Established in 1879, Fort Assinniboine was one of the most strategically placed U.S. Army posts in the Northwest. As headquarters for the District of Montana, the fort and its military reserve encompassed the entire Bears Paw mountain range. The 18th U.S. Infantry under Colonel Thomas Ruger constructed the post with brick manufactured nearby, and when completed its substantial buildings included officers' quarters, barracks, a large hospital, chapel, gymnasium, officers' club, stables, and warehouses. The U.S. Army intended the fort to protect settlers to the south from possible raids by Sitting Bull's Hunkpapa Sioux, who had fled to Canada after Custer's defeat on the Little Big Horn in 1876, but no serious Indian disturbance occurred in the area. General John J. Pershing served here in the 1890s and earned his nickname "Black Jack" because of his association with the Afro-American 10th Cavalry, the famed "Buffalo Soldiers." For many years Fort Assinniboine soldiers worked with the Canadian Mounties to control smuggling across the border. The War Department abandoned the post in 1911, and a few years later the landless Chippewa and Cree found a home on the southern part of the military reserve when it was set aside as Rocky Boy's Reservation. The State of Montana later purchased the fort's remaining buildings and 2,000 acres for use as the Northern Agricultural Research Center of Montana State University - Bozeman.