Rocky Boy (Chippewa leader): Difference between revisions

'''''Asiniiwin''''', translated '''Rocky Boy''' or '''Stone Child''',<ref>[{{cite web |url= http://montanakids.com/history_and_prehistory/indian_reservations/rocky_boys.htm |title= Montanakids - Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation<!-- Bot generated title -->] |publisher= MontanaKids.com |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20191112153421/https://montanakids.com/history_and_prehistory/indian_reservations/rocky_boys.htm |archive-date= November 12, 2019 |url-status= live}}</ref> was an important [[Chippewa]] leader who was chief of a band in [[Montana]] in the late 19th century and early 20th century. His advocacy for his people helped gain the establishment of what is called [[Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation]] in his honor. Formed from part of [[Fort Assinniboine|Fort Assiniboine]], which was closed, it is located in [[Hill County, Montana|Hill]] and [[Chouteau County, Montana|Chouteau counties]] in north central Montana.

Not much is known about Asiniiwin's early life. Some speculate he was born and raised in [[Wisconsin]], and migrated to the Montana region later on, as did many Chippewa. However, written historical records <!-- what ones? -->prove he was a native to Montana. {{citation needed|date=January 2019}} He told a companion he was [[Chippewa]] and born somewhere between [[Anaconda, Montana|Anaconda]], [[Butte, Montana|Butte]], and [[Deer Lodge, Montana|Deer Lodge]]. He was the son of Chief Bobtail aka Alexis Piche Bobtail. His birth date was probably in either 1851 or 1852. Little is known about him in his early life.

1864 Pembina Treaty

In addressing the inequities of the .10 Cent treaty, the federal government held that Rocky Boy descendants were entitled to recievereceive proceeds of the Pembina Judgments, resulting from the litigation that challenged the unjust payment of .10 / acre that the government paid in 1864. Chief Rocky Boy's original people, many of whom did not receive this payment, still do not accept the terms of treaty.

Rocky Boy lived primarily in southwestern and western Montana. He was fond of the [[Great Falls, Montana]], region. Rocky Boy led a band of about 130 men, women and children. Other Chippewa had settled on reservations of other tribes through no fault of their own. He worked to keep the Chippewa tribal identity alive in Montana, at a time when more whites were settling the land, and expected the Indians to disappear.

*Buffalo Coat was an important Chippewa leader in the Great Falls region, including the regions around [[Fort Shaw, Montana]], and to [[Fort Benton, Montana]]. In 1898 he asked for land and citizenship for the landless Chippewa in the Great Falls region. The United States refused to grant Buffalo Coat's people land and citizenship. The United States claimed they had no jurisdiction and, thus, were not capable of granting Buffalo Coat any land.

*''Ka-na-bay-zhic-um,'' or Long Hair, was the chief of the landless Chippewa who lived near the [[Marias River]], which is located north of Great Falls near present-day [[Loma, Montana]], and Fort Benton. It includes land near the [[Blackfeet Indian Reservation]] and the [[Sweet Grass Hills]].

*''Kah-keesh-ka-wash-chah-bay-wo'' was the principal leader of the landless Chippewas on the Crow-Northern Cheyenne Reservation and the immediate region around the [[Billings, Montana]], region. He may have played a role in the attempt by the Cheyenne to break off the [[Northern Cheyenne Reservation]] in 1897.

Rocky Boy was forced off the Red Lake Reservation although he was a signatory of the 1889 Red Lake agreement. The Interior Agent James McLaughlin was a plague to Chief Rocky Boy'es existence. McLaughlin would engineer the disposessiondispossession of Rocky Boy's Band on two occasions, in the late 1880s out of the Thief River Falls area; McLaughlin sold land right out from under the band. He would also dispossesdispossess the band through illegal imposition of the McLaughlin Roll that contained 451 names for approval for final enrollment. Of those 451 names, only 45 were actual biological Chippewa descendants. (Source: John C. Ewers Ethnological Report on the MT Cree and Little Shell Indians. (1974)

In 1902, Rocky Boy commenced negotiating for a new Chippewa Reservation in Montana. He had several supporters among the whites, including Senator Dixon. Rocky Boy sent a letter to the [[President of the United States]] requesting a reservation. Rocky Boy's original band census, reflecting 139 men, women and children, was taken by Thralls B. Wheat at the order of the Secretary of the Department of the Interior. This roll was taken in 1908, and certified in 1909, Washington, D.C.

In late 1908, the United States learned that small groups of Chippewa living on the Flathead Reservation had left the Reservation to hunt in the adjoining [[Swan Valley, Idaho|Swan Valley]]. In response, the United States sent a [[game warden]] and several deputized citizens, to the Swan Valley to find the hunters. They found one small group and requested from them, their hunting licenses which they provided. Though they had legal permission to hunt, the game warden told them he would return the next day and if they had not left the Swan Valley they would be arrested. He returned the next day shooting instead of negotiating. In the [[Swan Valley Massacre of 1908|battle that followed]] 4 Chippewa were killed and the game warden also. To ease the unrest the Chippewa felt about the '''Land Acts''' to open up the Flathead and Fort Peck Reservations to white settlement, the United States sent Indian Inspector Frank Churchill to Montana to negotiate with Rocky Boy in thethat same said year of 1908.

In 1908, Frank Churchill met and negotiated with Rocky Boy. Rocky Boy told him that Chippewa were living all over Montana including on the [[Blackfeet Reservation]], [[Crow Indian Reservation|Crow Reservation]], Fort Peck Reservation, and the Flathead Reservation, and near white settlements such as Anaconda, [[Billings, Montana|Billings]], Butte, Deer Lodge, [[Garrison, Montana|Garrison]] ([[Ulm, Montana|Ulm]]), [[Havre, Montana|Havre]], [[Glasgow, Montana|Glasgow]], Great Falls, [[Helena, Montana|Helena]], [[Missoula, Montana|Missoula]] and many others. In an attempt to ease the fears of the Chippewa of western Montana and Idaho (Coeur d'Alene Reservation and the defunct [[Lemhi Reservation]]), Churchill requested from the government of the United States that all of [[Valley County, Montana]], be withdrawn from white settlement and a new Chippewa Reservation be set aside in the same said county, covering near 1.4 million acres. Both requests were granted. However, many of the Chippewa from western Montana and Idaho (Coeur d'Alene Reservation and the Lemhi Reservation), were not willing to make the journey and they were charged high rates by railroad owners apparently and that ended that quest. Churchill knew the problem was not over.

Pursuant to the WorchesterWorcester v. Georgia precedent 31, US 515, (1832), the Chippewa recognized in Act of Sept 7, 1916 (39 Stat. 739) were to be the sole sovereign tribe to exert exclusive jurisdiction over their newly created reservation. The federal government would oversee the wholesale destruction of the Rocky Boy Band of Chippewa Indians by implementing the 1917 McLaughlin Roll. Through federal abuse of power, overreach, and outright incompetence, the original Chippewa band members enumerated in the 1908 census were improperly removed from the tribal roll. As a result, and due in large part, to the Cree malfeasance and contest for power, the majority of Chief Rocky Boy's people were illegally dispossessed from their own tribe. Many sought refuge on HIllHill 57, Great Falls. In later years, the Secretary of Interior would illegally deny a trust responsibility to the tribal members residing there.. Hill 57 was initially settled by Jim Loud Thunder Gopher, who was a hard worker, and honest Chippewa leader of Saginaw descent. Jim Gopher had arrived from Manitou Lake in 1918, where he also enjoyed treaty rights in the nation of Canada. Jim Gopher was the son -in -law of Chief Rocky Boy's brother, Charles Chippewa or Walking Stone. Hill 57 was and is the historic home to Chief Rocky Boy's people, and the people of Jim Gopher. The land ownership of Hill 57 is a checkerboard of these people, in addition to many of the Little Shell, landless Indians who had briefly settled on Hill 57 until the 1950s-1960s.

Between 1900 and 1910, a period of great unrest occurred in Montana and the rest of the western United States, as the Land Acts took effect and Reservations were opened up to white settlement. Rocky Boy was instrumental in keeping the peace. That may likely be his main legacy. He died on April 18, 1916, at the age of 64 or 65.<ref>{{cite web|title=Rocky Boy's Reservation Timeline Chippewa and Cree Tribes|url=http://www.opi.mt.gov/pdf/IndianEd/IEFA/RockyBoyTimeline.pdf|publisher=Indian Education: Montana Office of Public Instruction |date=March 2010 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170101234550/http://www.opi.mt.gov/pdf/IndianEd/IEFA/RockyBoyTimeline.pdf |archive-date= January 1, 2017}}</ref>

*[{{cite web |url= https://www.geni.com/people/Chief-Bobtail-Bobtail/6000000040817255971?through=6000000082527481866 |title= Chief Bobtail aka Alexis Piche Bobtail (father of Rocky Boy) |publisher= [[Geni.com]] |access-date= March 20, 2022}}

[[Category:OjibweChippewa inCree Montanapeople]]