Fort Parker " This article is about the fort in Montana ; for the fort in Texas see Fort Parker massacre . " The Fort Laramie Indian Treaty of 1868 , which closed travel on the Bozeman Trail and the Yellowstone Valley , stipulated that the re - defined Crow Reserve would have a new “ centerpoint ” or agency for the Crow . The first Crow Agency , which was supposed to be built where Big Timber is today , was eventually located about eight miles east of present - day Livingston in the year 1869 . Fort E . S . Parker , the first Crow Indian Agency , was built in the fall of 1869 , southwest of present - day Springdale , Montana ( Big Timber ) . The first Crow Indian agency was in operation from 1869 – 1875 , until being moved eastward , in 1875 , to Rosebud Creek Absarokee , Montana and eventually to its present and final location at Crow Agency in 1884 . Thomas Leforge , a white Crow man , said it took its secondary name , the Mission Agency , " merely by reason of the fact that in those days and earlier most of the Indian agencies were set up where a Christian missionary enterprise had already been in operation . This was not the case here " . James Wright , however , a Methodist minister and Crow Agent , tried to institute Christian learning in the Agency ' s boarding school in 1873 . The Agency was built on a commanding bluff about 40 – 60 feet above the valley floor . Mission Creek ( or Skull or Rock Creek - This Creek was actually called " Scraping Hide Creek " by the Crow ) flows just to the east of the Fort . The agency fort overlooks the Yellowstone River which is about a half a mile away . The fort / agency was constructed of square - hewn logs , shingle roof , with storehouses and living quarters for the agent , physician , engineer , miller carpenter , blacksmith , and school teacher , storehouses . It had two bastions that served as guard towers . The Agency burned down on October 30 , 1872 , and quickly replaced by buildings made of adobe , since timber was becoming scarce . L . M . Black , a Bozeman businessman and trader , was temporarily placed in the position of first Crow Agent until Major E . M . Camp , the assigned agent took over in October , 1869 . He was succeeded by a Fellows David Pease , a reputable businessman who was fluent in two Indian languages and married to a Crow Indian woman . Dr . James Wright , a Methodist minister , removed Pease from his duties by August 1873 . Wright was replaced by Dexter Clapp , a former Union officer , just prior to the agency being moved east . The Agency was often a stopover for travelers on their way to explore Yellowstone National Park in the early 1870s . The fort was built as a centerpoint for distributing Crow annuities and to encourage the Crow to take up farming . It was a difficult location to teach farming , due to constant winds , cold weather , and buffalo herds roaming northeast of the Agency . Several non - Indians , including local fur - trappers , interpreters , and F . D . Pease , the Indian Agent , married into the Crow Tribe . The Agency also acted as a line of defense for the people of Bozeman and Crow Indians from attacks by the Sioux , Cheyenne , and Blackfeet . Fort Parker was abandoned in 1875 , even though the Crow and locals from Bozeman and the Gallatin Valley opposed the move east ( further into country dominated by the Sioux ) . Just before the move to Rosebud Creek , near present day Absarokee , the " Bozeman Grange " communicated a letter of support for the Crow and the Agency on the Yellowstone :