History
At the start of the 20th century, Chief Little Shell III was the leader of the Chippewa-Cree in Montana. He and his band migrated there over generations from the Great Lakes area of Canada. He owned land near present-day Plentywood.
After he died in 1901, Chief Asiniiwin (called Rocky Boy), assumed leadership of the landless Chippewa-Cree. Between 1902 and 1912, they did not have a reservation.
In 1902, Chief Rocky Boy petitioned President Theodore Roosevelt for a "closed reservation" for the Chippewa Cree, in which the land would be preserved only for them. In 1904, a bill was introduced into Congress to set aside a home in the Flathead Indian Reservation for the Chippewa-Cree, some of whom already lived there. It did not gain passage.
Chief Rocky Boy worked with the Republican Senator Joseph M. Dixon and influential individuals in Montana to achieve his goal. He lived mainly in north central Montana, although he also traveled to southwestern and western areas of the state, keeping in touch with the Chippewa-Cree people. He was instrumental in helping the Chippewa-Cree of those Montana locations, as well as those who lived on the Crow Indian Reservation and the immediate surrounding area. He also frequently lived on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.
In 1908, Montana passed the Land Acts, regulating Native American lands. The Swan Valley Massacre of 1908 aroused outrage among Native Americans, as they were attacked while hunting off reservation, a right protected by treaties with the US government. The US Congress eventually established what was first called Rocky Boy's Reservation (named for the European-American understanding of Asiniiwin's name). The Indian Inspector Frank Churchill was sent to Montana to negotiate with the chief. Asiniiwin made Churchill understand that the Chippewa-Cree lived all around Montana, including at the Blackfeet and Flathead reservations, as well as near many cities dominated by European Americans, including Anaconda, Billings, Butte, Deer Lodge, Great Falls, Havre, Helena, Missoula, Wolf Point and others.
Churchill requested that all of Valley County be withdrawn from white settlement and that a new closed Chippewa-Cree Reservation be set aside there. Both requests were granted by the Department of Interior. In the end, many of the Chippewa-Cree who lived in western Montana were not willing to relocate to far northeastern Montana.
In November 1909, over 100 landless Chippewa-Cree, from southwestern and western Montana and northern Idaho (the Coeur d'Alene Indian Reservation), gathered near Helena to be relocated to a new homeland on the Blackfeet Reservation, which was closer to them. With the new Chippewa-Cree Reservation approved and set aside, the government redirected the Chippewa-Cree to the tribe's new home. The new Reservation was located between St. Mary, Babb, and the Canadian border, and it was first called the Babb Reservation. Chief Little Bear soon followed Rocky Boy with his own band, arriving with about 200 Cree.
Anishinaabe leaders feared they would lose the land and forced the Chippewa-Cree away, as they were not Blackfeet people and were not entitled to allotments. The US Army had allowed the Chippewa-Cree to settle at Fort Assinniboine in Hill County, Montana. Nearly 600 Chippewa-Cree were already living on the large Fort Assinniboine Military Reservation by 1912-1913. These conditions contributed to the founding of the Rocky Boy Reservation, formed in part by land ceded from Fort Assinniboine.
Chief Rocky Boy was living on the new Chippewa-Cree Reservation near Babb with 50 to 60 people. He negotiated with the US Indian agent for additional lands, which were approved in 1916. Chippewa-Cree from north central Montana, western Montana, and northern Idaho settled to live alongside those already living on the new Rocky Boy Reservation, soon after the Reservation was officially established.
Read more about this topic: Rocky Boy Indian Reservation
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