Ione Lucille Marie Bell

Ione Lucille Marie Bell (Buffalo Bull Skull Woman), age 95, of Fort Belknap Agency, passed away at the Fort Belknap Health Center on September 20, 2026, due to natural causes. Ione was born in Hays, Montana on April 30, 1931, to Marian Turcotte and Roy "Bud" Davis, delivered by her grandmother Julia Turcotte. She was an enrolled member of the Gros Ventre Tribe and was a great granddaughter of Curly Head. She was also Fort Belknap Assiniboine and Little Shell Chippewa. While growing up, Ione lived in Hays and Butte. She graduated from St. Paul's Mission School in Hays in 1949. Shortly after graduation, she met and married Henry "Hank" Cochran. Their union was short lived as Hank was killed in an automobile accident, shortly after they were married. Ione met and married her second husband, John "Matt" Bell in Butte on May 31, 1951. From this union, Ione became the mother of nine children, two bonus daughters and seven children of her own. Together, Matt and Ione lived in Fort Belknap, Crow Agency and Hardin, Montana, after leaving Butte. They remained married until his tragic and untimely death while their family was living in Hardin in 1975.

After the loss of her husband, Ione moved to Fort Belknap with her children, and later began working for BIA Social Services. She also worked for BIA Realty and the Fort Belknap Indian Community Social Services. Ione was an avid bowler, bringing home many trophies. She also enjoyed shooting pool and outshining the guys. Ione was diagnosed with cancer in 2003, then again in 2004. For the next 22 years, she remained cancer free. On her 90th birthday, Ione told her children that they didn't have to throw her another birthday party for another 10 years. She tried but her body said otherwise and she only made it 5 more years.

Ione is survived by her sons, Stewart "Wade" Bell of Chinook and his children Meliah, Isaac and Ethan Bell; Michael Bell of Fort Belknap Agency and his son Matthew Bell; Timothy (Melinda) Bell of Everett, Washington and their son Jonathan Bell; her daughters, Cheryl (Kenneth, Sr.) Hawley of People's Creek and her children Shaun Bell and Canden Wilke; Dawnita "Kay" Bell of Harlem and her children Chris, Craig and Heather Messerly; Susan Bell of Lincoln City, Oregon and her children Kaitlyn, Kelsi and Kalli; her stepdaughters, Loretta (Robert, Sr.) Ironmaker of Fort Belknap and her children Loren Bell, D Matt SpeakThunder, JC Beaumont and Matthew "Bonkers" Bell; Marjorie Bell-Azure of Fort Belknap and her children Michael, Bradley and Thomasine Shields, as well as 20 great-grandchildren. Preceding Ione in death, besides her parents and husbands, was her grandparents John and Julia (McConnell) Turcotte, her stepfather Frank "Foxy" Fox, her sisters Josephine "Jo Ann" Anderson and Betty Ann Phelps, her brother William "Bill" McGuire, her eldest son Sanford "Sandy" Bell, her granddaughter Jayme Messerly, her grandson Kenneth "KJ" Wilke and her step-granddaughter Shawna Beaumont.

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