Chippewa-Cree Indians


The Chippewa and Cree have come from two powerful nations of the American Continent. Each Tribe has come together to form the present day Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation, and are collectively referred to as Chippewa-Cree Indians.

The Chippewa-Cree Indian Tribe is a single entity in today’s world, but is a combination of portions of the Chippewa Tribe and the Cree Tribe.

The Chippewa or Ojibway Indians are one of the largest groups of American Indians in North America. There are nearly 150 different bands of Chippewa in the northern part of the United States and in southern Canada (especially in Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan).

The ancestors of the Chippewa portion of the Chippewa-Cree migrated from the Turtle Mountain area of North Dakota in the late 1800s.
The Cree nation is the largest group in Canada.

That tribe had two divisions; Woodland Cree and Plains Cree. A small portion of this very large First Nation in Canada migrated south out of Canada, into North Dakota and Montana, in the late 1800s.

With them came some of the Metis, descendants of Louis Riel.
These two groups of the Chippewa and the Cree united in the 1890’s and looked for a permanent home.

At various times, all or part of them lived placed under the jurisdiction of the Blackfeet, Flathead, and Fort Belknap Indian Agencies.

During the early 1900’s the tribes petitioned the government for a reservation, and in 1916 the Rocky Boy Reservation was established for the Chippewa-Cree Indians.

Under the Indian Reorganization Act, the Chippewa-Cree organized themselves under their Constitution and Bylaws as the Chippewa-Cree Indians of the Rocky Boy’s Reservation, Montana. Their Constitution was adopted in 1935 and amended in 1973.

Famous Chippewa