The Chippewa Cree Tribe is a Native American tribe on the Rocky Boy's Reservation in Montana who are descendants of Cree who migrated south from Canada and Chippewa (Ojibwe) who moved west from the Turtle Mountains in North Dakota in the late 19th century. The two different peoples spoke related but distinct Algonquian languages. They are federally recognized as the Chippewa Cree Indians of the Rocky Boy's Reservation.
Fort Assinniboine was a United States Army fort located in present-day north central Montana. It was built in 1879 and operated by the Army through 1911. The 10th Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers, made up of African-American soldiers, were among the units making up the garrison at the fort. Determining that this fort was no longer needed after the end of the Indian Wars, the US Army closed and abandoned it.
The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation are a federally recognized tribe in the U.S. state of Montana. The government includes members of several Bitterroot Salish, Kootenai and Pend d'Oreilles tribes and is centered on the Flathead Indian Reservation.
Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation is one of seven Native American reservations in the U.S. state of Montana. Established by an act of Congress on September 7, 1916, it was named after Ahsiniiwin, the chief of the Chippewa band, who had died a few months earlier. It was established for landless Chippewa (Ojibwe) Indians in the American West, but within a short period of time many Cree (Nēhiyaw) and Métis were also settled there. Today the Cree outnumber the Chippewa on the reservation. The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) recognizes it as the Chippewa Cree Reservation.
The Assiniboine or Assiniboin people, also known as the Hohe and known by the endonym Nakota, are a First Nations/Native American people originally from the Northern Great Plains of North America.
The Blackfeet Nation, officially named the Blackfeet Tribe of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation of Montana, is a federally recognized tribe of Siksikaitsitapi people with an Indian reservation in Montana. Tribal members primarily belong to the Piegan Blackfeet band of the larger Blackfoot Confederacy that spans Canada and the United States.
The White Earth Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, also called the White Earth Nation, is a federally recognized Native American band in northwestern Minnesota. The band's land base is the White Earth Indian Reservation.
The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians is a federally recognized Native American tribe of Ojibwe based on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in Belcourt, North Dakota. The tribe has 30,000 enrolled members. A population of 5,815 reside on the main reservation and another 2,516 reside on off-reservation trust land.
The Little Shell Band of Chippewa are a historic sub-band of the Pembina Band of Chippewa Indians led by Chief Little Shell in the nineteenth century. Based in North Dakota around the Pembina River, they are part of the Ojibwe, one of the Anishinaabe peoples, who occupied territory west of the Great Lakes by that time. Many had partial European ancestry from intermarriage by French-Canadian fur traders and trappers. Some began to identify as Métis, today recognized as one of the Indigenous Peoples of Canada. Located in the 17th century in the areas around the Great Lakes, they gradually moved west into North Dakota and Montana.
The Pembina Band of Chippewa Indians is a historical band of Chippewa (Ojibwe), originally living along the Red River of the North and its tributaries. Through the treaty process with the United States, the Pembina Band was settled on reservations in Minnesota and North Dakota. Some tribal members refusing settlement in North Dakota relocated northward and westward, some eventually settling in Montana. The traditional tribal leadership of Little Shell of The Pembina Band departed from The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians and briefly camped in Dunsieth, ND where the Little Shell Campsite is memorialized, before residing at Spirit Lake, North Dakota, and Wolf Point, Montana.
The Treaty of Hellgate was a treaty agreement between the United States and the Bitterroot Salish, Upper Pend d'Oreille, and Lower Kutenai tribes. The treaty was signed at Hellgate on 16 July 1855. Signatories included Isaac Stevens, superintendent of Indian affairs and governor of Washington Territory; Victor, chief of the Bitterroot Salish; Alexander, chief of the Pend d'Oreilles; Michelle, chief of the Kutenais; and several subchiefs. The treaty was ratified by Congress, signed by President James Buchanan, and proclaimed on 18 April 1859. It established the Flathead Indian Reservation.
Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation is a reservation located in northern North Dakota, United States. It is the land base for the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians. The population of the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation consists of Plains Ojibwe and Métis peoples; the reservation was established in 1882.
Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians of Montana is a federally recognized tribe of Ojibwe, Métis, and Cree people in Montana. The name of the tribe is often shortened to Little Shell. In 2023, the population of enrolled tribal members is approximately 6,900. The Tribe's headquarters is in Great Falls, in a 35,000-sq. foot office complex.
Thomas Little Shell III was a chief of a band of the Ojibwa (Chippewa) tribe in the second half of the nineteenth century, when the Anishinaabeg had a vast territory ranging from southwestern Canada into the northern tier of the United States, from the Dakotas and into Montana.
Frank Bird Linderman was a Montana writer, politician, Native American ally and ethnographer. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, he went West as a young man and became enamored of life on the Montana frontier. While working as a trapper for several years, he lived with the Salish and Blackfeet tribes, learning their cultures. He later became an advocate for them and for other northern Plains Indians. He wrote about their cultures and worked to help them survive pressure from European Americans. For instance, he supported establishment of the Rocky Boy Indian Reservation in 1916 in Montana for landless Ojibwe (Chippewa) and Cree, and continued as an advocate for Native Americans to his death.
Little Bear was a Cree leader who lived in the District of Alberta, Idaho Territory, Montana Territory, and District of Saskatchewan regions of Canada and the United States, in the 19th and early 20th centuries. He is known for his participation in the 1885 North-West Rebellion, which was fought in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
The Chippewa or Ojibwe is a large group of Native Americans many of which now live in the state of Montana.
Chief Robert (Bobtail) Smallboy, Cree name Keskayo Apitchitchiw, was a community leader who brought national attention to problems faced by urban and reserve Indians when he "returned to the land" with followers from troubled Canadian Indian reservations. He was born while his parent s were "in transit" through the Peigan Nation, SW of Fort Macleod, Alta on 7 November 1898, en route to his father's home in what was to become the Rocky Boy Reservation in Montana, named after Bobtail's paternal grandfather. Bobtail spent his formative years there, long enough to speak Cree with a noticeable Chippewa accent. During the first world war, the Smallboys were among the last to settle on their allotted reserve at Hobbema in central Alberta, a Treaty 6 nation now known for its rich oil and gas reserves. Smallboy became a hunter, trapper, farmer, and eventually chief of the Ermineskin Band from 1959 to 1969. In 1968, to escape deteriorating social and political conditions on the reserve, he moved to a bush camp on the Kootenay Plains. He attributed the alcoholism, drug abuse and suicide that he saw in his community to an attempt to live a modern lifestyle on the reserve rather than "The Indian Way". Accompanied by approximately 125 people and with help from other elders he moved his community. Despite factional splits, the return of many residents to Hobbema, and the group's failure to obtain permanent land tenure, Smallboy Camp persisted into the 21st Century as a working community used as a retreat by Plains and Woodlands Indians from western Canada and the US.
A number of different Native Americans living in present-day Montana entered into treaties with the United States during the 19th Century. Most of the treaties included an article that established the territory of the tribe entering into it. More and more of this Indian land turned into public or U.S. territory with the signing of new treaties..
