaminants were found at the Old Agency Landfill. The community is concerned about restoring the culturally significant areas to their natural states.

To address unemployment on the reservation, and empower community members to deal with the environmental challenges facing the Tribes, the Fort Belknap Brownfields Program initiated a Job Training Program, with the goal of educating community members with the necessary skills to acquire jobs in the environmental field while helping to preserve natural and cultural resources of particular significance to the community.

Sign south of Fort Belknap designating the cultural significance of Little Rocky Mountains

Sign South of Fort Belknap

Designates Cultural Significance of Little Rocky Mountains

Organization Requesting Assistance

The Fort Belknap Tribal EPA, representing the Gros Ventre and Assiniboine Sioux Tribes of Harlem, Montana requested TOSNAC assistance to address brownfields and groundwater contamination issues. TOSNAC assistance was requested while Fort Belknap was in the process of developing a Brownfields Pilot Assessment Grant Proposal that entailed addressing contaminant issues at two sites, an old agency landfill and Snake Butte Rock Quarry.

Beginning Date

The Fort Belknap Tribal EPA requested TOSNAC assistance to address brownfields and groundwater contamination issues, beginning in 1999. Assistance continues to date.

Summary of TOSNAC Assistance

TOSNAC assistance was requested while Fort Belknap was in the process of developing a Brownfields Pilot Assessment Grant Proposal that entailed addressing contaminant issues at two sites, an old agency landfill and Snake Butte Rock Quarry. TOSNAC provided the Tribal EPA with one-on-one assistance during the grant writing procedure, which provided capacity for the Tribal EPA to better understand the brownfields process.

TOSNAC also provided a review of the Brownfields Pilot Grant Proposal. Once the grant was awarded, TOSNAC provided review and comments for the Fort Belknap Community Involvement Plan, a summary of proposals to perform Phase I and Phase II environmental site assessments and assistance in ranking the resulting reports received by contractors.

TOSNAC coordinated efforts with Montana Tech to provide several types of assistance to the Tribal EPA and the Fort Belknap community, primarily to address brownfields concerns. The Fort Belknap Tribal EPA Brownfields Coordinator participated in a three-day Groundwater Workshop that took place at the neighboring Rocky Boy Chippewa-Cree Reservation.

The TOSNAC/Montana Tech team also delivered a one-day community training, which included a discussion of the brownfields process, site assessment, cleanup methods, contaminant fate and transport of chemicals, potential health affects, cultural risk assessment and management and introduction of the Tribal Time Model for use in future targeted community training.

Brownfields Job Training Program workshops enabled the Tribal Environmental Office to train the Tribal Cultural Committee members to be directly involved in the assessment, monitoring and ultimately meet requirements for cleanup processes at sites where hazards or contaminants present risk. The Tribes are developing cleanup plans that exhibit significantly high levels of community involvement, especially within the Fort Belknap Cultural Committee. They are satisfied with the level of involvement and are seeking TOSNAC assistance to identify additional technical training in site characterization technologies, pursuing the notion of building Tribal capacity and lending to the cleanup processes.