Bert Azure…His grandfather emigrated in 1885 from Canada

By Eva Hallam Solberg

Published in PCN May 22, 1980

“People could hear those Red River carts from a long way off. They were all made of wood—no iron on the axles—just wood to wood, and they squeaked as they went.”

Bert Azure spoke of his great-grandfather, Gabriel Azure, as he came to Montana from the Red River region in Canada. “That was during the Red Rebellion in 1885. A bunch of Canadian Indians had to move out there.” They scattered in all directions when they got to the United States.

Gabriel settled first in the Lewistown area, then in the Bear Paws, and then came to Bear Gulch Canyon before the government allotted land on the reservation.

Bert’s father, Pat Azure, was married to an Assinaboine woman from the Fort Belknap Reservation, so he was considered a “Squaw Man” and could live there. He couldn’t prove his own Assinaboine blood because of some records being burned up. Those who were Assinaboine were later allotted 340 acres of land on the reservation.

By the time Bert reached the age of 18 he had attended six different boarding schools, including Fort Belknap Agency, Lodgepole—(both of which he attended during the last year they had boarding schools there)—and at St. Paul’s Mission.

Read the rest of the story in "Looking Back Again: Life Stories from the Prairies of Montana"
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