Distinctly Montana Magazine

w w w . d i s t i n c t l y m o n t a n a . c o m 69 St. Ann's Day Procession. St. Ann, mother of Mary, is the patron saint of the Metis. Christi Belcourt, "Can I Get Picture With You Gabe?" acrylic on canvas, 36" x 48", Gabriel Dumont Institute Museum Col- lection, Saskatoon, SK. Renown Metis/Michif artist, Christi Belcourt shows us Ol' Gabe Dumont in Gibraltar pose. Ga- briel was related to the Berger's through his wife Madeleine Wilkie, whose sister Judith was married to Pierre Berger, grandson of the LaVerendrye expedition. As a youth Gabriel ran buffalo up and down the Plateau du Prairie du Coteau that defines the region. en the feds announced the homeless Indians of Montana were going to "be given" all those lands east of Fort Peck to the North Dakota line. Known officially as "Rocky Boy Indian Land," it existed for a year as a reservation. In 1908, the General Land Office withdrew 1.4 million acres of prime public domain in the Medicine Lake/Sand Hills area. at would consolidate the Montana homeless Chippewa Cree Michif non-treaty buffalo culture collapse Displaced Peoples (DPs). is is the whole Medicine Lake ecosphere we're talking about. Big time beauty. By late 1909, the Department of the Interior announced the "Opening of Rocky Boy Lands," basically returning that 1.4 million acre set aside to the public domain, complete with instructions for white folks to get it while it's hot. After WWI, the Little Shell reorganized as the Abandoned Chippewa of Northern Montana. ose days, the Indian Office thought they took care of the Landless Indian Problem in creating a reservation in 1916-17 for "Rocky Boy's Band of Chippewas and such other homeless Indians of the State of Montana." We've come little further with the BIA. Congress is the hope. All along it's been a federal responsibility. e Indian Office first acknowledged it, saying it could do nothing without Congressional appropriations. Since WWII, Congress and the BIA just deny it. State and local communities have been doing the heavy lifting all these years, helping. e Little Shell have made a niche for themselves. ese neigh- bors of ours, their people ran buffalo in the wild. ey lived the transformation from an Aboriginal to an Anglo world. Anglos took their land, they asked for pennies; we gave them neglect, they give us hope. Truly, it would not be Montana without them. at said, they still need what they are owed, federal acknowledgment. We owe them—and ourselves—that much. L I T T L E S H E L L , J U S T A S T H E W I D E R A M E R I C A .

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