Minnesota Chippewa Tribe

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Minnesota Chippewa Tribe
Flag of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe.PNG
Flag
Motto: Nimaamawiinomin
We Come Together
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Member bands of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe
Administrative headquarters Cass Lake, Minnesota
TypeTribal governmental authority
Enrolled membership40,677
Leaders
 President
Cathy Chavers
 Vice President
Ferdinand W. Martineau, Jr.
 Executive Director
Gary Frazer
Establishment
 Establishment
June 18, 1934
July 26, 1936

The Minnesota Chippewa Tribe is the centralized governmental authority for six Ojibwe bands in Minnesota. The tribe was created on June 18, 1934; the organization and its governmental powers are divided between the tribe, and the individual bands, which directly operate their reservations. The bands that make up the tribe are:

Contents

As of July 2003, the six bands have 40,677 enrolled members. The White Earth Band is the largest, which had more than 19,000 members. According to the 2010 US Census, the Leech Lake Band had 10,660 residents living on its reservation, the most of any single reservation in the state.

It is projected that the tribe will experience a gradual population decrease in the coming decades, unless it lowers its current membership requirement of at least 25% Native ancestry, [1] [2] as a consequence of tribal members having children with non-Native Americans (nationwide, 54-61% of all Native Americans marry non-Natives [3] ).

Notably, the Red Lake Band of Chippewa is not part of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe. In 1934 it declined to participate, as its citizens did not want to give up the band's system of hereditary chiefs. The Red Lake Band developed its constitution in the 1950s, electing its first chairman in 1959. The Chippewa nation predates the European colonization of the Americas.

Services

The Minnesota Chippewa Tribe provides basic services to each of its six-member Bands, unless the individual Band has signed a compact to provide these services themselves. The services are provided through their offices located in Cass Lake, Minnesota.

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The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. They are Indigenous peoples of the Subarctic and Northeastern Woodlands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red Lake Indian Reservation</span> Home to the federally recognized Red Lake Band of Ojibwe

The Red Lake Indian Reservation covers 1,260.3 sq mi in parts of nine counties in Minnesota, United States.

Sandy Lake Band of Mississippi Chippewa are a historical Ojibwa tribe located in the upper Mississippi River basin, on and around Big Sandy Lake in what today is in Aitkin County, Minnesota. Though politically folded into the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, thus no longer independently federally recognized, for decades, Sandy Lake Band members have been leading efforts to restore their independent Federal recognition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White Earth Indian Reservation</span> Anishinaabe / Ojibwe reservation in Minnesota

The White Earth Indian Reservation is the home to the White Earth Band, located in northwestern Minnesota. It is the largest Indian reservation in the state by land area. The reservation includes all of Mahnomen County, plus parts of Becker and Clearwater counties in the northwest part of the state along the Wild Rice and White Earth rivers. The reservation's land area is 1,093 sq mi (2,831 km²). The population was 9,726 as of the 2020 census, including off-reservation trust land. The White Earth Indian Reservation is one of six bands that make up the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, their governing body for major administrative needs. It is about 225 miles (362 km) from Minneapolis–Saint Paul and roughly 65 miles (105 km) from Fargo–Moorhead.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White Earth Nation</span> Native American band in Minnesota, USA

The White Earth Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, also called the White Earth Nation, is a federally recognized Native American band located in northwestern Minnesota. The band's land base is the White Earth Indian Reservation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa</span>

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The Leech Lake Reservation is an Indian reservation located in the north-central Minnesota counties of Cass, Itasca, Beltrami, and Hubbard. The reservation forms the land base for the federally recognized Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, one of six bands comprising the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, organized in 1934. The Leech Lake Reservation has the second highest population of any reservation in Minnesota with White Earth Nation being the largest Minnesota Ojibwe tribe, Leech Lake Nation has a resident population of 11,388 indicated by the 2020 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe</span>

The Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, also known as the Leech Lake Band of Chippewa Indians or the Leech Lake Band of Minnesota Chippewa Tribe is an Ojibwe band located in Minnesota and one of six making up the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe. The band had 9,426 enrolled tribal members as of March 2014. The band's land base is the Leech Lake Indian Reservation, which includes eleven communities aggregated into three districts, as defined in the tribal constitution,

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe</span> Federally recognized American Indian tribe in east-central Minnesota

The Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, also known as the Mille Lacs Band of Chippewa Indians, is a federally recognized American Indian tribe in east-central Minnesota. The Band has 4,302 members as of 2012. Its homeland is the Mille Lacs Indian Reservation, consisting of District I, District II, District IIa, and District III.

The Minnesota Indian Affairs Council (MIAC) is an intergovernmental body established by the U.S. state of Minnesota to serve as a liaison between state government and the Native American tribes residing within the state's boundaries. Created by the Minnesota Legislature, MIAC aims to improve relationships, facilitate dialogue, and address issues of mutual concern between the State of Minnesota and the tribal governments. The council plays a critical role in advising on policy, advocating for indigenous rights, and promoting cultural understanding.

The St. Croix Chippewa Indians are a historical Band of Ojibwe located along the St. Croix River, which forms the boundary between the U.S. states of Wisconsin and Minnesota. The majority of the St. Croix Band are divided into two groups: the federally recognized St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin, and the St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Minnesota, who are one of four constituent members forming the federally recognized Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. The latter is one of six bands in the federally recognized Minnesota Chippewa Tribe.

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Mississippi River Band of Chippewa Indians or simply the Mississippi Chippewa, are a historical Ojibwa Band inhabiting the headwaters of the Mississippi River and its tributaries in present-day Minnesota.

Pillager Band of Chippewa Indians are a historical band of Chippewa (Ojibwe) who settled at the headwaters of the Mississippi River in present-day Minnesota. Their name "Pillagers" is a translation of Makandwewininiwag, which literally means "Pillaging Men". The French called them Pilleurs, also a translation of their name. The French and Americans adopted their autonym for their military activities as the advance guard of the Ojibwe in the invasion of the Dakota country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sandy Lake Tragedy</span> 1850 tragedy in Minnesota that led to the creation of Ojibwe reservations

The Sandy Lake Tragedy was the culmination in 1850 of a series of events centered in Big Sandy Lake, Minnesota that resulted in the deaths of several hundred Lake Superior Chippewa. Officials of the Zachary Taylor Administration and Minnesota Territory sought to relocate several bands of the tribe to areas west of the Mississippi River. By changing the location for fall annuity payments, the officials intended the Chippewa to stay at the new site for the winter, hoping to lower their resistance to relocation. Due to delayed and inadequate payments of annuities and lack of promised supplies, about 400 Ojibwe, mostly men and 12% of the tribe, died of disease, starvation and cold. The outrage increased Ojibwe resistance to removal. The bands effectively gained widespread public support to achieve permanent reservations in their traditional territories.

The Lake Superior Chippewa are a large number of Ojibwe (Anishinaabe) bands living around Lake Superior; this territory is considered part of northern Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota in the United States. They migrated into the area by the seventeenth century, encroaching on the Eastern Dakota people who had historically occupied the area. The Ojibwe defeated the Eastern Dakota, who migrated west into the Great Plains after the final battle in 1745. While they share a common culture including the Anishinaabe language, this highly decentralized group of Ojibwe includes at least twelve independent bands in the region.

Sandy Lake is an unincorporated community Native American village located in Turner Township, Aitkin County, Minnesota, United States. Its name in the Ojibwe language is Gaa-mitaawangaagamaag, meaning "Place of the Sandy-shored Lake". The village is administrative center for the Sandy Lake Band of Mississippi Chippewa, though the administration of the Mille Lacs Indian Reservation, District II, is located in the nearby East Lake.

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An act for the relief and civilization of the Chippewa Indians in the State of Minnesota, commonly known as the Nelson Act of 1889, was a United States federal law intended to relocate all the Anishinaabe people in Minnesota to the White Earth Indian Reservation in the western part of the state, and expropriate the vacated reservations for sale to European settlers.

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