In June 1897, Montana newspapers urged people to attend the Fort Shaw Indian School's year-end exercises, which were to begin at 1:00 p.m. with a band concert followed by field games, recitations, and songs, while the school's Indian girls were already beginning to form an invincible basket ball team only a few years after the game was invented. Under the leadership of Dr. William H. Winslow, Fort Shaw's first Superintendent, the Indian boarding school was established in 1892 by the Department of Interior, Indian Services, and children representing several Native tribes came from across Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho to attend. Fort Shaw had originally been established in 1867 as a military post named for Colonel Robert G. Shaw, and it served to protect settlers and travelers on the Mullan Road during the last years before its closure in 1891.