ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the remarkable political economy of the Fort Peck reservation. The struggle of Native Americans to regain the self-sufficiency they once possessed has been frustrating more often than fruitful. Some tribal distinctions have been preserved today because of separate areas of residence at Fort Peck. A leading political figure on the Fort Peck reservation has observed that, in the past, "Fort Peck Indians have believed that political support for an official was part of a deal." The Assiniboine and Sioux tribes of the Fort Peck reservation did not choose to govern themselves under the terms of the Indian Reorganization Act. The 1960 constitution proceeded from the people of the Fort Peck reservation and not from agents of the federal government. Its provisions continued to emphasize the tribes' traditional concern for dispersed power and direct participation. A different perspective comes from a Fort Peck reservation judge who said that the Executive Board "runs everything.".
