"The Whole Country was... 'One Robe'": The Little Shell Tribe's America

A Powerful Story of Resilience, Identity, and Survival

Discover the remarkable history of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians in this deeply researched and beautifully written account of one of North America's least-known Indigenous sovereign nations. "The Whole Country was... 'One Robe'": The Little Shell Tribe's America traces the Métis and Little Shell people's enduring fight for land, recognition, and cultural survival across generations.

Featuring rich historical insight, powerful storytelling, and a foreword by Montana Poet Laureate Chris La Tray, this clothbound edition brings renewed attention to a story that helped shape the American West.

• The Little Shell Tribe's century-long fight for federal recognition and treaty rights
• The powerful role of Métis culture in shaping the Northern Plains and American West
• Deep exploration of Indigenous resilience, identity, family, and homeland
• Extensive research by historian and folklorist Nicholas C. P. Vrooman
• A beautiful clothbound edition ideal for readers of Native American, Métis, and Western history

"One of the most poignant, tragic, beautiful stories in human history."
—Krys Holmes, Executive Director, Montana Arts Council and author of Montana: Stories of the Land

Perfect for readers interested in Indigenous history, Native American studies, Métis culture, Montana history, and the complex stories of the Northern Plains.

Nicholas Vrooman came to Montana as a ranch hand in 1976. Through the 1980s and 1990s, he was intimately involved in the development of the Northern Plains Indian Art Market. He was first State Folklorist of North Dakota, Dakota Field Representative for ArtsMidwest (a regional consortium of state arts agencies), and Montana's second State Folklorist. He created the Traditional Arts Residency and Master/Apprenticeship Programs for both the North Dakota Council on the Arts and the Montana Arts Council. As well, he has worked as the Nevada Arts Council Folklorist for Indian Traditional Arts, Program Manager of Educational Talent Search in Indian Country for the Montana Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education, and visiting professor of Native American Studies at The University of Montana. He also served as Executive Director of the Helena Indian Alliance, an urban Indian center, continuing his involvement with issues of Northern Plains Indian cultural resiliency.

Vrooman has worked with tribal peoples throughout the American and Canadian West to produce sound recordings, documentary films, performances, publications, conferences, ceremonies, and festivals highlighting Aboriginal culture. In 1994, Vrooman produced, for Smithsonian Folkway Records, the compact disc, Plains Chippewa/Métis Music from Turtle Mountain, and was a principal essayist and image editor for the 2001 benchmark Aboriginal publication, Métis Legacy: An Historiography and Annotated Bibliography, for Pemmican Publications, Louis Riel Institute (Winnipeg), and Gabriel Dumont Institute (Saskatoon). In 2010, he received his doctorate in history from The University of Montana, with the dissertation, "Infinity Nation: The Métis in North American History."

Nicholas' previous books include Songs for Asking: Perspectives on Traditional Culture Among Nevada Indians and M-é Ećci Aashi Awadi: The Knife River Indian Villages (with Noelle Sullivan). He also contributed the new authoritative introduction to the reissue, by Minnesota Historical Society Press, of Joseph Kinsey Howard's magisterial 1952 history of Louis Riel and the Métis, Strange Empire: A Narrative of the Northwest.

Chris La Tray is a Métis storyteller, a descendant of the Pembina Band of the mighty Red River of the North, and an enrolled member of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians. He writes the weekly newsletter "An Irritable Métis" and lives near Frenchtown, Montana. He is the Montana Poet Laureate for 2023–2025.