As of 2004, there were 6,528 enrolled tribal members: 2,697 Assiniboine and 3,730 Gros Ventre. Approximately 50 percent of enrolled members live on the reservation.
Tribal enrollment is governed by the tribe’s constitution, which stipulates that a member must have relatives who were on the tribal rolls in 1921 when land allotments took place. In 1956 the tribe passed a constitutional amendment requiring tribal members to have a total of one-quarter Indian blood of Assiniboine or Gros Ventre plus any other in order to be enrolled. A secretary election in 2002 was passed and the enrollment quantum was lowered to 1/8.
Fort Belknap Reservation contains 737, 714 acres, of which 223,306 acres are tribally controlled and 398,337 are allotted and are held by tribal members. Almost all the land within tribal boundaries is controlled by the tribes or by the state, which has about 19,000 acres within the reservation. Only some 6,000 acres are owned in fee status, with about 3,000 owned by tribal members.
Approximately 80 percent of the reservation is in Blaine County and 20 percent is in Phillips County. Its topographical extremes ranging from 2,300 feet on the southern edge of the reservation. The reservation climate is semiarid, having an average annual rainfall of 9” to 10” with the highest precipitation being 17” on the southern boundary in the Little Rockies.
Although the Fort Belknap tribes had developed a constitutional form of tribal government as early as 1894, they reorganized under the Indian Reorganization Act. in 1935. In July of 1994 a new constitution was passed, changing how the Fort Belknap tribes were represented on the Tribal Community Council. Today there are four representatives from three districts: one from the Lodgepole District, one from the Hays District, and two from the Fort Belknap District. Each District holds primaries for representatives and the two candidates receiving the most votes run in the general election. The four representatives have two-year terms. The chair and vice-chair run for election as a team, and each team must have one Gros Ventre and one Assiniboine. The primary for these positions is at large throughout the reservation. The chair and vice-chair are elected for a four-year term. The council appoints the secretary/treasurer of the tribes. These changes were instituted to encourage better representation, more efficient government and fewer turnovers in the chairman position, which had changed hands almost every two years in the previous twenty years.
The council meets five days a week and standing committees are chaired by council members. Committees don’t necessary have to be made up exclusively of tribal council members. There are also corporate boards that oversee the tribes’ for-profit operations, such as Forth Belknap Construction, and Kwik Stop. Most of the boards are made up of council members and other members who may individually apply to the council. These boards are accountable to the Tribal Community Council.