In the years preceding the establishment of the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation, the people traveled extensively throughout the Great Plains, a free people, roaming the land, following the valued buffalo herds. The Pembina Chippewa and Metis/Michif had adapted the buffalo hunting culture, while also maintaining a semi-sedentary lifestyle. It was believed that as long as the buffalo herds existed, the people maintained self-sufficiency, their independence all but guaranteed.

For years, the Pembina Chippewa and Metis/Michif moved with the herds, traveling very slowly until they came to a place near where the buffalo were feeding. Camp was made by unloading carts and constructing a hide tipi. A corral was fashioned from the carts to wrangle their horses at night, ensuring they wouldn’t stray away. A hunt would take place, the camp dismantled, and the journey would continue.

By the 1880s, this way of life was proving more and more difficult. The Pembina Chippewa and Metis/Michif were finding it nearly impossible to make a living hunting buffalo. The end of the buffalo hunts coupled with the pressure of American interests in Indian land created challenges for the Native people. Many returned to places like the Turtle Mountain, to live among relatives in a rich environment of wildlife, plants, and other natural resources. However, the writing was on the wall for the Pembina Chippewa and Metis/Michif and reservation life was looming.