Red Lake Indian Reservation

Red Lake Indian Reservation
Indian reservation
Red Lake welcome sign in Bejou, Minnesota in 2023
Flag
Location in Minnesota
Country	United States
Tribe	Red Lake Band of Chippewa
State	Minnesota
Counties	Beltrami Clearwater
Headquarters	Red Lake
Government [1]
• Body	Tribal Council
• Chairman	Darrell G. Seki, Sr.
• Secretary	Sam Strong
• Treasurer	Vernelle R. Lussier
Area [2]
• Total	1,260.32 sq mi (3,264.2 km2)
• Land	883.087 sq mi (2,287.18 km2)
• Water	377.233 sq mi (977.03 km2)  29.9%
Population  (2020)[3]
• Total	5,506
• Density	6.2/sq mi (2.4/km2)
Website	redlakenation.org

The Red Lake Indian Reservation (Ojibwe: Miskwaagamiiwi-zaaga'iganing) covers 1,260.3 sq mi (3,264 km²; 806,600 acres)^[2] in parts of nine counties in Minnesota, United States. It is made up of numerous holdings but the largest section is an area around Red Lake, in north-central Minnesota, the largest lake in the state. This section lies primarily in the counties of Beltrami and Clearwater. Land in seven other counties is also part of the reservation. The reservation population was 5,506 in the 2020 census.^[3]

The second-largest section (49°16′N 95°03′W / 49.267°N 95.050°W / 49.267; -95.050) is much farther north, in the Northwest Angle of Lake of the Woods County near the Canada–United States border. It has no permanent residents. Between these two largest sections are hundreds of mostly small, non-contiguous reservation exclaves in the counties of Beltrami, Clearwater, Lake of the Woods, Koochiching, Roseau, Pennington, Marshall, Red Lake, and Polk. Home to the federally recognized Red Lake Band of Chippewa, it is unique as the only "closed reservation" in Minnesota. In a closed reservation, all land is held in common by the tribe and there is no private property.^[4]

The tribe claims the land by right of conquest and aboriginal title; they were not reassigned to it by the United States government.^[4] The Red Lake Band of Chippewa refused to join with six other bands in organizing as the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe in the mid-1930s; at the time, its people wanted to preserve their traditional system of hereditary chiefs, rather than forming an electoral government. As of 2011, the Ojibwe language is the official language of Red Lake.^[5] Seven principal clans (doodems) found on the Red Lake Indian Reservation are makwa (bear), mikinaak (turtle), owaazisii (bullhead), nigig (otter), migizi (eagle), waabizheshi (marten), and ogiishkimanisii (kingfisher). As a population minority name (sturgeon) and adik (caribou) clans are also found.^[6]

In the 2000 census, Red Lake was the most populous reservation in the state, with 5,162 residents. The only place in Minnesota with a higher Native American population at that time was the state's largest city, Minneapolis, 250 miles to the south; it recorded 8,378 Indian residents that year. By 2007, the White Earth and Leech Lake reservations (both led by parts of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe) had higher resident populations of enrolled Ojibwe. The reservation's largest community is Red Lake, on the south shore of Red Lake. Given the large lake in the heart of the reservation, its total land area of 883.08 square miles (2,287.2 km²) covers about 70% of the reservation's surface area.^[2]