Treaty Rights of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe

Before the arrival of Europeans, the Ojibwe nation occupied much of the Lake Superior region, including what is now Ontario in Canada and Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota in the United States. In 1850, President Zachary Taylor’s administration, in response to demands from European Americans, planned to force the Ojibwe of Wisconsin west of the Mississippi in violation of signed treaties.

They planned to bring the Ojibwe to Minnesota from Wisconsin in late fall so that they would have to stay for the winter, wearing down their resistance to relocation. Nearly 3000 Ojibwe men made the long journey to Sandy Lake, Minnesota, where they waited for weeks for a government agent to arrive and even longer for what turned out to be spoiled food and only a small portion of the payment and goods they were due. The conditions were so poor that 150 men died of disease, starvation, or freezing. On the treacherous return journey to Wisconsin another 200 men died.

In 1852, Chief Buffalo, the principal chief of the Lake Superior Ojibwe, traveled to Washington, DC, by birchbark canoe with three other men, to press President Millard Fillmore to cancel the removal order. They managed to find an audience with Fillmore, who upon hearing about the broken treaty promises and the tragedy at Sandy Lake, agreed to cancel the removal order and work on a new treaty.

The 1854 Treaty of LaPointe allowed the Ojibwe to stay in their traditional territories and created permanent reservations of land for many of the bands, including the Red Cliff. Under the treaties, the tribes reserved certain rights, including rights to hunt, fish, and gather on the lands that they ceded.

In the more than 150 years since the 1854 Treaty of LaPointe, the sovereignty of the Ojibwe people has been threatened time and time again, and it’s taken Ojibwe activism to protect the rights.

Joining me to help us learn more about the Red Cliff Ojibwe, the importance of treaties, and the Native activism needed to defend them is Dr. Katrina Phillips, an enrolled member of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe, Assistant Professor of Native American History at Macalester College, and author of Staging Indigeneity: Salvage Tourism and the Performance of Native American History.

Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The episode image is Mitaawangaa, or Sandy Beach, on the shores of Frog Bay Tribal National Park. Photo by Katrina Phillips.

Suggested Organization for Donations:

• Dream of Wild Health
• The Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center (MIWRC)
• MIGIZI

Recommended Kids’ Books:

• Indigenous Peoples’ Day by Katrina Phillips
• The Disastrous Wrangel Island Expedition by Katrina Phillips
• Fry Bread by by Kevin Noble Maillard
• We are Grateful by Traci Sorell
• Bowwow Powwow by Brenda J. Child
• Johnny’s Pheasant by Cheryl Minnema

Selected Sources:

• "When Grandma Went to Washington: Ojibwe Activism and the Battle over the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore," by Phillips, Katrina. Native American and Indigenous Studies, vol. 8 no. 2, 2021, p. 29-61. Project MUSE muse.jhu.edu/article/804026.
• “Miskwaabekong History,” Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa
• “Origins and History, Tribal Government,” Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa
• “Ojibwe Treaty Rights,” Milwaukee Public Museum

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