The Chippewa Cree Tribe (Officially in )Montana Department of Justice, Official Tribally issued license plate of Chippewa Cree Trib
Link
/ref> is a

Native American tribe In the United States, an American Indian tribe, Native American tribe, Alaska Native village, Indigenous tribe, or Tribal nation may be any current or historical Tribe (Native American)#Other uses, tribe, band, or nation of Native Americans in ...

on the Rocky Boy's Reservation in

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

who are descendants of

Cree The Cree, or nehinaw (, ), are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people, numbering more than 350,000 in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada, First Nations. They live prim ...

who migrated south from

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

and Chippewa (Ojibwe) who moved west from the Turtle Mountains in

North Dakota North Dakota ( ) is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota people, Dakota and Sioux peoples. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minneso ...

in the late 19th century. The two different peoples spoke related but distinct

Algonquian languages The Algonquian languages ( ; also Algonkian) are a family of Indigenous languages of the Americas and most of the languages in the Algic language family are included in the group. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from ...

. They are

federally recognized This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. , 574 Indian tribes are legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the United States.

as the Chippewa Cree Indians of the Rocky Boy's Reservation. This tribe is the southernmost

tribe in North America.McNeel, Jack. “10 Things You Should Know about the Chippewa Cree Tribe of Rocky Boy Reservation.” Indian Country Today. Indian Country Today, October 13, 2016
Link
Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation is located in

Hill A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. It often has a distinct summit, and is usually applied to peaks which are above elevation compared to the relative landmass, though not as prominent as Mountain, mountains. Hills ...

and Chouteau counties in northeastern Montana, about from the

Canada–United States border The international border between Canada and the United States is the longest in the world by total length. The boundary (including boundaries in the Great Lakes, Atlantic, and Pacific coasts) is long. The land border has two sections: Canada' ...

. It has a total land area of , which includes extensive off-reservation trust lands. The population was 3,323 at the 2010 census. The Bureau of Indian Affairs' Labor Force Report of 2005 reported 5,656 enrolled members of the tribe.

History

The Chief Asiniiwin (Chippewa) (English translation Stone Child, misnomer Rocky Boy, which conveys an incorrect meaning) and Chief Little Bear (Cree) and their bands were the founders of the

Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation (also known as Rocky Boy 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'' (Rocky Boy ...

in north-central Montana. At the time, Chippewa-Cree lived throughout present-day Montana, on the Blackfeet and other reservations, as well as in the new towns developed by European-American settlers and immigrants. In January 1902 ''Asiniiwin'' petitioned President

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), also known as Teddy or T.R., was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York (state), New York politics, incl ...

for a closed reservation so the landless Chippewa-Cree could settle and get an education. The members were counted in a 1909 census conducted by Thralls B. Wheat, a land allotment agent of the

Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the management and conservation of most federal lands and natural resources. It also administers programs relatin ...

. This census was certified by the agency in April 1909. Reflecting the social turmoil of the time, many of Asiniiwin's people left the reservation within a decade; others had never relocated there, and their descendants live in towns throughout the Pacific Northwest. For instance, many bought plots of land on

Hill 57 Hill 57 is a sandstone-capped hill on the Bench (geology), benchland northwest of Great Falls, Montana, Great Falls, Montana, United States. The origin of the name is in dispute, but probably derives from an advertisement for "Heinz 57" food product ...

, outside

Great Falls, Montana Great Falls is the List of cities and towns in Montana, third most populous city in the U.S. state of Montana and the county seat of Cascade County, Montana, Cascade County. The population was 60,442 according to the 2020 United States census, 2 ...

. Congress passed legislation on September 7, 1916, () creating the Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation. Those Chippewa-Cree living near Great Falls were not counted as members in the 1917 census of the reservation but were part of the tribe. In May 1917, the Interior Department compiled another list of residents on the reservation. By then additional Native Americans had migrated there and others had left. Fewer than 45 of the 451 names listed on the "Tentative Roll of the Rocky Boy Indian Reservation" (1917) were Chippewa from the earlier 1909 roll. Many were

, descendants of Little Bear's (Imasees) band, and

Métis The Métis ( , , , ) are a mixed-race Indigenous people whose historical homelands include Canada's three Prairie Provinces extending into parts of Ontario, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and the northwest United States. They ha ...

, descendants of the

Louis Riel Louis Riel (; ; 22 October 1844 – 16 November 1885) was a Canadian politician, a founder of the province of Manitoba, and a political leader of the Métis in Canada, Métis people. He led two resistance movements against the Government of ...

band of mixed-race peoples from the

Red River of the North The Red River (), also called the Red River of the North () to differentiate it from the Red River of the South, Red River in the south of the continent, is a river in the north-central United States and central Canada. Originating at the confl ...

area. According to tribal traditions of absorbing war captives and protecting all children of tribal women, if residents identified as Cree or Chippewa, they were listed as Native American, regardless of whether they had other ancestry. The 1917 roll was approved by the Department of the Interior in July 1917; it has since been the basis for tribal membership rolls and allotments. The Cree and Métis migrants and their descendants have lived on the Rocky Boy's Reservation under self-declared "adopted" status. They and their descendants provided for such "adopted" status in the Chippewa Cree Tribal Constitution, which was written in 1934–1935. It was certified by the Department of the Interior in 1935 under the

Indian Reorganization Act The Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) of June 18, 1934, or the Wheeler–Howard Act, was U.S. federal legislation that dealt with the status of American Indians in the United States. It was the centerpiece of what has been often called the "Indian ...

. . The constitution provided that members of the tribe who were absent from the reservation for 10 years or more (a ten-year absentee provision) lost their tribal status and were no longer qualified for benefits and membership. The Chippewa Cree Business Committee, the government of the tribe, recently repealed this provision of the Constitution. As the tribe's government, the Committee retains the authority to address membership issues. The Cree and Métis make up more than 90% of the enrolled members of the tribe.

Language

The principal language of the tribe is

, written in

Eastern Cree syllabics Eastern Cree syllabics are a variant of Canadian Aboriginal syllabics used to write all the Cree language, Cree dialects from Moosonee, Ontario to Kawawachikamach, Quebec, Kawawachikamach on the Quebec–Labrador border in Canada that use syllabic ...

. There are programs and courses dedicated to the preservation and teaching of the Cree language to the younger generation. There are also efforts to use revenue from sale of Official Tribal vehicle license plate would be used for installation of Cree signage in the community as well as investment in other language revitalization programs. The status of the Chippewa (Ojibwe) language in the tribe is dire, as there is only one known living speaker of the language after the death of Duncan Standing Rock Sr. in February 2021. Standing Rock was an integral part of efforts to record and document the language.

Economy

As part of its economic development, the tribe started a business "Plain Green Loans," for online lending to Native Americans who are underserved by the lack of banks on many reservations. ''The Tribal Independent'' reporter Delvin Cree (Turtle Mountain Chippewa), wrote in an opinion piece in 2012 that the tribe's practices of high-interest, short-term lending are generally classified as

predatory lending Predatory lending refers to unethical practices conducted by lending organizations during a loan origination process that are unfair, deceptive, or fraudulent. While there are no internationally agreed legal definitions for predatory lending, a 20 ...

.Delvin Cree, Opinion: "Predatory lending a cash cow in Indian Country"
, ''Indianz.com,'' 17 February 2012, accessed 7 March 2012 These loans can result in annualized interest rates as high as 360 to 400 percent. In 2022, the company that had paid the tribe to use its tribal sovereignty to claim exemption from state laws paid $44 million to settle a lawsuit for illegal lending practices.

References

External links

The Chippewa Cree Tribe of Rocky Boy Montana
Facebook
Chippewa Cree Tribe
Montana Office of Indian Affairs

{{authority control Cree governments Cree in Montana Ojibwe in Montana Ojibwe governments Native American tribes in Montana Federally recognized tribes in the United States Métis in Montana

History

Language

Economy

See also

References

External links