Little Shell Band of Chippewa Indians
Encyclopedia
The Little Shell Band of Chippewa Native Americans was an Anishinaabe
(Ojibwe) tribe, 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 and, since July 29 2011, federally recognized 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 until the summer of 2011.
In 2001, a North Dakota resident named Ronald Karyance Delorme, claiming to be the hereditary chief of the "Little Shell Band of Native Americans 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.
At some point during these unsuccessful legal battles, Delorme transformed the Little Shell Band into a sovereign citizen
group. Its ideology was not new to the region: sovereign citizens had been active in North Dakota, where Delorme and his extended family lived, dating back to the 1980s, when Posse Comitatus
leader Gordon Kahl
ambushed and killed two federal marshals in Medina, North Dakota
in 1983.
By 2004 the Little Shell Band claimed to be a "completely sovereign tribe" that held "allodial title
" to over 53 million acres (214,483.6 km²) of land (this figure was later increased to 62 million). Saying it no longer sought federal recognition, the group declared its own executive, legislative and judicial powers, bestowing on itself the right to establish a legal bar and "tribal lawyers" as well as a "sovereign tribal financial and banking institution."
Perhaps most importantly, the "new" version of the Little Shell Band allowed anyone, regardless of ancestry, to become a member of the group, opening the door for a variety of anti-government figures to join (for a fee) and claim membership in the sovereign Little Shell Band. As a result, Little Shell Band activity spread around the country.
The Little Shell Band has more than 60 documented members, with probably at least a hundred more not yet identified. People have joined from around the country, with larger numbers in North Dakota, the Pacific Northwest and Southern California. The members are an eclectic collection of anti-government activists, including:
The Delorme family. Ronald Delorme and his family began the Little Shell Band and continue to play an extremely important role. Among the family members identified with the group are Dallas Delorme (Grand Council member), Leo Delorme (Grand Council Chairman), Glen Delorme (Grand Council member), Keith Delorme (Administrative Officer) and Vincent Delorme (Grand Council).
The family is not unified, however. In April 2004, Ronald Delorme and Leo Delorme mutually expelled each other, as well as various followers, thereby creating separate factions of the group, each with its own Web page and each claiming to be the "real" Little Shell Band.
Ronald Brakke (Tribal Spokesman). Brakke is a long-time sovereign citizen activist from North Dakota. According to a colleague, he is an "expert on banking, credit, mortgage and entitlement." During the 1980s, Brakke, once a farmer, was involved with Posse Comitatus-style groups that promoted fictitious financial instruments, bogus trusts and similar schemes. In 1991, he was convicted for theft after harvesting crops on property owned by a bank.
William McNamara
(Director of Public Relations). One of the more unusual characters in the Little Shell saga, William McNamara is a Hollywood television and film actor who has played in films alongside well-known stars ranging from Bette Midler to Jeff Bridges to Sigourney Weaver and Holly Hunter. McNamara is also a dedicated sovereign citizen, involved with the Law Research Group and tied to other anti-government organizations such as the Erwin Rommel School of Law. Along with Brakke, Leo Delorme, and Navin Naidu (see below), he has offered seminars in Hollywood about the Little Shell Band, which purport to explain how "members of the band can use a quit claim to offset potential foreclosure."
Navin Naidu (Circuit Court Judge and Finance/Economic Advisor). Naidu is perhaps the strangest Little Shell character of all. He first achieved notoriety when he appeared in Fiji
in 2001 as the lawyer for George Speight
, a former insurance salesman who had spearheaded an unsuccessful coup d'état and was subsequently charged with treason. When the Fiji government checked Naidu's qualifications, it discovered that his University of London law certificate was spurious, as was his claim to be practicing at the "International Ecclesiastical Law Offices" in Seattle, which turned out to be non-existent. Naidu, a Singapore
-born ethnic East Indian and U.S. resident, admitted that he had no license to practice law in the U.S. but that his credentials came from "Jesus." Naidu was arrested and later deported. Back in the United States, Naidu moved to Kent, Washington, where he identified himself as an "ecclesiastical lawyer" and began devising plans to create a church court that could marry or divorce people and even decide criminal cases.
John Lloyd Kirk (Clerk; Tribal Lawyer). A Tukwila, Washington
sovereign citizen and anti-Semite and a friend of Montana Freeman Leroy Schweitzer, Kirk was one of a group of seven Washington sovereign citizens and militia members arrested in 1997 on a variety of weapons and explosives charges. Convicted of possession of a pipe bomb
and conspiracy to possess and make destructive devices, Kirk received a 46-month prison sentence. It was not his first conviction: in 1980, according to author Jane Kramer, he had been found guilty of statutory rape
in an incident involving his daughters.
Kenneth "Keny" Wayne Leaming (Tribal Prosecuting Attorney). Leaming, a self-described "recognized international lawyer" and "Attorney in Fact" is a Spanaway, Washington-based former deputy sheriff and member of the Civil Rights Task Force, a sovereign citizen group that has used badges and raid jackets to resemble law enforcement officers. His CRTF partner, David Carroll Stephenson, was ordered by a federal court in March 2004 to stop promoting an alleged tax scam that allowed people to avoid an estimated $43 million in federal income taxes.
Allen "White Eagle Soaring" Heart. The entrepreneurial Heart and his partner Kay Ekwall operate the Seventh Fire Web site, where they market a wide variety of items, including "authentic Ojibwe dream catchers," alternative health products and bogus mortgage elimination schemes. The site also provides a variety of Holocaust denial and anti-Semitic essays, such as "How Thieves Corrupted the Bible by Adding the Zionist State of Israel for Christians to Worship."
Michael Howard Reed. Self-proclaimed "Attorney General" of the Little Shell. He works with the company "Gold Quest International", which has been the target of SEC fraud investigations.
"Rebellion" described in Joseph Kinsey Howard
's "Strange Empire." Riel and some of his lieutenants were captured and executed for treason by the Canadian (British) army and legal system. See Trial of Louis Riel
.
Offering bogus insurance. One of the earliest activities of the Little Shell Band was to offer insurance under the guise of the "Little Shell Pembina Band of North America Assurance Company" (and other names). Despite lacking licenses and certificates of authority, the Little Shell Band offered applications for auto and homeowners "assurance" that would replace existing insurance policies, according to North Dakota officials, who issued a cease and desist order against Ronald Delorme and others in 2003. In June 2003, the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation ordered the First Actual American Insurance Company, Ronald Delorme and Zachary Betts of California to stop marketing malpractice insurance. According to Florida regulators, the company claimed it had authority through the Little Shell Band and was faxing sales materials to doctors throughout Florida.
Similar cease and desist orders soon followed from Missouri, Oregon, Ohio, New York, Washington and Georgia, naming Delorme, the First Actual American Insurance Company and a variety of other individuals. In July 2004, Leo Delorme ordered the expulsion of Ronald Delorme and various other members for allegedly "preparing and carrying out a liability insurance scheme for the purpose of defrauding doctors."
Evading taxes. In May 2004, Donald Donovan of Seaford, Delaware, was sentenced to three years in prison and fined following a four-count conviction on tax evasion
charges. Donavan, who failed to pay almost $100,000 in federal income taxes over several years, claimed, among other things, that because he was a member of the Little Shell band, he should be exempted from paying taxes. Other Little Shell members made similar claims.
In June 2004, the IRS sent Ronald Delorme a letter complaining that Little Shell Band identification cards described holders as exempt from federal income taxes. Delorme maintained that the issuers of the cards had been expelled from the Little Shell Band (according to a notice on Delorme's Web site, those involved were Ronald Brakke, William McNamara, Randy Peterson, and John Sheridan). On one online forum, a Little Shell member claimed in July 2004 that he showed his new employers such a card and they stopped withholding taxes on his salary; he also claimed to use it to avoid paying sales tax
at stores like Wal-Mart
.
Anishinaabe
Anishinaabe or Anishinabe—or more properly Anishinaabeg or Anishinabek, which is the plural form of the word—is the autonym often used by the Odawa, Ojibwe, and Algonquin peoples. They all speak closely related Anishinaabemowin/Anishinaabe languages, of the Algonquian language family.The meaning...
(Ojibwe) tribe, The Little Shell Band did, in fact, once exist as a branch of the Chippewa on the northern Great Plains
Great Plains
The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, which lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S...
in the 19th century. Most were pushed westward out of Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
and North Dakota
North Dakota
North Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, along the Canadian border. The state is bordered by Canada to the north, Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the south and Montana to the west. North Dakota is the 19th-largest state by area in the U.S....
to Montana
Montana
Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
. Today there is a Little Shell Band of Montana, a legitimate and, since July 29 2011, federally recognized 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
Pembina River
Pembina River can refer to:*Pembina River , a river in southern Manitoba, Canada and northern North Dakota, United States*Pembina River , a river in central Alberta, Canada...
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 until the summer of 2011.
In 2001, a North Dakota resident named Ronald Karyance Delorme, claiming to be the hereditary chief of the "Little Shell Band of Native Americans 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
Thomas Little Shell
Thomas Little Shell , was a chief of the Ojibwa tribe of indigenous Americans.-1850s to 1870s:...
'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.
At some point during these unsuccessful legal battles, Delorme transformed the Little Shell Band into a sovereign citizen
Sovereign citizen movement
The sovereign citizen movement is a loose network of American litigants, commentators and financial scheme promoters, classified as an "extremist anti-government group" by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation....
group. Its ideology was not new to the region: sovereign citizens had been active in North Dakota, where Delorme and his extended family lived, dating back to the 1980s, when Posse Comitatus
Posse comitatus
Posse comitatus may refer to:* Posse comitatus , the authority of a law officer to conscript any able-bodied males to assist him* Posse Comitatus , a loosely organized far right social movement that opposes the United States federal government and believes in localism* "Posse Comitatus", a...
leader Gordon Kahl
Gordon Kahl
Gordon Wendell Kahl is best known for his involvement in two fatal shootouts with law enforcement officers in the United States in 1983....
ambushed and killed two federal marshals in Medina, North Dakota
Medina, North Dakota
As of the census of 2000, there were 335 people, 165 households, and 99 families residing in the city. The population density was 331.3 people per square mile . There were 209 housing units at an average density of 206.7 per square mile . The racial makeup of the city was 99.40% White, and 0.60%...
in 1983.
By 2004 the Little Shell Band claimed to be a "completely sovereign tribe" that held "allodial title
Allodial title
Allodial title constitutes ownership of real property that is independent of any superior landlord, but it should not be confused with anarchy as the owner of allodial land is not independent of his sovereign...
" to over 53 million acres (214,483.6 km²) of land (this figure was later increased to 62 million). Saying it no longer sought federal recognition, the group declared its own executive, legislative and judicial powers, bestowing on itself the right to establish a legal bar and "tribal lawyers" as well as a "sovereign tribal financial and banking institution."
Perhaps most importantly, the "new" version of the Little Shell Band allowed anyone, regardless of ancestry, to become a member of the group, opening the door for a variety of anti-government figures to join (for a fee) and claim membership in the sovereign Little Shell Band. As a result, Little Shell Band activity spread around the country.
| Chief Esens |
Prominent militia members
In the 1960s lineal descendant Thomas Little Shell (Ayabiwewidang) died leaving no heirs and the tribal counsel then chose a great grandson of Accoquay to take over the tribe, Accoquay was also a signer of the 1863 treaty. The elected grandson was Louie Delorme and until recently the Delorme family still headed the tribe.The Little Shell Band has more than 60 documented members, with probably at least a hundred more not yet identified. People have joined from around the country, with larger numbers in North Dakota, the Pacific Northwest and Southern California. The members are an eclectic collection of anti-government activists, including:
The Delorme family. Ronald Delorme and his family began the Little Shell Band and continue to play an extremely important role. Among the family members identified with the group are Dallas Delorme (Grand Council member), Leo Delorme (Grand Council Chairman), Glen Delorme (Grand Council member), Keith Delorme (Administrative Officer) and Vincent Delorme (Grand Council).
The family is not unified, however. In April 2004, Ronald Delorme and Leo Delorme mutually expelled each other, as well as various followers, thereby creating separate factions of the group, each with its own Web page and each claiming to be the "real" Little Shell Band.
Ronald Brakke (Tribal Spokesman). Brakke is a long-time sovereign citizen activist from North Dakota. According to a colleague, he is an "expert on banking, credit, mortgage and entitlement." During the 1980s, Brakke, once a farmer, was involved with Posse Comitatus-style groups that promoted fictitious financial instruments, bogus trusts and similar schemes. In 1991, he was convicted for theft after harvesting crops on property owned by a bank.
William McNamara
William McNamara
William West McNamara is an American actor.-Early life:Born in Dallas, Texas, McNamara is the son of a professional race car driver for the Ford Motor Company and an interior designer. He attended Columbia University and studied at the Lee Strasberg Institute...
(Director of Public Relations). One of the more unusual characters in the Little Shell saga, William McNamara is a Hollywood television and film actor who has played in films alongside well-known stars ranging from Bette Midler to Jeff Bridges to Sigourney Weaver and Holly Hunter. McNamara is also a dedicated sovereign citizen, involved with the Law Research Group and tied to other anti-government organizations such as the Erwin Rommel School of Law. Along with Brakke, Leo Delorme, and Navin Naidu (see below), he has offered seminars in Hollywood about the Little Shell Band, which purport to explain how "members of the band can use a quit claim to offset potential foreclosure."
Navin Naidu (Circuit Court Judge and Finance/Economic Advisor). Naidu is perhaps the strangest Little Shell character of all. He first achieved notoriety when he appeared in Fiji
Fiji
Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...
in 2001 as the lawyer for George Speight
George Speight
George Speight , occasionally known as Ilikimi Naitini, was the principal instigator of the Fiji coup of 2000, in which he kidnapped thirty-six government officials and held them from May 19, 2000 to July 13, 2000...
, a former insurance salesman who had spearheaded an unsuccessful coup d'état and was subsequently charged with treason. When the Fiji government checked Naidu's qualifications, it discovered that his University of London law certificate was spurious, as was his claim to be practicing at the "International Ecclesiastical Law Offices" in Seattle, which turned out to be non-existent. Naidu, a Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
-born ethnic East Indian and U.S. resident, admitted that he had no license to practice law in the U.S. but that his credentials came from "Jesus." Naidu was arrested and later deported. Back in the United States, Naidu moved to Kent, Washington, where he identified himself as an "ecclesiastical lawyer" and began devising plans to create a church court that could marry or divorce people and even decide criminal cases.
John Lloyd Kirk (Clerk; Tribal Lawyer). A Tukwila, Washington
Tukwila, Washington
Tukwila is a city in King County, Washington, United States. The northern edge of Tukwila borders the city of Seattle. The population was 19,107 at the 2010 census.-History:...
sovereign citizen and anti-Semite and a friend of Montana Freeman Leroy Schweitzer, Kirk was one of a group of seven Washington sovereign citizens and militia members arrested in 1997 on a variety of weapons and explosives charges. Convicted of possession of a pipe bomb
Pipe bomb
A pipe bomb is an improvised explosive device, a tightly sealed section of pipe filled with an explosive material. The containment provided by the pipe means that simple low explosives can be used to produce a relatively large explosion, and the fragmentation of the pipe itself creates potentially...
and conspiracy to possess and make destructive devices, Kirk received a 46-month prison sentence. It was not his first conviction: in 1980, according to author Jane Kramer, he had been found guilty of statutory rape
Statutory rape
The phrase statutory rape is a term used in some legal jurisdictions to describe sexual activities where one participant is below the age required to legally consent to the behavior...
in an incident involving his daughters.
Kenneth "Keny" Wayne Leaming (Tribal Prosecuting Attorney). Leaming, a self-described "recognized international lawyer" and "Attorney in Fact" is a Spanaway, Washington-based former deputy sheriff and member of the Civil Rights Task Force, a sovereign citizen group that has used badges and raid jackets to resemble law enforcement officers. His CRTF partner, David Carroll Stephenson, was ordered by a federal court in March 2004 to stop promoting an alleged tax scam that allowed people to avoid an estimated $43 million in federal income taxes.
Allen "White Eagle Soaring" Heart. The entrepreneurial Heart and his partner Kay Ekwall operate the Seventh Fire Web site, where they market a wide variety of items, including "authentic Ojibwe dream catchers," alternative health products and bogus mortgage elimination schemes. The site also provides a variety of Holocaust denial and anti-Semitic essays, such as "How Thieves Corrupted the Bible by Adding the Zionist State of Israel for Christians to Worship."
Michael Howard Reed. Self-proclaimed "Attorney General" of the Little Shell. He works with the company "Gold Quest International", which has been the target of SEC fraud investigations.
Successors apparent
Currently there are at least 3 recognized tribal units that claim the name Little Shell Band of Chippewa Native Americans. Of the three, only the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Native Americans of Montana are recognized by the State of Montana and they are the only members of the original Little Shell band currently seeking Federal recognition. They are distinct from the Delorme "Little Shell Pembina Band" identified in the ADL materials. The Montana Ojibwe have been well-established for more than a century, and were associated with the Louis RielLouis Riel
Louis David Riel was a Canadian politician, a founder of the province of Manitoba, and a political and spiritual leader of the Métis people of the Canadian prairies. He led two resistance movements against the Canadian government and its first post-Confederation Prime Minister, Sir John A....
"Rebellion" described in Joseph Kinsey Howard
Joseph Kinsey Howard
Joseph Kinsey Howard was an American journalist, historian, and author, who wrote extensively about the history, culture, and economic circumstances of Montana...
's "Strange Empire." Riel and some of his lieutenants were captured and executed for treason by the Canadian (British) army and legal system. See Trial of Louis Riel
Trial of Louis Riel
The Trial of Louis Riel is arguably the most famous trial in the history of Canada. In 1885, Louis Riel had been a leader of a resistance movement by the Métis and First Nations people of western Canada against the Canadian government in what is now the modern province of Saskatchewan...
.
Militia activities
Using bogus license plates and driving documents.Little Shell license plates have been spotted around the country by law enforcement officials. In July 2003, for example, five residents of Barnes County, North Dakota, were arrested after being caught with fake drivers licenses, registrations and insurance cards issued by the Little Shell Band. The license plates look realistic and may easily be confused with legitimate tribal license plates.Offering bogus insurance. One of the earliest activities of the Little Shell Band was to offer insurance under the guise of the "Little Shell Pembina Band of North America Assurance Company" (and other names). Despite lacking licenses and certificates of authority, the Little Shell Band offered applications for auto and homeowners "assurance" that would replace existing insurance policies, according to North Dakota officials, who issued a cease and desist order against Ronald Delorme and others in 2003. In June 2003, the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation ordered the First Actual American Insurance Company, Ronald Delorme and Zachary Betts of California to stop marketing malpractice insurance. According to Florida regulators, the company claimed it had authority through the Little Shell Band and was faxing sales materials to doctors throughout Florida.
Similar cease and desist orders soon followed from Missouri, Oregon, Ohio, New York, Washington and Georgia, naming Delorme, the First Actual American Insurance Company and a variety of other individuals. In July 2004, Leo Delorme ordered the expulsion of Ronald Delorme and various other members for allegedly "preparing and carrying out a liability insurance scheme for the purpose of defrauding doctors."
Evading taxes. In May 2004, Donald Donovan of Seaford, Delaware, was sentenced to three years in prison and fined following a four-count conviction on tax evasion
Tax evasion
Tax evasion is the general term for efforts by individuals, corporations, trusts and other entities to evade taxes by illegal means. Tax evasion usually entails taxpayers deliberately misrepresenting or concealing the true state of their affairs to the tax authorities to reduce their tax liability,...
charges. Donavan, who failed to pay almost $100,000 in federal income taxes over several years, claimed, among other things, that because he was a member of the Little Shell band, he should be exempted from paying taxes. Other Little Shell members made similar claims.
In June 2004, the IRS sent Ronald Delorme a letter complaining that Little Shell Band identification cards described holders as exempt from federal income taxes. Delorme maintained that the issuers of the cards had been expelled from the Little Shell Band (according to a notice on Delorme's Web site, those involved were Ronald Brakke, William McNamara, Randy Peterson, and John Sheridan). On one online forum, a Little Shell member claimed in July 2004 that he showed his new employers such a card and they stopped withholding taxes on his salary; he also claimed to use it to avoid paying sales tax
Sales tax
A sales tax is a tax, usually paid by the consumer at the point of purchase, itemized separately from the base price, for certain goods and services. The tax amount is usually calculated by applying a percentage rate to the taxable price of a sale....
at stores like Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. , branded as Walmart since 2008 and Wal-Mart before then, is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000...
.
External links
- Official Site Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Native AmericansTurtle Mountain Band of Chippewa IndiansThe Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians is a Native American tribe of Ojibwa and Métis peoples, based on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in Belcourt, North Dakota. The tribe has 30,000 enrolled members...
Federally recognized Tribe - Official Site Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Native Americans of Montana Recognized by the State of Montana but not yet a Federally Recognized Tribe, there is now a case before Bureau of Indian Affairs after gaining Preliminary Recognition in 2001.
- Tribal Member Site Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Native Americans of Montana Main Tribal Member website.
- Anti-Defamation League's report