The end of the tribe’s campaign to get federal recognition dates back to the late 1800s. In 1892, during a renegotiation of the Treaty of 1863, Chief Little Shell and his band of Chippewa in North Dakota refused to sign what they considered an unfair treaty, according to the tribe’s website.
Without a land base or reservation, the tribe became nomadic, Over the years, tribal members settled in Montana and Canada, and are scattered across the U.S. Northern Plains states and central Canada. About 5,400 Little Shell tribe members now live in Montana.
The federal Department of the Interior had denied the tribe’s requests for federal recognition several times, dating back to the 1930s. It finally took a bipartisan effort by members of Montana’s congressional delegation to get the provision approved that was inserted into the defense bill.
According to the Associated Press, the recognition provision requires the Department of Interior to grant the Little Shell 200 acres in central Montana as a tribal land base, with more land acquisitions possible in the future. Little Shell members will also be eligible for other basic treaty rights offered to other American Indian tribes such as health services, education rights, and federal economic development programs.
“I am beyond overjoyed that we are finally at this place that so many of our ancestors, family members, and friends have fought to achieve,” Little Shell tribal chairman Gerald Gray said on the tribe’s Facebook page. “We have restored the dignity and respect that the Little Shell Tribe deserves.”
Gray knows there is much work to do, like submitting a membership roll to the Department of Interior within 18 months, or by mid-2021. “There is much work for Tribal Council to do, and I ask for patience as we build our Tribe’s infrastructure, Gray said. “As they say, Rome was not built in a day, and it will take time for resources to come on board and decisions to be made.”
