Baashalapache

The Missouri flows past the mouth of the Marias River through the country of the Blackfeet. American fur traders established Fort Piegan on the upper Missouri in 1831, but soon abandoned it; in 1832 they built Fort McKenzie farther upstream, near the Marias. These posts were places where traders sought the valuable robes and furs brought by Blackfeet hunters, in exchange for manufactured goods.