White Earth Nation

The White Earth Band of Ojibwe, or Gaa-waabaabiganikaag Anishinaabeg, is a Native American band located in northwestern Minnesota. The band's land-based home is the White Earth Indian Reservation. Historically, the Tribe was formed from the unification of Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) bands displaced by European-American settlement from the northern part of the state, viz:

• Gull Lake Band of Mississippi Chippewa
• Removable Mille Lacs Indians
• Rabbit Lake Band of Mississippi Chippewa
• Rice Lake Band of Mississippi Chippewa

It is one of six component bands of the federally recognized Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, formed after the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act, which encouraged Native tribes to form self-governments.

History

On March 19, 1867, the US Congress established the White Earth Indian Reservation for the Mississippi Chippewa Indians in Minnesota, following ratification of a treaty between them and the United States. Congress had several session agreements regarding the White Earth Band of Ojibwe. After hearing many complaints about the Pillagers, who were then landless, Congress authorized the relocation of the western Pillagers to the White Earth Indian Reservation. They had not been included in the 1855 Treaty of Washington (10 Stat. 1165), which was made with the eastern Pillagers at the Mississippi River headwaters. Eventually the Otter Tail Pillager Band of Chippewa Indians and Wild Rice River Pembina Band of Chippewa Indians also came to settle alongside the Mississippi Chippewa at White Earth Reservation and effectively became part of the White Earth Band.

Up until the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, the six historical component bands located on the White Earth Indian Reservation acted independently of each other. Following the Reorganization Act, with the formation of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe who divided Minnesota into six Band districts, unified all the scattered Ojibwe bands not associated with the Red Lake Band of Chippewa, and unified the six component bands located on the White Earth Indian Reservation into a single White Earth Band of Ojibwe of today. The six Minneoata Chippewa Tribe bands continue to enroll members separately, but also combine their numbers for the entire tribe. According to the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, the White Earth Band had 19,291 enrolled members in July 2007, the highest number of a single band in the State of Minnesota.

Notable White Earth citizens

• Vernon Bellecourt - early leader of the American Indian Movement
• Leo Brisbois — attorney, president of the Minnesota State Bar Association
• Duane "Dewey" Goodwin] — artist and Leech Lake Tribal College art faculty
• Dr. Clara Sue Kidwell — Director of the American Indian Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Winona LaDuke, founder of the White Earth Land Recovery Project in 1989, to acquire more ownership of land within the reservation boundaries, work for reforestation, and market traditional tribal products, including wild rice
• Jean O'Brien
• Audrey Thayer — American Civil Liberties Union, Greater Minnesota Racial Justice Project Coordinator
• Gerald Vizenor — scholar and writer
• Wabanquot (White Cloud) - chief in the 19th century

External links

• White Earth Indian Reservation Tribal Council
• Bemaadizing: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Indigenous Life (An online journal)
• Eni–gikendaasoyang "Moving Towards Knowledge Together", Center for Indigenous Knowledge and Language Revitalization
• White Earth Tribal & Community College
• Treuer, Anton. The Assassination of Hole in the Day, St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2011.
• Treuer, Anton. Ojibwe in Minnesota, St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2010.