Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians

The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians is a Native American tribe of Ojibwa and Metis peoples, based on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in Belcourt, North Dakota. The tribe has 30,000 enrolled members. A population of 5,815 reside on the main reservation and another 2,516 reside on off-reservation trust land (as of the 2000 census).

History

The history of the Turtle Mountain Band as a contemporary band began on December 21, 1882 when Turtle Mountain Reservation was established under the Presidential Executive Order. Before this time, the Turtle Mountain Band was part of the Pembina Band of Chippewa Indians and is considered as one of its political Successor Inherent.

There is some small controversy over whether the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians includes the Little Shell Band of Chippewa Indians or not. Several court cases have decided that they are indeed separate tribes,and have in fact recognized at least 3 tribal units, and several unassociated members of that band. "(See: [http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data2/circs/8th/023460p.pdf FindLaw] "This case gives reference to Indian Claims Commission and United States Court of Claims cases that cannot be found online from their original sources, as the cases are old. *Note1)"

In the history of the Pembina there have been several splits, the hereditary Chief of the Little Shell was in fact ‘removed’ from the tribal rolls of the Turtle Mountain Band (and reservation) in the 1890s Quoting "Koke v Little Shell *Note 2" (Montana Supreme Court) and United States Department of the Interior proposed finding for Federal Acknowledgement of the [http://www.littleshelltribe.com Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians of Montana] (Federal Register V65 #141 July 21, 2000):

:"A group who were disenrolled from the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Reservation in North Dakota in the 1890s were led into Montana at that time by Chief Thomas Little Shell ("Ayabiwewidang": "Sit to Speak")"

Government

The tribal offices are located in Belcourt, North Dakota. The current Tribal Chairman is David "Doc" Brien, who began his duties as chairman in January of 2007.

Notable people

* Louise Erdrich
* Leonard Peltier
* Sam English [http://www.hanksville.org/artists/english.html]
*Mark Turcotte
* Albert Lee Ferris

References

* [http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DTTable?_bm=y&-context=dt&-ds_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U&-CHECK_SEARCH_RESULTS=N&-CONTEXT=dt&-mt_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U_P001&-tree_id=4001&-transpose=N&-all_geo_types=N&-redoLog=true&-_caller=geoselect&-geo_id=25000US4345&-geo_id=NBSP&-search_results=25000US4345&-format=&-fully_or_partially=N&-_lang=en&-show_geoid=Y Turtle Mountain Reservation and Off-Reservation Trust Land, Montana/North Dakota/South Dakota] United States Census Bureau

External links

* [http://www.tmbci.net Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians official site]

Notes

1 A internet search for either: Turtle Mt. Band of Chippewa Indians 203 Ct. Cl. 426 (1974) or Turtle mountain Band of Chippewa Indians Et Al v United States 490 F.2d 935 (1974) will find off site sources for this information. Also the findings of the Indians Claim Commission: 23 Ind. Cl. Comm 315 (1970), 25 Ind. Cl Comm. 179 (1971), 26 Ind. Cl. Comm. 336 (1971)

2 The Montana Supreme Court has taken down their online opinions for some form of change and has no date for the return of online cases, FindLaw does not have the opinion online.