The Crow and Hidatsa are Siouan people who traded with each other along the Yellowstone River. The Hidatsa language is related to that of the Crow, and they are sometimes considered a parent tribe to the modern Crow in Montana. The Hidatsa are remembered as the tribe who captured Sakajawea, the interpreter and guide to the Lewis and Clark expedition. Around 1870, a band of Hidatsa lived up close to Fort Buford, for protection against the Sioux. After the Sioux made their escape to Canada during 1876 and 1877, some of the Fort Buford Hidatsa moved south along the Yellowstone and started a camp on Thirteenmile Creek. When the army pulled out of Glendive Cantonment in 1879, the Hidatsa dismantled the vacant military buildings and used the lumber to build their village at the mouth of Thirteenmile Creek. On July 13th, 1880, President Rutherford B. Hayes took possession of the Indian Territory 620 by executive order, which included the land where the Thirteenmile Hadatsa lived.

In 1881, George McCone set up a small trading post near the Hidatsa camp and traded for their skins and furs. The chief had a son who had been selected by the government to attend military school at Hampton, Virginia, and the chief had not heard from him in a long time. George McCone was able to locate his son. And to show his gratitude, the Chief presented George with a buckskin suit with full headdress, coat, pants, leggings and moccasins, and a belt of porcupine quills with a sheath for a knife.

The Thirteenmile Hidatsa were allowed to live peacefully at their settlement on Thirteenmile Creek until 1894, when they were forcibly removed and relocated to a reservation.