The 1866-1877 Anishinabe-American War

After the American Civil War ended in 1865, the Americans focused their attentions on the Iron Confederation of Montana. They had already launched an invasion into Montana in 1862 after gold and silver were discovered in southwestern Montana. That white invasion into southwestern Montana led to the Anishinabe and their allies waging a war on the invading whites in southwestern Montana. In two years of Anishinabe raids hundreds of white settlers were killed. During this time period (1862-1863) the United States was at war with itself so they were not capable of defending the white settlers in Montana.

That all changed in 1865. In 1866, the Americans were granted permission by the Lakota tribes of Nebraska and southern South Dakota, to use the Black Hills as a starting off location to launch a series of military campaigns against the Anishinabe and their Arapaho, Arikara, Assiniboine, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Crow, Hidatsa and Mandan allies. They singled out the region between the Bighorn Mountains and Black Hills of Wyoming, to wage a war against the Iron Confederation. After two years of fighting a ceasefire was agreed upon. The Americans first used their machine guns against the Anishinabe of Montana during the so called 1866-1867 Red Cloud War.

By 1876, the Americans could no longer wait and once again made the decision to wage war against the Iron Confederation who were not willing to peacefully cede their land. In the American war plans, they singled out village locations of the Anishinabe and their allies, to attack them in order to force them to cede their land. The Lakota or Dakota tribes, did not participate in the so called Black Hills War of 1876-1877, but it was the Nakota tribes, including the Arikara, Assiniboine, Crow, Hidatsa and Mandan who joined with the Anishinabe, Arapaho, Blackfoot and Cheyenne to fight the invading Americans. The most famous battle of that war was the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Other battles include the Battle of Big Hole and the Battle of Bear Paw, which was the last battle of the war, and was fought at, or near, the present day Rocky Boy Chippewa Reservation of Montana. After defeating the Anishinabek and their allies, the Americans left the Anishinabek and their allies, with the huge Turtle Mountain Reservation.

Though at the present time the United States will not admit it, it is true however. Ogima Little Shell obviously agreed to surrender if the United States left them with a Reservation that was over 10 million acres. That Reservation includes the Crow Reservation, the Fort Belknap Reservation, the Fort Berthold Reservation, the Fort Peck Reservation, the Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Reservation, the Northern Cheyenne Reservation, the small Turtle Mountain Reservation and the Spirit Lake Reservation. Two other Reservations which may have been a part of ogima Little Shells Reservation, are the White Earth Reservation and the Wind River Reservation. In the so called 1892 ten cent treaty, the Americans have tried to make it look like the Anishinabe leader Little Shell, still controlled over 60 million acres and was willing to cede his land in exchange for that over 10 million acre Reservation and one dallar an acre. However, the failed 1892 Little Shell treaty was obviously over land allotments and nothing else. Ogima Little Shell refused to accept land allotments and the Americans then refused to recognize ogima Little Shell and his people. Many Anishinabek who continued to obey ogima Little Shell were forced off the Reservations they were granted by the United States. Those Anishinabek who continued to live on those above mentioned Reservations, accepted land allotments and were forced to lose their identity by the evil Americans.