Little Shell

Thomas Little Shell (c.1830-1901) (also known in Ojibwe as Esens ("Little Shell" or "Little Clam") and recorded as Ase-anse or Es-sence), was a chief of a band of the Ojibwa (Chippewa) tribe in the second half of the nineteenth century, when the Anishinaabeg (Ojibwa peoples) had a vast territory ranging from southwestern Canada into the northern tier of the United States, from the Dakotas and into Montana.

The Little Shell Band of Chippewa Indians was never assigned a reservation in the United States, so has sometimes been called the "Landless Indians of Montana." It is not recognized as a tribe by the federal government. It has been recognized as a tribe by the state of Montana.

During the 1850s, the United States (US) began to negotiate with the Anishinaabeg of North Dakota to get them to cede their land in exchange for payment and settlement on a reservation. The US agents infuriated the Pembina by saying that, as many of its members had European as well as Chippewa ancestry, they were not truly Anishinaabeg.

Much earlier, probably during the mid or early 18th century, the Anishinaabeg began to migrate into the Great Plains of Canada and the United States from their historic territory around the Great Lakes, partly in response to encroachment by Europeans and Americans. By the time Canadian and United States immigrants made their first permanent settlements in the Pembina and Saulteaux lands on the plains, the Ojibwe territory had advanced to southeastern Alberta and much of present-day Montana.

Little Shell (b.c.1830 - d. 1901) was one of the Anishinaabe signatories of the 1863 Treaty of Old Crossing, which ceded Anishinaabe land in Minnesota and North Dakota. In 1864 he refused to negotiate with the United States further about ceding more land. For almost another 30 years, Little Shell refused to negotiate with the United States over land. Together the Anishinaabeg occupied an area of over 63,000,000 acres (250,000 km²). Much of that land was in North Dakota and South Dakota, but also included Pembina land in Montana, which may have reached all the way to the Rocky Mountains.

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