Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians of Montana

Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians of Montana, also known as the Little Shell Band of Landless Chippewa Indians of Montana, is an Anishinaabe (Ojibwa) tribe recognized by the State of Montana. It is seeking federal recognition from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The tribe is named after its nineteenth-century Chief Esens, known as "Little Shell."

Background

Chief Esens

From probably both northern Ontario and northern Minnesota, during the early part of the 18th century, the ancestors of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians of Montana migrated from the Great Lakes area into the Plains of Canada and the United States. They allied with the Assiniboine and Cree in a confederacy and drove out the Dakota and probably other tribes native to what is now Alberta, Manitoba, Minnesota, Montana, Ontario and Saskatchewan. When the American whites and Canadian whites commenced their own invasions onto the great plains of North America, they encountered native Indian tribes. At that time (the early 19th century) the Anishinaabeg (Pembina and Saulteaux) occupied a territory that stretched from southeastern Alberta, all of southern Saskatchewan, all of southern Manitoba, most of North Dakota, Minnesota, some of South Dakota, and most of northern Montana and much of eastern Montana, along with their Assiniboine and Cree allies.

They suffered a great deal of hardships over the land dispute between the United States and their tribal leaders who could not settle the land dispute with the Americans, early on, but they managed to survive. In Montana, the Little Shell Anishinaabeg are located mostly in the Great Falls area. Most Little Shell Anishinaabeg believe that they arrived to Montana after the United States began to settle the area. Today, the Little Shell Anishinaabeg of Montana are attempting to gain federal recognition and most likely that will occur soon. Their population is over 4,000, including people of Assiniboine and Cree ancestry.

History

The Little Shell Band of Chippewa Indians is part of the Anishinaabe (Ojibwa) people, first recorded by European settlers in documents from the Hudson's Bay Company, Fort Garry (Winnipeg) in the early 18th century. These logs and diaries show the Ojibwa held approximately 63 million acres (250,000 km²) of land throughout what is now South Dakota, North Dakota and Canada. By the early 19th century, many Frenchmen, mostly fur trappers, had married into the Ojibwa. As it was matrilineal, their children were absorbed into the culture of the tribe, as war captives had been in earlier times.

The government of Emperor Napoleon excluded the Chippewa land from the original quit-claim-deed of the Louisiana Purchase, selling the western territory beyond the Mississippi River to the United States. Historically this likely a response to relations with the Hudson's Bay Company and their French-Canadian traders, whom Napoleon could ill afford to offend.

In the early 1850s, diplomatic delegations from the United States began meeting with the Little Shell and other Pembina bands. Railroad interests in the Red River Valley pressured Congress into these negotiations. At the time, Chief Little Shell rebuffed the negotiators because of the U.S. position that his tribe's members were of mixed ancestry and did not qualify as a tribe. By 1856, they reached agreement to allow the United States to enforce law along the Red River, providing that the United States recognize the tribe and pay a $50,000,000 dollar bond accruing 5% interest over the next 75 years.

This bond was known as “The Christian Pembina Bond.” The United States stopped payments on this bond after 2 years and refused to make public the records relating to the bond. The Treaty of Old Crossing (1863) was ratified by the 16th president, Abraham Lincoln.

Chief Esens

In 1864 Chief Esens (Little Shell) walked out of further negotiations and refused to amend the original treaty. In 1892 the Chief sent word to Washington D.C. that he would exchange 52 million acres (210,000 km²) of land and the treaty rights of 1863 for a large reservation, to include the entire Turtle Mountain area, at the price of $1.00 per acre of land.

Senator McCumber was sent to meet with the Pembina Band of Chippewa Indians and during the first meeting, when he was not present, his agent Waugh offered $0.10 per acre. The Pembina walked out of the meeting in disgust, knowing that the US had paid $1.00 per acre for less valuable land near Fort Berthold. Agent Waugh brought in 32 Ojibwe from Canada and had them sign the treaty, known as The McCumber Agreement or the Ten Cent Treaty. After hearing of the fraud, John Burke, state attorney for Rolette County, North Dakota, agreed to represent Chief Little Shell before the US Senate. Senator McCumber agreed with John Burke that the treaty was a fraud. The US Senate waited until after his death in 1905 to ratify the fraudulent treaty. The Little Shell people were told to either sign the treaty or be starved to death. Members of the tribe became nomadic; several tribal members moved to France.

External links

• Official Little Shell Tribe Website
• Verne Dusenberry, "Waiting for a Day That Never Comes", Little Shell Tribe History, Little Shell Tribe Newsletter, hosted by Robert Dean Rudeseals