Distinctly Montana Magazine

D I S T I N C T L Y M O N T A N A M A G A Z I N E • S P R I N G 2 0 1 9 68 What a story—5,500 Chippewa Cree Michif directly related to all the tribes on both sides of the Medicine Line, plus Cheyenne, Crow, Salish, and Kootenai—we have to ask, "unresolved for over 125 years?!" We're trying to work our way out of the colonial past. e Chippewa Cree Michif have been in Montana since the 1730s as buffalo hunters with their Assiniboine relatives and as allies of the Blackfeet in their Shoshone war. When the buffalo disappeared (1883), the government shut down all claims. A high wind of institutional and bu- reaucratic violence blew far afield most Little Shell from those lands. ere remain descendants in Sheridan County and region. Trenton Service Area was set up in the 1970s to manage surviving Turtle Mountain allotments. e Fort Peck Assiniboine have a significant historic Chippewa Cree Michif population among its bands. e Chippewa Cree Michif com- munities along the Milk River remain inhabited since they were wintering sites of old. A good portion of Little Shell in Billings, on Cheyenne, and Crow have northeast Montana and Turtle Mountain connections. e land-sharking in northeast Montana left many disfranchised and land- less. is was just the warm-up for Louis Hill (son of J.J.) and his Hi-Line land developers, businessmen, and politicians seeing a wealth of land leaving the public domain and going to those dang half-breed Indians. Little Shell Tribe member Jim Martinez donates central Montana point collection to the Tribe. A nationally significant museum's worth of Pembina cultural materials are among the families of Little Shell members. As the tribe's ability to care of more increases, more will come forward. Émilie Pigeon and Estella Ruth Delorme Garcia. Dr. Pigeon doing research for the Little Shell discusses family history with Estella. A two-room school, Bynum School Class visits Metis Exhibit, Central MT Museum, Lewistown, MT. Representatives from Louis Riel-Gabriel Dumont Institutes visit St. Peter's Mis- sion, Bird Tail, MT. In 2014, a delegation from the two scholarly arms of the Metis Nations of Manitoba and Saskatchewan came to Montana to work with the Little Shell on language retention. Seen here, l. to r., are David Morin, Norman Fleury, Karon Shmon, Lawrie Barkwell, and Little Shell Council-member Kim McKeehan. Little Shell Restoration Act passed by U.S. House but still not law www.distinctlymontana.com/littleshell192 DISTINCTLY MONTANA | DIGITAL T H E R E A R E A R A N G E O F I D E N T I T I E S W I T H I N B E I N G

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