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Learn about the history, geography, demographics, and education of the Leech Lake Reservation, the second-largest reservation in Minnesota. The reservation is home to the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, one of six bands of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe.
Official website of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe.
- The 1787 Northwest Ordinance
- Article One, Section Eight of The United States Constitution
- Treaties
- The Three Lakes Area
- Nelson Act 1889
- The Steenerson Act of 1904
- The Burke Act of 1906
- Creation of The Chippewa National Forest
- Meriam Report
- Indian Reorganization Act of 1934
When European settlers first began to occupy this land, the American Indian tribes were recognized as sovereign nations and the government related to the tribes under the guidelines of international law. In 1787 the United States Government formerly recognized Indians with the passage of the Northwest Ordinance.
In 1789, congress passed Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution. The article gave congress the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations, between the States and with the Indian Tribes. This article laid the foundation of the law from which more than two hundred (200) years of federal legislation and programs dealing with Indian tribes ...
During the years of 1805 – 1889, the United States government signed a number of treaties with the native tribes. Treaties are legal binding agreements between two separate sovereign nations. All treaties made by the United States government with another nation must be ratified by the U.S. Senate. The U.S. Constitution in Article VI, Section 2 read...
When the first settlers arrived in this area, the Ojibwe had been living throughout northern Minnesota. The Pillager and the Mississippi bands had homes and villages on or near Cass Lake, Lake Winnibigoshish, and Leech Lake. The area was covered with dense forests of pine, poplar, oak, cedar, maple, birch and spruce. Treaties were negotiated to acq...
Congress passes the Dawes Act in 1887, which, combined with the Nelson Act two years later, allots 80 acres of non pine land, within the boundaries of the reservation, to each tribal family. The remainder of the non-allotted Indian lands were then opened up and sold or granted to timber companies, railroads and settlers. With the passage of the Nel...
The logging industry soon realized a huge profit could be gained if they could get access to the timber and land on the allotments being held in trust by the federal government. Thus began the lobbying of state legislators to enact laws allowing loggers access to timber on tribal allotments. The first such law was the Steenerson Act of 1904. This a...
The Burke Act gave the Secretary of the Interior authority to issue fee patents to tribal members if he deemed them “competent and capable”. However, in many cases Indians who were deemed competent often were not informed that they were deemed competent, nor were they informed that their land was now a fee patent as opposed to trust land. As a resu...
In 1908 concern over runaway logging prompted the Federation of Women’s Clubs located in Minneapolis to establish a state forest on the LLR to protect the remaining red and white pine from total destruction by the logging industry. In 1908 the Minnesota National Forest was established comprised of 225,000 acres. In 1928 the name was changed to the ...
In the mid 1920’s the U.S. government commissioned a study of the American Indians. This report documented the deplorable conditions of Indian people across the United States, the devastation of the Nelson Act, and the failure of the Bureau of Indian Affairs to do anything about it. In response, legislation was enacted called the Indian Reorganizat...
Under the Reorganization Act the federal government decided that the six (6) Ojibwe bands in Minnesota (not including Red Lake) would be recognized as the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe and all lands that were restored on Leech Lake were in the name of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe. The MCT adopt a constitution in 1937. The 1964 Constitution vested politi...
Located along US Highway 2, the reservation is southeast of Bemidji with Walker just outside on the southwest corner. Cass Lake is the largest community within the reservation. Eleven communities make up the reservation.
The Leech Lake Tribe holds the smallest percentage of its reservation of any of the state's tribes. County, state, and federal governments owned well over half of the original land. Of the 677,099 original acres, 212,000 acres are surface area of the three big lakes.
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.
People also ask
When was the Leech Lake Reservation created?
How many tribal members are there in the Leech Lake Indian Reservation?
Where is Leech Lake?
Where are the Leech Lake Ojibwe located?
Why did the Ojibwe tribe move to Leech Lake?
How did Leech Lake become a state?
The Leech Lake Reservation was created in 1855, when the Ojibwe living around Leech Lake signed treaties with the U.S. government. It was three years later, in 1858, that the state of Minnesota was admitted to the Union.
