The Turtle Mountain band of Chippewa Indians petitioned for land claims in 1955. Records consist of general correspondence, legal documents, council minutes, a history of the movement, a petition to the Indian Claims Commission, and clippings. Also included are statements of birth and residence of individuals claiming tribal membership. (MF 87)

The Turtle Mountain band of Chippewa Indians petitioned for land claims in 1935 and in 1951. Records consist of materials submitted to the U.S. Senate's Indian Affairs Committee in 1935 in support of their claims; and a petition and evidence submitted in 1951 before the Indian Claims Commission. (MF 66c)

According to author Roland Marmon, "the Turtle Mountain Chippewa are the most prominent of the Plains Chippewa tribes in America with a membership of nearly eighty thousand people. The Turtle Mountain Chippewa were also affiliated with the ethnically European and Indian mixed Métis people, who constitute the largest Indigenous group in Canada, and were caught between national identities and Canadian and United States Federal policy." These Chippewa records have been transcribed from the National Archives microfilm M-595, Roll 604: Indian Census Rolls 1885-1940, (Turtle Mountain) Chippewa Indians 1932 with Birth and Death Rolls, 1924-1932. The original 1932 census was typed using a columnar set form with labels at the top of each column. This transcription has been revised using semicolons to separate each column due to size. Persons named in the 1932 Chippewa census are identified by name, census number, sex, age, relationship to head of household, degree of blood, marital status, residence, and allotment, annuity, and identification numbers. Each census, in the original, is in alphabetical order but in a few instances a name has been inserted that disrupts the sequence and has created the need for a limited index in the back of the book. The records of births and deaths, which follow the 1932 census transcriptions, are arranged chronologically and thereunder alphabetically by surname. Each person born or deceased within a particular year is identified by date of birth, sex, ward (yes/no), degree of blood, and where enrolled in the tribe. In all cases the author has been careful to copy the names and dates exactly as indicated on these microfilm records.

"The author of this historical account is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, and served as Tribal Chairman from July 1953, until January 1959. The contents of this historical account are compiled from various records of history, official government reports, studies of anthropology, handed down stories and personal observations."--Introduction.