Bad River Chippewa Band
Encyclopedia
Ojibwa
The Ojibwe or Chippewa are among the largest groups of Native Americans–First Nations north of Mexico. They are divided between Canada and the United States. In Canada, they are the third-largest population among First Nations, surpassed only by Cree and Inuit...
Indians is located on a reservation on the south shore of Lake Superior
Lake Superior
Lake Superior is the largest of the five traditionally-demarcated Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded to the north by the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Minnesota, and to the south by the U.S. states of Wisconsin and Michigan. It is the largest freshwater lake in the...
. The reservation, which has a land area of 497.477 km² (192.077 sq mi), is in northern Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
straddling Ashland and Iron
Iron County, Wisconsin
Iron County is a county located in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of 2000, the population was 6,861. Its county seat is Hurley.-Geography:According to the U.S...
counties. The band has approximately 7,000 members, of whom about 1,800 lived on the reservation during the 2000 census
United States Census, 2000
The Twenty-second United States Census, known as Census 2000 and conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2% over the 248,709,873 persons enumerated during the 1990 Census...
. Most people live in one of four communities: Odanah
Odanah, Wisconsin
Odanah is a census-designated place in Ashland County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 254 at the 2000 census.Odanah is the cultural and administrative center of the Bad River Chippewa Band of the Chippewa.-Geography:...
, Old Odanah, Birch Hill
Birch Hill, Wisconsin
Birch Hill is a census-designated place in the town of Sanborn, Ashland County, Wisconsin, United States. Its population was 293 as of the 2010 census....
, or Frank's Field/Aspen Estates
Franks Field, Wisconsin
Franks Field is a census-designated place in the town of Sanborn, Ashland County, Wisconsin, United States. Its population was 154 as of the 2010 census. Franks Field is located on the Bad River Indian Reservation....
. Odanah, the administrative and cultural center, is located five miles (8 km) east of the town of Ashland
Ashland (town), Wisconsin
Ashland is a town in Ashland County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 603 at the 2000 census. There is also the City of Ashland located about northeast of the town...
on U.S. Highway 2
U.S. Route 2
U.S. Route 2 is an east–west U.S. Highway spanning across the northern continental United States. US 2 consists of two segments connected by various roadways in southern Canada...
. New Odanah
New Odanah, Wisconsin
New Odanah is a census-designated place in the town of Sanborn, Ashland County, Wisconsin, United States. Its population was 472 as of the 2010 census. New Odanah is located on the Bad River Indian Reservation....
is also located on the reservation. Over 90% of the reservation is wilderness.
History
According to AnishinaabeAnishinaabe
Anishinaabe or Anishinabe—or more properly Anishinaabeg or Anishinabek, which is the plural form of the word—is the autonym often used by the Odawa, Ojibwe, and Algonquin peoples. They all speak closely related Anishinaabemowin/Anishinaabe languages, of the Algonquian language family.The meaning...
prophecy, Gichi Manidoo, the Great Spirit, told the Anishinaabe
Anishinaabe
Anishinaabe or Anishinabe—or more properly Anishinaabeg or Anishinabek, which is the plural form of the word—is the autonym often used by the Odawa, Ojibwe, and Algonquin peoples. They all speak closely related Anishinaabemowin/Anishinaabe languages, of the Algonquian language family.The meaning...
people to move west from the Atlantic coast until they found the "food that grows on water." After a series of stops and divisions, the branch of Anishinaabe known as the Lake Superior Chippewa
Lake Superior Chippewa
The Lake Superior Chippewa were a historical band of Ojibwe Indians living around Lake Superior in what is now the northern parts of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.-Origins:...
found the food that grows on water, wild rice
Wild rice
Wild rice is four species of grasses forming the genus Zizania, and the grain which can be harvested from them. The grain was historically gathered and eaten in both North America and China...
, near the Chequamegon Bay
Chequamegon Bay
Chequamegon Bay is an inlet of Lake Superior, NE-SW and 2- wide, in Ashland and Bayfield counties in the extreme northern part of Wisconsin. It lies largely inside the barrier of Chequamegon Point and Long Island, with the Bad River Indian Reservation to the east. Ashland, Wisconsin is on its...
on the south shore of Lake Superior at the site of the present day Bad River Reservation, and found their final stopping place at nearby Madeline Island
Madeline Island
Madeline Island is an island of the U.S. state of Wisconsin located in Lake Superior approximately two miles northeast of Bayfield, Wisconsin, and connected to that town seasonally by a 20 minute ferry ride or an ice road. It is the largest of the Apostle Islands, although it is not included...
.
After the 17th century, Anishinaabe
Anishinaabe
Anishinaabe or Anishinabe—or more properly Anishinaabeg or Anishinabek, which is the plural form of the word—is the autonym often used by the Odawa, Ojibwe, and Algonquin peoples. They all speak closely related Anishinaabemowin/Anishinaabe languages, of the Algonquian language family.The meaning...
people settled throughout northern Wisconsin into lands formerly disputed with the Dakota Sioux and the Meskwaki
Meskwaki
The Meskwaki are a Native American people often known to outsiders as the Fox tribe. They have often been closely linked to the Sauk people. In their own language, the Meskwaki call themselves Meshkwahkihaki, which means "the Red-Earths." Historically their homelands were in the Great Lakes region...
. Those that remained near the trading post of La Pointe on Madeline Island were known collectively as the La Pointe Band and engaged in the fur trade
Fur trade
The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of world market for in the early modern period furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the most valued...
with neighboring French settlers. They also pursued other seasonal occupations such as berry picking, harvesting maple sugar, fishing, ricing, hunting, and gathering medicinal plants. After a disastrous attempt at removing
Indian Removal
Indian removal was a nineteenth century policy of the government of the United States to relocate Native American tribes living east of the Mississippi River to lands west of the river...
the Lake Superior Bands, resulting in the Sandy Lake Tragedy
Sandy Lake Tragedy
The Sandy Lake Tragedy was the culmination of a series of events centered in Sandy Lake, Minnesota, that resulted in the deaths in 1850 of several hundred Lake Superior Chippewa. Officials of the Zachary Taylor Administration and Minnesota Territory sought to relocate several bands of the tribe to...
, the US government agreed to set up permanent reservations in Wisconsin. At this point, the La Pointe band split with Roman Catholic members under the leadership of Kechewaishke (Chief Buffalo), taking a reservation at Red Cliff
Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa
Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa is a band of Ojibwe Indians. The Red Cliff Band is located on the Red Cliff Indian Reservation, on Lake Superior in Bayfield County, Wisconsin. Red Cliff, Wisconsin, is the administrative center...
. Those who maintained traditional Midewiwin
Midewiwin
The Midewiwin or the Grand Medicine Society is a secretive religion of the aboriginal groups of the Maritimes, New England and Great Lakes regions in North America. Its practitioners are called Midew and the practices of Midewiwin referred to as Mide...
beliefs settled at Bad River. The two bands, however, maintain close relations to this day.
The reservation land was set aside for the Bad River Band in the Treaty of La Pointe
Treaty of La Pointe
The Treaty of La Pointe may refer to either of two treaties made and signed in La Pointe, Wisconsin between the United States and the Ojibwe Native American peoples...
, made with the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and signed on Madeline Island on 30 September 1854. The treaty land included almost 200 acres (0.8 km²) on Madeline Island, which is the center of the Ojibwe Nation. The band is one of six in Wisconsin that are federally recognized.
During the late 19th century, an order of Franciscan
Franciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
sisters set up St. Mary's School in Odanah, an Indian boarding school used to convert and assimilate tribal members. During this period, timber companies on the reservation cheated and destroyed the land the tribe cherished. During the Allotment period
Dawes Act
The Dawes Act, adopted by Congress in 1887, authorized the President of the United States to survey Indian tribal land and divide the land into allotments for individual Indians. The Act was named for its sponsor, Senator Henry L. Dawes of Massachusetts. The Dawes Act was amended in 1891 and again...
, the tribe lost almost half its land base, which originally covered all the area of modern day Ashland, Wisconsin
Ashland, Wisconsin
Ashland is a city in Ashland and Bayfield counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The city is a port on Lake Superior, near the head of Chequamegon Bay. The population was 8,695 at the 2010 census....
.
Revival
As Lake Superior Ojibwe, the Bad River Lapointe Band retains its rights to hunt, fish, gather wild rice, and medicinal plants over the ceded territory of northern Wisconsin, MichiganMichigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
, and Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
. The tribe pressed these claims throughout the 20th century, and after the tribal members from Bad River and the other Lake Superior bands resumed their traditional practice of spear fishing, resulting in the Wisconsin Walleye War
Wisconsin Walleye War
Civil unrest erupted in Wisconsin after U.S. District Court Judge Barbara Crabb handed down a ruling on August 21, 1987 that affirmed the treaty right of six Ojibwe or Chippewa tribal governments to regulate their members' hunting and fishing outside of the reservation boundaries, based on the...
.
In 1996, a group of Ojibwe activists known as the Anishinaabe Ogitchida blocked a railroad shipment
Bad River Train Blockade
The Bad River train blockade was a 1996 protest on the Bad River Ojibwe Reservation in Ashland County, Wisconsin USA. Ojibwe activists blocked the railroad tracks that would have brought sulfuric acid to a mine in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan bringing national scrutiny on the United States...
of sulfuric acid
Sulfuric acid
Sulfuric acid is a strong mineral acid with the molecular formula . Its historical name is oil of vitriol. Pure sulfuric acid is a highly corrosive, colorless, viscous liquid. The salts of sulfuric acid are called sulfates...
from crossing the reservation. Destined for a mine in Michigan, the protestors complained the acid posed a danger to the reservation and the Lake Superior watershed. The national attention brought by the protests forced the EPA to stop the use of acid in the mine.
Sixteen thousand acres (65 km²) of the reservation are high quality wetlands due the Kakagon River and Bad River
Bad River (Wisconsin)
The Bad River is a river flowing to Lake Superior in northern Wisconsin in the United States. It flows for 76 miles in Ashland County, draining an area of 1,061 square miles in portions of Ashland, Bayfield and Iron Counties....
sloughs
Swamp
A swamp is a wetland with some flooding of large areas of land by shallow bodies of water. A swamp generally has a large number of hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodical inundation. The two main types of swamp are "true" or swamp...
. The wetlands are ideal for the cultivation of wild rice
Wild rice
Wild rice is four species of grasses forming the genus Zizania, and the grain which can be harvested from them. The grain was historically gathered and eaten in both North America and China...
, the historical occupation of the Ojibwe. The sloughs constitute the only remaining extensive coastal wild rice marsh in the Great Lakes region
Great Lakes region (North America)
The Great Lakes region of North America, occasionally known as the Third Coast or the Fresh Coast , includes the eight U.S. states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as well as the Canadian province of Ontario...
. The headquarters of the Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission
Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission
The Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission is an inter-tribal, co-management agency committed to the implementation of off-reservation treaty rights on behalf of its eleven-member Ojibwa tribes...
(GLIFWC) is on the Bad River Reservation. The tribe also owns and operates a fish hatchery that stocks local rivers and lakes with 15 million walleye
Walleye
Walleye is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the northern United States. It is a North American close relative of the European pikeperch...
annually.
Due to its landscape and proximity to Madeline Island, Bad River is a major key to the Ojibwe Nation. People from all over Ojibwe Country come for the annual August Celebration of the manomiin or wild rice harvest.
Bad River has also made many beneficial changes to its communities. The Bad River Band Of Lapoint Ojibwe own and operate a casino, as well as the Moccasin Trail gas station and grocery store complex. The Tribe also runs a clinic, local transit, tribal school, daycare, and Headstart, as well as a police and volunteer fire department.
Some key buildings that help the tribe run are as follows: a tribal fire hall and youth center on the Birch Hill community, and a utility garage in the Franks Field community.
People of the Bad River Band
- Patty Loew - Associate professor in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Life Sciences Communication and co-host of Wisconsin Public Television show "In Wisconsin"