Barring fur trading posts, the first important white settlements in Montana were the mining camps in the western mountains, while everything to the east belonged to the plains Indians and was buffalo range. To protect miners and settlers from possible incursions of hostile tribes, a series of military posts was established around the eastern border of the mining camps and settlements, and Fort Shaw, established in 1867, was one of these. It also protected the stage and freight trail from Fort Benton, head of navigation on the Missouri, to the Last Chance Gulch placer diggings at Helena. At that time, everything north of the Sun River was Blackfeet Indian territory. The fort was built by the 13th U.S. Infantry under Major Wm. Clinton. In 1876, General Gibbon led his troops from here to join General Terry and General Custer on the Yellowstone just prior to the latter’s disastrous fight with the Sioux and Cheyenne Indians at the Battle of the Little Big Horn.