Bozeman Trail

The Bozeman Trail
The Bozeman Trail (in yellow). While the route was in use, most of the trail crossed the 1851 Crow Indian treaty guaranteed territory west of Powder River.
Location	Montana, Wyoming
Governing body	National Park Service

The Bozeman Trail was an overland route in the Western United States, connecting the gold rush territory of southern Montana to the Oregon Trail in eastern Wyoming. Its most important period was from 1863 to 1868. Despite the fact that the major part of the route in Wyoming used by all Bozeman Trail travelers in 1864 was pioneered by Allen Hurlbut, it was named after John Bozeman.^[1] Many miles of the Bozeman Trail in present Montana followed the tracks of Bridger Trail, opened by Jim Bridger in 1864.^[2]

The flow of pioneers and settlers through territory of Native Americans provoked fear and anger in the local tribes; some of which choosing to respond with aggressive and even violent action. The challengers to the route were newly arrived Lakotas and their Native allies, the Arapahoe and the Cheyenne. The United States put emphasis on a right to "establish roads, military and other posts" as described in Article 2 in the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851. All parties in the conflict had signed that treaty. The Crow Natives held the treaty right to the contested area and had called it their homeland for decades.^[3] They sided with the whites. The U.S. Army undertook several military campaigns against the hostile Natives to try to control the trail. Because of its association with frontier history and conflict with American Natives, various segments of the trail are listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).