http://www.adl.org/Learn/Ext_US/Little_Shell.asp?LEARN_Cat=Extremism&LEARN_SubCat=Extremism_in_America&xpicked=3&item=little_shellLittle Shell Pembina Band
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Law enforcement officers and public officials around the country are
encountering members of a new and active anti-government extremist group
that calls itself the "Little Shell Pembina Band of North America." Members
of the group claim that they belong to a "sovereign" Native American tribe
and therefore are not subject to laws and regulations; in reality, the
"Little Shell Pembina Band" is part of the anti-government "sovereign
citizen" movement. Its members' activities range from driving with bogus
license plates to perpetrating insurance fraud schemes to tax evasion.
Origins
Members
Activities and Tactics
Updates
Founder: Ronald Delorme
Based: Primarily in North Dakota and Washington, but members can be found
across the nation.
Splinter Group: The group has split into two competing factions, each using
the same name.
Media: Internet, videos, seminars, fax solicitations Approach: Claims to be
a sovereign Native American tribe and not subject to the laws of the United
States.
Ideology: Anti-government and sovereign citizen; members may also belong to
a wide variety of sovereign citizen, militia, or white supremacist groups.
Origins
The origins of the Little Shell Band (named after a Chief Little Shell, who
died in 1901) have a kernel of truth. The Little Shell Band did, in fact,
once exist as a branch of the Chippewa on the northern Great Plains in the
19th century. Most were pushed westward out of Minnesota and North Dakota to
Montana. Today there is a Little Shell Band of Montana, a legitimate
although federally unrecognized Native American tribe. It has no connections
to extremism or to the Little Shell Pembina Band of North America. (Pembina
refers to the area around the Pembina River in northeastern North Dakota).
In the 20th century, a variety of Chippewa factions launched lawsuits for
federal recognition and funds. In these competing suits, one group
identified itself as the "Little Shell of North Dakota" but never achieved
recognition.
In 2001, a North Dakota resident named Ronald Karyance Delorme, claiming to
be the hereditary chief of the "Little Shell Band of Indians of North
America," filed a federal lawsuit that sought recognition as well as funds
from appropriations statutes pertaining to Chippewa land claims. According
to the legal argument prepared by Delorme's attorney, the funds (including
interest) amounted to more than a hundred million dollars.
Describing himself as the great-grandson of Auguhk Qway, one of Chief Little
Shell's Grand Council members, Delorme had fought with other Chippewa groups
over these claims for years (despite a 1993 Native American newspaper report
that his Little Shell Band consisted primarily of his family). Ultimately,
the courts saw little merit in Delorme's arguments and refused to
acknowledge a connection between his group and the Chippewas who had
previously fought for recognition.
