Destroying a Homeland: White Earth, Minnesota

The White Earth reservation is located in west central Minnesota. Forty years after it was created as a permanent homeland for all of Minnesota’s Ojibwa (Chippewa) people, most of its land had been legally stolen. Its unusual history has led to unique land claim problems. ”AN EXCEEDINGLY DESIRABLE HOME FOR THE INDIANS” In the seventeenth century, French-speaking trappers and traders began to penetrate the western Great Lakes country. Soon these Europeans came into contact with the Ojibwa population, known among themselves as the Anishinabe (”first people”). By the time the Europeans arrived, the Ojibwa were living in villages, each of which had up to several hundred people. From these bases they pursued a woodlands cultural pattern, hunting and fishing, gathering berries and wild rice. Speaking a language of the widespread Algonquin family, they traded for grain with the Huron-speaking farmers in the south, were loosely confederated with the Ottawa and Potawatomi farther east, and fought the Fox and Dakota (Sioux) who lived to the west. In their marshy environment, the Ojibwa’s trapping skills were valuable to the whites. This had two long-term results. First, the Dakota moved west, with some groups eventually leaving the woodlands altogether. The reasons for this move were complex. In part it may have been due to the fact that the Ojibwa could not obtain guns for use in the frequent battles with the Dakota; also, the long-term demand for buffalo skins which the Dakota could supply also may have played a part. Whatever the factors, the Ojibwa ultimately occupied most of Minnesota and Wisconsin