American Indian Culture and Research Journal

The years between 1870 and 1920 were formative for North Dakota's Turtle Mountain band of Chippewa Indians. During this era of Indian policy reform, this northern Plains tribe experienced a familiar pattern of land loss, poverty, and despair. The manner in which the allotment of land in severalty was implemented, however, was unusual. Instead of taking allotments on the reservation, the Turtle Mountain band was forced to take them on the public domain. Moreover, the public domain allotments were often far from the reservation. This resulted in a de facto removal of a considerable portion of the tribe to areas as distant as Montana and South Dakota. The impact of that policy, including the "Ten Cent Treaty,"' on the Turtle Mountain band is the focus of this study. Because so much of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa identity was and is tied to the region, it is appropriate that we begin there. The Turtle Mountains lie in north-central North Dakota along the Manitoba border. They stand like an island of forest and lakes in the midst of a vast prairie ocean. More properly called hills, they occupy approximately eight townships in what today are Rolette and Bottineau counties, North Dakota, as well as several hundred square miles of southern Manitoba. Many lakes dot these wooded hills, giving the area an appearance not unlike the Chippewa’s original Minnesota home. Over two hundred lakes are identified on contemporary maps, with many more small sloughs scattered throughout the area, For people and animals alike, these hills were a land of plenty for centuries, containing a varied stock of nuts and berries. Before and after the arrival of whites in the eighteenth century, buffalo and deer could be found in and around the mountains in great numbers; so, too, with a great many different types of fowl. The Indians in the area, at first Sioux, but later Crees, Assiniboines, and Chippewas, visited and hunted in the Turtle Mountain country. Understandably, this land soon became a place of conflict. To whites, who arrived later as explorers, trappers, and traders, it was a veritable oasis on the prairie.