History

Ojibwe Migration

Leaving Original Land

Until around 900 AD, the Ojibwe (Anishinaabe) people resided along the northern Atlantic Coast of North America. Due to a variety of driving forces, including tribal conflict and prophecy, they gradually moved westward along the Great Lakes. Of these factors, prophecy arguably played the most significant role in Ojibwe migration.

Image Source: Muskrat Magazine

Image Source: The Circle News

Prophecies

According to Ojibwe oral tradition, the ancestors of their people were visited by seven prophets, each one giving a unique prophecy, or fire. Although each of these seven prophecies are of great importance to the Ojibwe, one is particularly relevant to their migration. The first fire demanded that the Anishinaabe leave their home and move westward until they reached the place "where the food grows on water" - lakes of wild rice. Extremely abundant in the western Great Lakes region and Minnesota in particular during the time of Ojibwe migration, it is no surprise where many of the Ojibwe people settled.

A New Home

After nearly 500 years of westward migration, the Ojibwe people finally settled in and around the Great Lakes region, their original lands depicted in the image to the right. As the largest Native tribe in North America, various groups of Ojibwe dispersed throughout central North America, including in what are now Canada and several U.S. states.

Image Source: Unknown

Mille Lacs Band Established

Image Source: State Maps

Stretched across the Great Lakes region are seven groups, or bands, of Ojibwe: Bois Forte, Fond du Lac, Grand Portage, Leech Lake, Mille Lacs, White Earth, and Red Lake. The Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe had firmly established themselves by the mid-1700s in what is now east-central Minnesota around Mille Lacs Lake.

Source: Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe

European Conquest

Prior to the formation of the Mille Lacs Band, European contact with the Ojibwe people had already begun. In the 1660s, the Ojibwe formed an economic relationship with the French through fur trade, a relationship which would only strengthen in the coming century. Throughout the series of wars fought between France and Britain, for example, the Ojibwe continually allied themselves with the French. This close connection came to a swift end in 1763, however, when Britain defeated France in the French and Indian War, or Seven Years' War.

The next major change in European involvement with the Ojibwe came at the end of the American Revolution in 1783, when the United States gained all land south of the Great Lakes. Like many other American Indians in the area, the Ojibwe people had a deep distrust for the United States because they feared their lands would be stolen by them, and therefore sided with the British who retained control of many Ojibwe trading posts in northern Wisconsin and Minnesota until 1815.

Tragically, the fears of the Ojibwe were entirely warrented. For decades to come, the United States would continually steal land from the Ojibwe people and other American Indian groups, as explained in part by the treaties listed below. More than removing Ojibwe land, however, the United States would take horrific measures to destroy Ojibwe culture. For more information on forced assimilation through boarding schools, see the Culture page.

Treaties

Dozens of treaties have been enacted upon the Ojibwe people since European contact began, the first known treaty having been written in 1785 and the most recent in 1996. For a complete list of Ojibwe treaties, click here. Although all of these treaties have played large roles in the lives of historical and present-day Ojibwe peoples, the two highlighted below are among the most significant to the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe.

Treaty of 1837

Through the Treaty of 1837, the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe and several other Ojibwe tribes ceded millions of acres of land to the United States government, with the condition that they would be able to live off of the land and its resources as they always had, granting hunting, fishing, and gathering rights. Unfortunately, this treaty was not upheld, and for decades the State of Minnesota arrested Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe members for the violation of state conservation laws, laws to which they were legally not bound by the Treaty of 1837. Eventually, several Ojibwe tribes took this to court, and in 1999, the US Supreme Court upheld the Treaty of 1837.

Treaty of 1855

After centuries of pushing the Ojibwe people westward, the US government created several Ojibwe reservations, including the Mille Lacs Indian Reservation. Due to this treaty and continual forced concentration of the Mille Lacs Band, the tribe was left virtually landless by the end of the 19th century, their reservation spanning only 61,000 acres of land south of Mille Lacs Lake. Today, more than 2,000 Mille Lacs Band members live on the reservation, and thousands of others live elsewhere.

Image Source: Zaagibagaang