FAMILY, HISTORY AND PROGRESS COLLIDE in the popular TV series “Yellowstone” and its various spinoffs, much of them set and filmed in Montana. If your roots in the state go as deep as the Dutton family’s, read on for how you can find your own genealogical gold in “The Treasure State.”
BIG SKY, BIG HISTORY
Montana was first home to a number of indigenous groups, including the: Assiniboine/Nakoda, Blackfeet, Cree, Crow, Northern Cheyenne, and Salish. Today, the state has 12 federally recognized tribes, as well as seven reservations within its present borders.
Montana’s distance from other settlements (as well as its harsh western terrain) resulted in relatively late exploration by Europeans. The Lewis and Clark Expedition passed through modern Montana in 1805 as part of its survey of the newly purchased Louisiana Territory. Its members were the first non-indigenous people known to have visited the area, and their journals provide insight into their experiences and encounters with Native peoples.
Fur traders followed,
