Little Shell Tribe recognition passes House

The Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians is the closest it has ever been to receiving federal recognition as a Native American tribe.

Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill sponsored by Rep. Greg Gianforte, R-Mont., to recognize the tribe.

“The Little Shell Tribe has had to wait too long for the federal government to act toward its well-deserved recognition,” Gianforte said in a release Thursday. “I appreciate the hard work, dedication and determination of Chairman Gray and the Little Shell people. Today marks an important milestone for the tribe, and I am proud that I could help move their efforts forward. It’s time to get this bill through the Senate and to President Trump.”

Little Shell Tribal Chair Gerald Gray praised Gianforte’s efforts.

“This bill will help restore the dignity of my tribe and force the federal government to stop ignoring us,” Gray said in the release. “We now look to the Senate to continue on the congressman’s great work to secure passage by that chamber.”

Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., who passed a bill recognizing the tribe out of committee last year — the has not been scheduled for a vote on floor — also called on the Senate to act.

“Today is a strong step toward recognizing the Little Shell, but time is ticking away and the tribe deserves a vote in the Senate now, with no political shenanigans, secret holds or strings attached,” Tester, whose first bill after he first took office in 2007 was for recognition of the Little Shell, said in a statement Wednesday. “Federal recognition is long-overdue and I won’t stop banging on doors in Washington until this bill is on the president’s desk.”

Both of Gianforte’s and Tester’s bills require the Department of the Interior to provide the Little Shell with 200 acres to use for a tribal government center, housing or other purposes.

The Little Shell, a tribe with 4,500 or more members concentrated in the Great Falls area but spread throughout central and northern Montana and across the nation, have been formally trying to gain federal recognition since at least the 1930s.

Montana’s members of Congress have repeatedly sponsored bills to have Congress recognize the tribe, but the House passage Wednesday is the farthest those bills ever have gone.

The Little Shell evolved from a group of French and Indian hunters and trappers affiliated with the historical Pembina Band of Chippewa Indians.

The tribe has been without a recognized homeland since the late 1800s, when Chief Little Shell and his followers in North Dakota broke off treaty negotiations with the U.S. government. Tribe members later settled in Montana and southern Canada.

Gray and other members trace their other attempts back to the 1860s, when the Pembina Band of Chippewa signed a treaty with the U.S. government.

In 1978, the Little Shell petitioned the Bureau of Indian Affairs for recognition through the Bureau‘s Federal Acknowledgement Process. Despite a favorable report by the Department of the Interior in 2000 and recognition of the tribe by the Montana government that same year, the Bureau of Indian Affairs denied the tribe recognition in 2009 and again in 2013.

More than 500 Native American tribes are federally recognized in the United States.