Fort Lincoln's history began in 1895, when the Army built a new military post on the east side of the Missouri River near Bismarck to replace Fort Yates. It took the name of its predecessor, the original Fort Abraham Lincoln, which had been abandoned across the river in 1891. During the interwar years, the post served as a training site for units of the Seventh Corps Area. But in April 1941, months before Pearl Harbor, the federal government converted it into an internment camp for enemy aliens. The United States was still technically neutral, yet 800 Italian seamen captured from impounded commercial ships arrived that first month. They were soon transferred to Fort Missoula, Montana, and 280 German seamen took their place in May. The transformation from military post to civilian prison was swift and deliberate.

The camp's population shifted with the tides of war and policy. After Pearl Harbor, over 1,100 Japanese American Issei, first-generation community leaders from the West Coast, arrived in February 1942, pushing the camp to its peak population of 1,518. Most were transferred to other camps later that year, leaving Fort Lincoln primarily holding German prisoners of war and German American internees. Then in February 1945, the camp received a new wave: 650 Japanese Americans transferred from the Department of Justice camp at Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the War Relocation Authority facility at Tule Lake, California. These men were Nisei who had renounced their U.S. citizenship under duress, or Issei who had been pressured into requesting repatriation to Japan. Another 100 renunciants arrived in July 1945. Over half were deported to Japan before the war's end.

Despite the grim circumstances, internees at Fort Lincoln created a community within confinement. The long North Dakota winters shaped daily life in unexpected ways. Internees organized athletic leagues, playing soccer on the flat plains and constructing a miniature ski ramp to make use of the snow. Some played hockey during the frozen months. Those with artistic inclinations mounted theater productions, formed choirs, and pursued drawing and handicrafts. Japanese internees maintained cultural traditions and recorded their experiences. Toyojiro Suzuki kept a detailed diary of camp life that later became part of the historical record preserved by the State Historical Society of North Dakota. The routines of sport, art, and shared meals offered structure in a place defined by uncertainty.

Fort Lincoln closed on March 6, 1946. The land eventually became the campus of United Tribes Technical College, an institution serving Native American students from the region's tribal nations. The transformation is deeply layered: ground that once held Mandan villages, then frontier soldiers, then wartime prisoners, now educates a new generation. In 2025, UTTC unveiled the Snow Country Prison Japanese American Internment Memorial in the courtyard of one of the original brick internment buildings. A memorial wall bears the names of all 1,850 Japanese American men who were held there. The memorial stands as both acknowledgment and warning, a reminder that constitutional rights can be stripped away even on American soil, even from American citizens.