Frank Bird Linderman

Frank Bird Linderman (September 25, 1869 – May 12, 1938) was a Montana writer, politician, Native American ally and ethnographer.For instance, he supported establishment of the Rocky Boy Indian Reservation in 1916 in Montana for landless Ojibwe (Chippewa) and Cree, and continued as an advocate for Native Americans to his death.Linderman worked at various jobs throughout his life: as a fur trapper, then an assayer, and later an agent for Guardian Insurance of America.[1] In 1885, at the age of sixteen, he moved to the Swan Valley of Montana Territory in search of "the most unspoiled wilderness I could discover.Stearne Blake, part owner of the mine, asked him to take over bookkeeping and to assay silver and lead ore. Linderman promptly ordered books and taught himself to do these jobs.[8] Around 1900, the Linderman family moved to Sheridan, Montana, where Frank worked several jobs, as an assayer, furniture salesman, and newspaperman.Jeannette Rankin, who was born in the state and worked for women's suffrage, gained the second-highest number of votes and won a seat.Believing that native peoples should be protected, he became an advocate with the government for Chief Rocky Boy, who had a Chippewa band and was seeking to gain a reservation.Linderman used his network of prominent whites, including other politicians and painter Charles M. Russell, to lobby Congress to set up a reservation for the Chippewa band.He wrote as much in a letter to a friend, "I feel it a duty to, in some way, preserve the old West, especially Montana, in printer's ink, and if I can only accomplish a small part of that, I shall die contented."
Men work at the Butte and Boston Smelter, 1910. Linderman worked here as assayer between 1893 and 1897.
Frank Bird Linderman poses in front of his Thunder Lodge. The lodge was painted for him by Mrs. Running Rabbit and Mrs. Buffalo Body.
Linderman poses with his friend Charles Marion Russell at the Linderman house in Helena, 1913.
Cleveland, OhioNative AmericanPlains IndiansRocky Boy Indian ReservationOjibweMontana LegislatureCharles Marion RussellClevelandIllinoisOberlin CollegeMontana TerritorySalishKootenaiFlathead LakePlains Indian sign languageKalispellRavalli CountySheridan, MontanaMadison County, MontanaHelenaGermania Life Insurance Companyat-largeJeannette RankinUnited States SenateDemocraticThomas J. WalshRepublicanWellington D. RankinAttorney General of MontanaChippewaRocky BoyCharles M. RussellRocky Boy's Indian ReservationJohn CollierBureau of Indian AffairsIndian Reorganization ActCharles Scribner's SonsPretty ShieldPlenty CoupsRobert LowieProject GutenbergInternet ArchiveFrank Bird Linderman HouseLake County, MontanaNational Register of Historic PlacesHall of Great WesternersNational Cowboy & Western Heritage MuseumWayback MachineLibriVoxU.S. SenatorMontanaClass 2