Eastern Montana is a loosely-defined region of Montana. Some definitions are more or less inclusive than others, ranging from the most inclusive, which would include the entire part of the state east of the eastern front of the Rocky Mountains. The center portion of Montana has come to be known as Central Montana thus making the more widely excepted definition of Eastern Montana as only the eastern third of the state.
Eastern Montana is in the midst of an economic boom with the Bakken formation, the largest oil discovery in U.S. history,[1][2]
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The plains of eastern Montana were historically populated by Plains Indian tribes such as the Sioux, Blackfeet and Crow.
By the late 19th century, people from european decent set up homesteads in the region, and the Native Americans were mostly confined to Indian reservations as they were through out Montana and the west. To this day, Eastern Montana has a proud Native American population.
Eastern Montana was the location of Custer's Last Stand.[3]
Eastern Montana has a steppe or semi-arid climate, with low precipitation that is to some extent countered by low evaporation rates. Typical precipitation is 10 to 20 inches (25 to 50 cm), mostly in the form of snow, which can fall at any time of the year, and summer thunderstorms. Summers are short but hot and winters are long and bitterly cold, though some parts of eastern Montana are moderated by the Chinook wind, causing 'warm' spells of 35-50F (2-10C) that can last from several days to 2–3 weeks. Some parts of eastern Montana near desert conditions and scrub in these areas substitutes for grassland.[4]
Though the prairie landscape of eastern Montana has traditionally been considered a part of the Great Plains, a recent (early 2010s) study has shown that, at least in some ways, the biomes of Eastern Montana have more in common and share more species with the Intermountain West scrub steppes and the Palouse of Eastern Washington than they have with the neighboring plains of The Dakotas.[5] Eastern Montana also has breaks and highlands that are widely forested, such as the Custer National Forest and areas around Fort Peck Lake, contrary to the almost completely treeless plains of the Midwest.
Eastern Montana was mostly settled by German and Scandinavian, especially Norwegian, settlers.[6]