Delegation pushes tribe recognition

By Gazette News Services

WASHINGTON - Montana's congressional delegation has united in an effort to bring federal recognition to the state's Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians.

The Little Shell, a tribe of more than 4,000 based in Great Falls, say they have been fighting for federal recognition for more than 100 years.

The U.S. Interior Department granted the tribe preliminary recognition in 2000. But the tribe still doesn't have reservation land, housing, medical care and other benefits that come with federal recognition.

"This is just the quickest way to do it," said tribal president John Sinclair, who added that he was appreciative of the congressional effort.

Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg introduced the House bill, similar to legislation he introduced in the last Congress. Democratic Sen. Jon Tester introduced the Senate version of the legislation, his first bill since becoming a senator in January. Democratic Sen. Max Baucus is a co-sponsor.

Tester said the bill would require immediate action.

"Not only does this bill provide tribal land, it formally sets up a government-to-government relationship between the tribe and the United States - something all tribal nations deserve," Tester said.

Little Shell Recognition

Posted by: "Puma Claw" CactusCougar@msn.com
Sun Mar 4, 2007 8:58 pm (PST)

Chief Little Shell Information

The Little Shell Band was granted recognition under the Clinton Administration, but the Bush Administration took it away again.

Until the mid-1800s, ancestors of the Little Shells lived in the western Great Lakes area. As European settlements encroached upon their territory in the 1800s, they moved west to hunt buffalo and found themselves living on the small Turtle Mountain reservation in North Dakota. Facing starvation as the buffalo herds disappeared, the tribe broke into factions in the 1870s, with some following Chief Thomas Little Shell, Es'Snce into Montana, some staying at Turtle Mountain and some going north to Canada.

Poor timing and rotten deals caused the Little Shell Tribe to lose its land and federal status, Zimmerman said.

The problems began in 1892 when an Indian agent came to the tribe´s home, North Dakota´s Turtle Mountain Reservation. Chief Thomas Little Shell was away in Montana with 112 other families hunting buffalo. In their absence, tribal rolls were cut and a million acres of the tribe´s land was sold for .10 cents an acre. When he returned, Little Shell refused to take part in the deal, said Ed Lavenger, an elder with the Little Shell Tribe who lives in Billings.

The reservation's Indian agent responded by arbitrarily cutting the tribal rolls in half, dividing families and clans. Small groups of families, usually numbering not more than 100, settled in remote areas across the north and east portions of Montana. They never blended into non-Indian culture, but without the aid and legitimacy that came with federal recognition, their tribal traditions suffered, too.

With no land, the tribe scattered. In 1896, 600 of the landless Indians were captured by soldiers, put into boxcars and dropped off at the Canadian border. That winter, they walked back, living in squalid shacks in "moccassin flats" areas outside of towns along the Hi-Line and the eastern front of the Rocky Mountains, Lavenger said.

"We are a scattered tribe. We weren´t claimed by the whites. We weren´t claimed by the full bloods," Lavenger said. "They used to call us persons with no souls. Now at least we have an identity."

Not counting the Little Shell Tribe, Montana has 11 federally recognized tribes and seven reservations. Adjusting to life with the whites was tough enough, Lavenger said, but at least the other tribes in the state had their own land.

Only a handful of the tribe's 4,000 members still speak their native language - almost none on the native speakers born after 1934, according to Little Shell anthropologists.

The tribe's leaders have worked steadily for federal recognition since 1892; many times it seemed just around the corner. Rocky Boy, Montana's seventh reservation, was established in 1917 on a former military reserve as a home for all of Montana's landless Indians. It proved to be big enough only for the Rocky Boy Chippewa and Cree More land was purchased near Great Falls in the late 1930s, but local opposition killed the plan to use it as a reservation.

About 25 years ago, the Little Shells finally incorporated as a nonprofit organization and joined 221 groups who have indicated their intent to pursue federal recognition. Until today only 15 have succeeded. The Little Shell Tribe is the sixteenth.

S.724

Title: A bill to extend the Federal recognition to the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians of Montana, and for other purposes.

Sponsor: Sen Tester, Jon introduced 3/1/2007 [MT] (introduced 3/1/2007)

Cosponsors Co-Sponsors (1)

Latest Major Action: 3/1/2007 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs.