Chapter 1

A Brief History of Indians in Minnesota

I would like to say upfront that this is going to be a very brief chapter in comparison to the volume of information that exists. Every textbook that I looked to for ideas on this subject was written at a college level and as thick as a dictionary. Finding a way to shorten many ideas up for a simple presentation proved more cumbersome than I anticipated and I would like to take the time at the start to thank the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council for pointing me in the right direction and allowing me to have access to many valuable resources.

Part 1: Indian Tribes in Minnesota

The Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington DC recognizes 550 different communities of American Indians who speak over 500 different languages. Some of these groups may have some similarities with each other while others can have no resemblance at all. Because of this, it's best to approach each Reservation or Community as its own group and respect each tribe according to its own customs. A Reservation or Community is simply defined as a segment of land that belongs to a group of American Indians. It is land that was retained by American Indian tribes after ceding large portions of their original homeland to the United States through treaty agreements. It should not, therefore, be viewed as land that was given to the American Indians by the Federal Government. In Minnesota, there are two nations of American Indians, the Aanishinaabeg, (or as we call them, Ojibwe or Chippewa), and the Dakota (or Sioux). There are seven Aanishinaabeg and four Dakota reservations or communities in Minnesota.

Aanishinaabeg Reservations (See the Map on page 3)

The seven Anishinaabe reservations in Minnesota are: Grand Portage located in the northeast corner of the state; Bois Forte located in extreme northern Minnesota; Red Lake located in extreme northern Minnesota west of Bois Forte; White Earth located in northwestern Minnesota; Leech Lake located in the north central portion of the state; Fond du Lac located in northeast Minnesota west of the city of Duluth; and Mille Lacs located in the central part of the state, south and east of Brainerd.

All seven Anishinaabe reservations in Minnesota were originally established by treaty and are considered separate and distinct nations by the United States government. In some cases, the tribe retained additional lands through an Executive Order of the President. Six of the seven reservations were allotted at the time of the passage of the General Allotment Act. The Red Lake Reservation is the only closed reservation in Minnesota, which means that the reservation was never allotted and the land continues to be held in common by all tribal members. Each Indian tribe began its relationship with the U.S. government as a sovereign power recognized as such in treaty and legislation. The Treaty of 1863 officially recognized Red Lake as separate and distinct with the signing of the Old Crossing Treaty of 1863. In this treaty, the Red Lake Nation ceded more than 11 million acres of the richest agricultural land in Minnesota in exchange for monetary compensation and a stipulation that the "President of the United States direct a certain sum of money to be applied to agricultural education and to such other beneficial purposes calculated to promote the prosperity and happiness of the Red Lake Indian."

The agreements of 1889 and the Agreement of 1904, Red Lake ceded another 2,256,152 acres and the Band was guaranteed that all benefits under existing treaties would not change.

Dakota Communities (See the Map on page 3)

The four Dakota Communities are: Shakopee Mdewakanton located south of the Twin Cities near Prior Lake; Prairie Island located near Red Wing; Lower Sioux located near Redwood Falls; and Upper Sioux whose lands are near the city of Granite Falls.

The original Dakota Community was established by treaty in 1851. The treaty set aside a 10-mile wide strip of land on both sides of the Minnesota River as the permanent home of the Dakota. However, in the aftermath of the U.S.-Dakota Conflict of 1862, most had fled or were taken as prisoners and were living on reservations in Nebraska (Santee), South Dakota (Flandreau, Sisseton), North Dakota (Devils Lake), Montana (Fort Peck), or escaped to Canada. Congress nullified all treaties made with them and the Dakota were forced from their homes in the state. The four communities were reestablished in their current localities by acts of Congress in 1886. The four Dakota Communities today represent small segments of the original reservation that were restored to the Dakota by Acts of Congress or Proclamations of the Secretary of Interior.

A Map of Minnesota's Indian Reservations and Communities

Part 2: A brief description of each Reservation

Bois Forte (Nett Lake)

Location: The Bois Forte Reservation is located in northern Minnesota in Koochiching and St. Louis counties, approximately 40 miles south of the Canadian border. The tribal headquarters are in Nett Lake, Minnesota.

Bois Forte, meaning strong wood, was the French name for the Indians living in the most impenetrable, fortress-like forest in the Rainy River watershed of Northern Minnesota. They were a part of the northern group of Ojibwe who moved inland from the Grand Portage area in the early fur-trading era going first to the mouth of the Vermilion River, then Rainy Lake, and Lake of the Woods. In 1824, there was mention of a permanent village on Lake Vermilion. Long after the United States Independence, the Bois Forte band continued trading with the British and did not participate in the early United States treaties. In the 1854 Treaty, their first, an undefined reservation was set aside near Lake Vermilion while a large portion of north central Minnesota remained in Indian hands. It was the 1866 Treaty, designed to take control of the northern mineral lands, which took the remaining lands and established the reservation at Nett Lake and a township at Deer Creek. By Executive Order in 1881, a special reserve was created at Lake Vermilion, and were then allotted following the 1889 Nelson Act as the government did not make a serious attempt to get the Bois Forte Indians to move to White Earth, a designed homeland for any Indians still living in Northern Minnesota. Many Bois Forte members also share extended families with the Ojibwe in Canada.

The reservation is heavily forested with beautiful stands of pine, aspen, cedar, birch, ash, and other species of timber, which provides excellent wildlife habitat. One independent Indian logging firm does business on or near the reservation. Based on forest types, it is estimated that over 50% of the land is wetland. Nett Lake, covering 7,300 acres, is the largest continuously producing wild rice lake in the United States. As such it is also one of the best duck habitats and provides income to Nett Lake residents from services as hunting guides. It is the reservation's most important lake both for income and spiritually. In 1987, a dam was built to help control the water level.

The Bois Forte Reservation includes three divisions. Around Nett Lake, 103,000 acres in St. Louis and Koochiching Counties are the home sites to the majority of the population of Nett Lake, Indian Point, and Sugar Bush. An area of some 1,000 acres on Lake Vermilion, located in St. Louis County, and 23,000 acres in Deer Creek Township, located in Itasca County, has no population. The community of Nett Lake contains the tribal headquarters, a convenience store and filling station, fire station, and health clinic. The Nett Lake Education Center combines the elementary school, day care, social services, and the community center.

Fond du Lac

"Nagadjiwan"

Location
The Fond du Lac Reservation is located in Carlton and St. Louis counties adjacent to the City of Cloquet on the east, and 15 miles west of Duluth. The tribal headquarters are in Cloquet, Minnesota.

Fond du Lac was named by the French for the Indian village at the end of Lake Superior, at the mouth of the St. Louis River. In 1665, according to Jesuit Missionaries, a Dakota village was located there. By 1767 however, Ojibwe were mentioned in the area with a permanent village reported in 1783 by Jean Baptiste-Cadotte. Within ten years, it had become the Northwest Fur Company district headquarters. When John Astor and the American Fur Company took over the British firm in 1816, they built a new fort and trading post about 20 miles up the St. Louis River, where the current Fond du Lac Reservation is located. In 1820, 375 people lived at the trading post, but by 1832 the trading center had moved inland to Sandy Lake, and the population at Fond du Lac declined dramatically to 193 people.

Fond du Lac people were of the Southwestern Ojibwe that had lived on the southern shore of Lake Superior around LaPoint, Wisconsin, before moving into Minnesota. A part of the Lake Superior Band of Chippewa, the Fond du Lac Band was involved in all of the early treaties affecting lands in Minnesota and Wisconsin. At the time of the 1854 Treaty, their land was ceded and the reservation established. A population of 700 was reported.

A new building to house tribal government, community sports, and social activities was opened in 1997. There are also community centers at Sawyer and Brookston. The Tribe purchased a resort on the reservation with plans to develop a tribal recreation area. The Tribe's natural resource management division has a building located in Cloquet. The human service and health clinic programs operate from the Min-No-Aya-Win Health Clinic, which underwent major expansion in 1996. The health program is tribal-run and services are contracted from Indian Health Service. The Tribe also operates a similar Indian health program in Duluth, through the Center for American Indian Resources (CAIR). The Tribal- run Fond du Lac Group Home for juveniles is located between Duluth and Cloquet. Sawyer is the location of Mash-Ka-Wisen, the nation's first Indian-owned and operated residential, primary treatment facility for chemical dependency.

The reservation is divided among four Minnesota public schools districts. The Tribe has a Head Start program and operates the Ojibwe School with grades K-12. Transportation to the school is provided for it's nearby Duluth students. It is also proud of the unique Fond du Lac Tribal/Community College with a 150-bed dormitory that is both a tribal college and a state community college.

Grand Portage

"Kitchi-onigam"

Location: The Grand Portage Reservation is located in Cook County in the extreme northeast corner of Minnesota, approximately 150 miles from Duluth. It is bordered on the north by Canada, on the south and east by Lake Superior and on the west by Grand Portage State Forest.

The Grand Portage Reservation encompasses an historic fur trade site with spectacular north woods Lake Superior shoreline. The reservation extends about 18 miles along the lakeshore and from nine miles to a quarter mile inland. The community of Grand Portage is the location of the tribal buildings and home sites. Grand Marais, MN is the closest city 36 miles to the southwest, and Thunder Bay, Canada, is 37 miles to the north.

The name Grand Portage comes from the nine-mile portage necessary to bypass the cascading waters of the Pigeon River to get inland to the lakes and rivers leading to the fur-rich areas of northern Minnesota. By the 1730's the Ojibwe, in their migration along the northern shore of Lake Superior, arrived at Grand Portage. The French record of fur trade over the portage began in 1731. The British took over in the 1760's and the North West Fur Company built the post at Grand Portage by around 1785-87 where some 150 Ojibwe families had come to live in vicinity of the post. In 1803, the British company moved to Fort William, Canada, which is now known as Thunder Bay. The Indian community that originally provided services and trade at the Grand Portage site continued working with the British in Canada, causing the population in America to decline. In 1824, Schoolcraft reported 60 people. For a while in the 1830's the American Fur Co. used Indian people to operate a commercial fishing station at Grand Portage. It did not last long. To this day close ties continue with the Ojibwe in Canada since the border often splits extended families.

The Grand Portage Indians were members of the Lake Superior Band but were not participants in the early Ojibwe treaties in 1842 when Isle Royale was ceded to the United States. In 1854, another treaty was negotiated where they ceded their lands in the Arrowhead region of Minnesota and accepted the Grand Portage reservation. During the allotment era in 1889 following the Nelson Act, no serious attempt was made to relocate the people to White Earth, the government designated homeland for various Indian groups left in northern Minnesota.

The 300-year-old Manito Geezhigaynce, a twisted cedar known as the little spirit cedar tree, is located on the north side of Hat Point on a stone ledge. This tree has great significance to many generations of Grand Portage Indians and boatmen on Lake Superior. The land with the tree was offered for sale in 1987. A group was formed and $100,000 was raised to buy the land for the Tribe in 1990. To protect their heritage, the Grand Portage Indian community requires that to visit the tree, there must be a tribal guide. The Grand Portage Tribe is also a proud sponsor of the John Beargrease Sled Dog race from Duluth to Grand Portage and back. It is in honor of John Beargrease, a Grand Portage member, who from 1887 to 1899 delivered the mail from Two Harbors to Grand Marais.

Leech Lake

"Ga-Sagaskwadjimekag"

Location
The Leech Lake Reservation is located in north central Minnesota in the counties of Beltrami, Cass, Hubbard, and Itasca. The tribal headquarters are in Cass Lake, Minnesota.

In the 1600's, it was the Dakota Indians that were first discovered to have had communities at Leech Lake. The Ojibwe bands where found already moved into the region later on during the mid-to-late 1700's. The first Ojibwe settlements were believed to be on small islands on Leech Lake. This area in north central Minnesota was the home of the Mississippi and Pillager Ojibwe bands. In 1847, treaties took sections on the southwest corner of their lands with the Mississippi and Pillager bands and then gave it to the Menominee and Winnebago tribes that were to be moved from Wisconsin. The remaining land was ceded by treaty in 1855 that established the reservation. The 1864 Treaty expanded and consolidated the reservation in the area of the three lakes. The intent at that time was to have the other Minnesota Ojibwe bands move to the Leech Lake area. But by 1867, that plan was changed and the White Earth Reservation was then created to be the home of all Ojibwe people. The area of the Leech Lake Reservation was then reduced by executive orders in 1873 and 1874.

Drained by the headwaters of the Mississippi River, the area is generally swampy. With some 40 wild rice producing lakes, it has the largest natural wild rice production of any of the State's reservations. The land is mostly second growth, having been logged. The Leech Lake Tribe holds the smallest percentage of its reservation of any of the state's tribes. County, state, and federal governments own well over half of the original land. Of the 677,099 original acres, 212,000 acres are surface area of the three big lakes. Of the remaining 465,000 acres, other levels of government own 332,804 acres. The National Chippewa Forest has the largest portion of the land. Seventy-five percent of the National Forest is within the reservation.

The smaller communities have facilities for community events and services such as medical clinics and programs for elders. The people have organized their own community councils to give a political voice to their concerns. Health services are provided at the IHS hospital and clinic in Cass Lake. The Tribe operates a halfway house and an ambulance service; however, fire protection is from neighboring communities. In 1995, the Tribe began a burial insurance program for all enrolled members. Education and programs for children are provided by two tribal-run childcare facilities: the Head Start program in seven communities and the K-12 Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig tribal school. The Tribe sponsors and provides funding for the Leech Lake Tribal College that began in 1990. The college is located in Cass Lake and offers AA degrees where credits are transferable to other higher education institutions.

Lower Sioux

"Can'Sayapi"

Location
The Lower Sioux Indian Community is located on the south side of the Minnesota River at the site of the U.S. Indian Agency and the Bishop Whipple Mission, which was a part of the original reservation established in the 1851 Treaty. It is currently in Redwood County, two miles south of Morton and six miles east of Redwood Falls. Across the river is the Birch Coulee battle site of the 1862 Sioux War. The Community, for purposes of determining membership and qualifying for some services, has a service area 10 miles beyond the actual trust lands.

In the 1883 census, only six families were reported at Redwood. Good Thunder came from Flandreau, South Dakota (where many Dakota had been forcibly moved to after the 1862 Dakota conflict) and in 1884 purchased 80 acres at the Lower Sioux community. Charles Lawrence bought the adjacent 80 acres. Within a few years a little colony joined them that included a few other Dakota who had been able to survive in Minnesota under the protection of Alexander Fairbault. A 1936 census reports 20 Mdewakanton families, 18 families from Flandreau, South Dakota, and one Sisseton, South Dakota, family.

The land is primarily rich agricultural land in the river flood plain with the wooded bluffs behind it. The community was built on the hillside and uplands. It centers around the tribal offices, a new community center, Tipi Maka Duta (the Lower Sioux Trading Post), and St. Cornelia Episcopal Church built in 1889 and now on the National Register of Historic sites. St. Cornelia's is built on land donated by Good Thunder. It has been the recent site of reburials of Kaota people whose remains had been held by museums and universities. The Minnesota Historical society has an interpretive center in the area, that explains the 1862 battles.

Until mid-1980 the Tribe had very limited funds and there were hardly any opportunities for employment on the reservation. Government programs, operated by the Tribe, were the major source of employment. Since 1972 the Tribe has been manufacturing hand thrown, hand painted, traditional Dakota pottery. It is sold at Tipi Maka Duta, the Lower Sioux Trading Post along with other gift items. The Tribe generates additional revenue from leasing a gravel pit.

Mille Lacs

"Misa Sagaiigun"

Location
The Mille Lacs Reservation is located in east central Minnesota, 100 miles north of Minneapolis/St. Paul. The tribal headquarters is near Onamia, Minnesota.

To the Aanishinaabeg or Chippewa who lived along its southwestern shores, Lake Mille Lacs and the surrounding land has a special significance. This part of Minnesota - where the seasons of the year bring cycles of great beauty to the lake and the land - has been the setting of their history for more than two centuries. For miles in every direction, there is hardly a place untouched by some large or small event from their past. While the Mille Lacs Lake region is now a famed fishing and resort area, to the Aanishinabeg, it is a place where the past touches the present and connects their life with the people who came before and left a rich tribal heritage.

While they no longer live as their ancestors did, they are a people who have kept the tribal heritage at the core of their life. Their present life is a blend of their own culture and the culture of the larger society that surrounds them. Today, they are a people well known for their understanding and use of tribal knowledge, customs, beliefs, and practices that gave meaning to the life of their ancestors and meaning to their own lives.

The ancestors of all these people were members of Aanishinaabeg bands who made their homes in Minnesota in the 18th century. At that time, each band or group carried on its own political, economic, and cultural life although close ties existed between those living in the same general area. In the 19th century, when white settlement and development of Minnesota threatened their existence, the Aanishinaabeg leaders in the Mille Lacs region were pressured to cede their lands to the United States government and relocate on lands to other parts of the State. Some Band leaders decided to move while others refused to leave the places where their people had lived for generations. By the early 20th century, federal Indian officials referred to these groups as the Non-Removal Mille Lacs Chippewa Band. This distinguished them from Band members who had resettled earlier on White Earth and other Chippewa reservations in the State.

The purpose of the tribal government of the Mille Lacs Band is to promote the general welfare of its citizens by establishing duties, responsibilities and procedures for the conduct of domestic and external affairs. For many years, the Band operated under a single agency form of government known as the Reservation Business Committee (RBC). However, the Band determined that a separation of power, similar to that employed by the United States federal government, would be a more effective and responsible way to run the reservation The Band includes 2,906 enrolled members. Of those, 1,094 are age 21 or younger. Between the ages of 22 and 54 there are 1,540 and 272 are Tribal Elders age 55 and older.

Prairie Island

"Tin-ta Wita"

Location

The Prairie Island Indian Community in the State of Minnesota, also known as the Prairie Island Mdewakanton Dakota Community, is located on the Prairie Island Indian Reservation, which is an island in the Mississippi River some 14 miles north of Red Wing and 30 miles southeast of St. Paul. The tribal headquarters is located near Welch, Minnesota and has members mainly of the Mdewankanton Band.

History

Prairie Island members are descendants of Mdewakanton and Wahpekute Bands of Eastern Dakota, also known as the Mississippi or Minnesota Sioux, who were parties to treaties with the United States from 1805 to 1863. These treaties ceded Dakota land in Minnesota and surrounding states. In August 1862, fighting erupted between the Dakota and white settlers because the Dakota were not receiving their annuity payments for selling their lands and were struggling to survive. This was known as the Dakota Conflict, resulting in the deaths of many Dakota and whites. Thirty-eight Dakota were hanged in Mankato in December 1862 upon the order of President Abraham Lincoln.

Land Status
In the treaty of October 15, 1851, the Mdewakanton and Wahpekute bands ceded much of their Minnesota lands to the U.S. government, keeping for themselves a 10-mile wide strip of land on either side of the Minnesota River from Little Rock to Yellow Medicine River. However the Treaty of June 19, 1858, allotted this land in 80 acre plots to each family head. The surplus land was sold for ten cents an acre. Reduced to starvation, the Dakota were forced into war with U.S. settlers, starting the U.S. Dakota Conflict of 1862. In the aftermath, all treaties made with the eastern Dakota were nullified. The Prairie Island Reservation was created when the Secretary of the Interior purchased land and placed it into trust for the tribe in 1889. About 120 acres was purchased at Prairie Island for the landless Mdewankanton residing in Minnesota on May 20, 1886. Subsequent purchases by the Secretary under congressional appropriations and later the Indian Reorganization Act expanded the reservation's borders. Under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, an additional 414 acres was purchased for other Indian residents whose names appeared on the Minnesota Sioux rolls.

Living next to an atomic energy power plant that has needed to find storage for radioactive wastes has been very difficult for the Indian community. The Tribe needs more land, as members are anxious to return to their homeland to find employment. The presence of the nuclear fuel and waste has made many members fearful and families with young children are not willing to move to the reservation because of possible health effects from radiation exposure.

Red Lake

"Miskwawakokan"

Location:

The Red Lake Reservation is located in the northern Minnesota counties of Beltrami and Clearwater, approximately 27 miles north of Bemidji. Tribal headquarters are in Red Lake, Minnesota.

During the French period of the fur trade, it was the Dakota who originally had a major village at Red Lake. Around 1796, the Ojibwe settled along with the British North West Fur Company and a fur trading post was then established in 1806.

The Red Lake Band, through treaties and agreements in 1863 (amended 1864), 1889, 1892, 1904, and 1905 gave up land but never ceded the main reservation surrounding Lower Red Lake and a portion of Upper Red Lake. This un-ceded land is spoken of as the "diminished" reservation and "aboriginal" land. It is 407,730 acres. In addition, there are 229,300 acres of surface water area on both the lakes.

Tribal leadership during the late 1800's and early 1900's skillfully resisted allotment legislation and held the land intact for the Tribe as a whole. Today the Tribe's Independence Day, July 6th is in honor of the courage of their chiefs in resisting allotment during the negotiations of the 1889 Nelson Act. Only one other tribe in the United States also resisted allotment, the Warm Springs Tribe in Oregon. When land that had been ceded but not sold was returned after 1934, this restored land amounted to 156,696 acres. It included 70% of the Northwest Angle of Minnesota, as well as lands scattered between the reservation and the Canadian border. The total land area controlled by the Tribe, 564,426 acres, is about the size of Rhode Island. The land is located in nine different counties. The Tribe has jurisdiction to regulate hunting and fishing on the original, diminished lands, and the ceded lands that were returned. The remainder of the ceded areas, not held by the Tribe, is under state jurisdiction.

The four reservation communities are the villages of Red Lake, Redby, Ponemah, and Little Rock. Red Lake Village is the location of the tribal headquarters, newly built in 1996. The tribal courts, the BIA Agency office, Red Lake School, (K-12th grades, operates as a regular state public school) are located in the village of Red Lake. Other facilities located in the village are a modern IHS hospital, and the Jourdain/Perpich Extended Care Facility for the elderly: a center for activities and nutritional programs for the elderly. Other community buildings include the Humanities Building that houses the Head Start program, a swimming pool and other recreational and group facilities. The main powwow grounds are in the village.

Shakopee Mdewakanton Community "Tin-ta O-Ton-We"

Location

The Shakopee-Mdewakanton Reservation is located entirely within the city limits of Prior Lake, in Carver County, Minnesota. The reservation was known as the Prior Lake Reservation until its reorganization under the Indian Reorganization Act on November 28, 1969. The tribal headquarters are in Prior Lake, Minnesota.

The Shakopee-Prior Lake area was historically home to the Mdewakanton Dakota. After the removal in 1862-63, families gradually returned in the 1880's. In the 1883 census, there were 11 families, (47 individuals) at Shakopee. Under the land purchase laws of the 1880' s-1890, land was acquired for community members. In 1936 when the Dakota communities were forming an IRA approved government, the Shakopee Mdewakanton group was considered too small to form a separate government and was included in the Lower Sioux. No land was added at that time. In 1960, the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington DC counted ten Indians. In 1967, there were 4-5 families.

Although the 258 acres of land in trust consisted of undeveloped, rolling farmlands, the location was close to the Twin Cities, 25 miles from downtown Minneapolis, and provided desirable home sites for people. In 1969, the community organized as a separate government with nine members voting on the new constitution. Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux community is in Scott County, just south of Shakopee on Highway 833. In 1972, the City of Prior Lake incorporated the reservation into that city. When the city attempted to deny services and voting rights to the Indian residents (because they did not pay property taxes), the Tribe took them to court. The court ruling, upheld by the US Supreme Court, was that this was illegal.

The governing structure of this community is unique. All members over 18 constitute the tribal council. They in turn select a business council to run the reservations affairs. By the 1970's, tribal leaders began taking advantage of the community's power to govern their own lands. Early enterprises included providing tree burning services, which were not allowed in Minneapolis and selling cigarettes without paying state taxes. In October 1982, Little Six Bingo Palace, offering big bucks bingo, was opened. Gaming became an unbelievably successful business. Following federal legislation clarifying legal issues and the state-tribal compacts that followed, the complex known as Mystic Lake was developed. It is the second most financially successful Indian casino operation in the United States with over 18,000 customers every day. The casino originally involved outside investment and management, but since 1985 it has been tribal owned and operated. The Tribe has delegated all financial operations to Little Six, Inc., which operates the casino and manages other investments for the Tribe.

Upper Sioux "Pezihutazizi Kapi"

Location:

The Reservation tribal headquarters is located five miles south of Granite Falls, Minnesota, on the Minnesota River in Yellow Medicine County. The reservation is 115 miles west of Minneapolis.

This land called Pezihutazizi Kapi (the place where they dig for yellow medicine) has been the homeland of the Dakota Oyate (Nation), for thousands of years. They have always occupied this area bordering the Minnesota River Valley, with the exception of a short period of time in the late 1800's following the U.S./Dakota Conflict of 1862. At that time, the Dakota were exterminated, forcibly removed to reservations located elsewhere, or voluntarily fled to avoid harm. Many Dakota died during those difficult years. Some of those who survived the forced removal defied the state and federal governments by not remaining on the assigned reservations located outside of Minnesota, but rather chose to return to their ancient homelands in the Minnesota River Valley.

In 1938, 746 acres of original Dakota lands in Minnesota were returned to the people, and the Upper Sioux Indian Community came into existence. Provisions for governing the Upper Sioux Community were adopted, and a Board of Trustees was elected to carry out the responsibilities identified in these Provisions. In 1995, the provisions were modified and the governing document is now called the Constitution of the Upper Sioux Community.

By the late 1980's, the legal standing of tribes as sovereign nations had been acknowledged in the highest federal courts. In 1990, following these court decisions, the Upper Sioux Community did as many other tribes had done-- exercised their rights as a sovereign nation to capitalize on a financial opportunity by building and opening Firefly Creek Casino.

In the years since, this business has helped to revitalize and energize the Upper Sioux Community, allowing them an opportunity to obtain economic independence. They are finding ways to preserve their dignity, culture and traditions, free from the burden of meeting basic survival needs. The Upper Sioux community came into being about the same time as the other Minnesota Sioux communities. Land purchases amounting to 746 acres were made in 1938, but the Upper Sioux Community did not complete organization under the Indian Reorganization Act.

White Earth

Location

The White Earth Reservation is located in the northwestern Minnesota counties of Mahnomen, Becker, and Clearwater. The reservation is located 68 miles from Fargo and 225 miles from Minneapolis/St. Paul. Tribal headquarters are in White Earth, Minnesota.

The White Earth Reservation is named for the white clay at White Earth Village. Never the historic homeland of any Ojibwe group, it became a reservation in 1867 in a treaty with the Mississippi Band of Ojibwe. It was designed by the United States government to be the home of all of the Ojibwe in the state of Minnesota. This reservation is the size of a full county, 36 townships square with the land being typical of central Minnesota. The Indian communities include White Earth, Pine Point/Ponsford, Naytahwaush, Elbow Lake, Beaulieu, Rice Lake, and Ebro. The other villages established along the railroad track running south to north in the western part of the reservation were Callaway, Ogema, Waubun, and Mahnomen

With the 1867 Treaty, great pressure was put on the bands to get them to move. Mississippi Band members from Gull Lake were the first group to come and settle around White Earth Village in 1868. The 1920 census reflected those who had settled in White Earth: 4856 were from the Mississippi Band including 1,308 from Mille Lacs, the Pillager Bands had 1,218, Pembina Band 472, and 113 had come from Fond du Lac of the Superior Band.

The different bands tended to settle in different areas of the reservation. Mille Lacs Lake members moved to the northeastern part of the reservation, around Naytahwaush and Beaulieau. Pillager Band members settled around Pine Point in the southeast. After 1873, Pembina Band members from the Red River Valley moved into a township on the western side of the reservation. A different community with a greater interest in taking up European ways, concentrated in the Village of White Earth where the government agency was located. These various groups of Indians, with their different backgrounds and cultures, continue to add a diversity of interests to the reservation today. The White Earth Reservation is in an area of especially severe continuous unemployment. The Tribe's Shooting Star Casino and Hotel in Mahnomen has been a successful operation and is the largest employer in Mahnomen County. The land had not been in trust, and with the legal confusion about the federal government's ability to accept more trust land, the casino has continued to pay property taxes. There is a 224-room hotel with swimming pool, arcade, entertainment, a full range of food service options and an RV park. A great deal of investment in infrastructure has been required, resulting in expanded water and waste treatment facilities, telephone systems, and highway development.