Fort Berthold was the name of two successive forts on the upper Missouri River in present-day central-northwest

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...

. Both were initially established as

fur trading The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the most ...

posts. The second was adapted as a post for the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

. After the Army left the area, having subdued Native Americans, the fort was used by the US as the Indian Agency for the regional

Arikara Arikara (), also known as Sahnish,
''Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation.'' (Retrieved Sep 29, 2011)

Hidatsa The Hidatsa are a Siouan people. They are enrolled in the federally recognized Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. Their language is related to that of the Crow, and they are sometimes considered a parent t ...

, and

Mandan The Mandan are a Native American tribe of the Great Plains who have lived for centuries primarily in what is now North Dakota. They are enrolled in the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation. About half of the Mandan still res ...

Affiliated Tribes and their reservation. In the mid-1950s both of the former fort sites were submerged under

Lake Sakakawea Lake Sakakawea is a large reservoir in the north central United States, impounded in 1953 by Garrison Dam, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dam located in the Missouri River basin in central North Dakota. Named for the Shoshone-Hidatsa woman Saka ...

, created by extensive flooding of the bottomlands after the

Garrison Dam Garrison Dam is an earth-fill embankment dam on the Missouri River in central North Dakota, U.S. Constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from 1947 to 1953, at over in length, the dam is the fifth-largest earthen dam in the world. The re ...

was constructed on the Missouri River. The forts were named after Italian-born Bartholomew Berthold (1780-1831), a prominent merchant and fur trader of

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

. He collaborated with the

Chouteau Chouteau was the name of a highly successful, ethnically French fur-trading family based in Saint Louis, Missouri, which they helped found. Their ancestors Chouteau and Laclède initially settled in New Orleans. They then moved-up the Mississipp ...

and Astor families in trading in this region. He built what became known as the Berthold Mansion at Fifth (now Broadway) and Pine streets in St. Louis. Decades after his death, it was used as the headquarters of the Democratic Party. After

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

's election in 1860, the Berthold mansion was used for pro-Southern secessionists known as Minute Men. It was then known as "Fort Berthold".

History

Born Berthelemi Antoine Marthias Bertolla de Moncenigo near the city of Trent, Tyrol, Italy in 1780, Bertolla emigrated to the United States in 1798 as a young man. He made his way to St. Louis, where he went into business with Major Pierre Chouteau and married his daughter Pélagie. He anglicized his name to Bartholomew Berthold. He became a successful merchant and fur trader, through which he had ties throughout the west. Fur trading was the main source of wealth in the city. The first Fort Berthold was founded in 1845 on the upper Missouri River by the

American Fur Company The American Fur Company (AFC) was founded in 1808, by John Jacob Astor, a German immigrant to the United States. During the 18th century, furs had become a major commodity in Europe, and North America became a major supplier. Several British co ...

(controlled until 1830 by

John Jacob Astor John Jacob Astor (born Johann Jakob Astor; July 17, 1763 – March 29, 1848) was a German-American businessman, merchant, real estate mogul, and investor who made his fortune mainly in a fur trade monopoly, by smuggling opium into China, and ...

). It was originally called Fort James, but was renamed in 1846 for the late Berthold. As a consequence of the hostilities with the United States of the

Dakota War of 1862 The Dakota War of 1862, also known as the Sioux Uprising, the Dakota Uprising, the Sioux Outbreak of 1862, the Dakota Conflict, the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, or Little Crow's War, was an armed conflict between the United States and several ban ...

, the Sioux burned this fort. Fort Atkinson was an independent fur trade post built in 1858 by Charles Larpenteur on the Missouri River, south of what is now

White Shield, North Dakota White Shield ( ari, nahtasuutaaká, hid, maanaagi iixodagish) is a census-designated place (CDP) lying within the boundaries of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation. It is located "on" the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in McLean County, Nor ...

(within the

Fort Berthold Indian Reservation The Fort Berthold Indian Reservation is a U.S. Indian reservation in western North Dakota that is home for the federally recognized Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation, also known as the Three Affiliated Tribes. The reservation includes lands on ...

). The American Fur Company had purchased this fort after theirs was burned in 1862. They renamed it as Fort Berthold. The Army took over the property, stationing a garrison here. They also established a log camp outside the stockade to supply the fort during the winter of 1864 - 1865. This fort was used as an army post until 1867, when the military garrison removed to

Fort Stevenson Fort Stevenson was a frontier military fort in the 19th century in what was then Dakota Territory and what is now North Dakota. The fort was named for Thomas G. Stevenson, a Civil War general who was killed in the Battle of Spotsylvania. It was buil ...

. When responsibility for relations with Indian tribes was transferred from the War Department to the Department of Interior, the latter agency took over Fort Berthold and several other forts. After 1868 the post was used as the US Indian Agency for the Arikara, Hidatsa, and Mandan tribes. These peoples were administered as a combined tribe on what is now the

. The fort also functioned as a trading post to 1874. In the 1950s, these peoples lost most of their fertile farmland, homes, and several towns they had long established in the bottomlands along the river, in addition to cemeteries. They were forced to give up these lands to be flooded by the government's creation of Lake Sakakawea following construction of the

in 1953.Fort Berthold Reservation in 1950
from ''Discovering Lewis & Clark'' ®, http://www.lewis-clark.org © 1998-2009 VIAs Inc. © 2009 by The Lewis and Clark Fort Mandan Foundation, Washburn, North Dakota. Includes a map showing the land flooded by the Lake Sakakawea reservoir and the location of flooded towns, homes and Fort Berthold.

References

External links

Fort Berthold Site
from ''Discovering Lewis & Clark'' ®, http://www.lewis-clark.org © 1998-2009 VIAs Inc. © 2009 by The Lewis and Clark Fort Mandan Foundation, Washburn, North Dakota. Including Fort Berthold's early history and a photo of Old Fort Berthold, Dakota Territory, in 1864. {{coord, 47, 30, 45, N, 101, 48, 48, W, region:US-ND_source:GNIS, display=title Dakota War of 1862

Berthold Berthold or Berchtold is a Germanic given name and surname. It is derived from two elements, ''berht'' meaning "bright" and ''wald'' meaning "(to) rule". It may refer to: *Bertholdt Hoover, a fictional List_of_Attack_on_Titan_characters, character ...

Pre-statehood history of North Dakota Trading posts in the United States Government buildings completed in 1845 Government buildings completed in 1858 North Dakota in the American Civil War 1845 establishments in the United States Forts along the Missouri River Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation