Minnesota Chippewa Tribe

The Minnesota Chippewa Tribe flag

Map showing the reservations of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe

The Minnesota Chippewa Tribe (MCT) is a centralized government for six Chippewa (Ojibwe or Anishinaabe) bands in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It was created on June 18, 1934, and the organization and its constitution were recognized by the Secretary of the Interior two years later on July 24, 1936.

Powers are divided between the state tribal organization, which provides many administrative services, and the individual Indian reservations. The bands that make up the tribe are:

• Bois Forte Band of Chippewa
• Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa
• Grand Portage Band of Chippewa
• Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe
• Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe
• White Earth Band of Ojibwe

Together the six bands have total enrolled members numbering 40,677 as of July 2007. The largest of the bands is White Earth, which had more than 19,000 members. According to the 2010 US Census, Leech Lake had 10,660 residents living on its reservation, the most of any single reservation in the state.

Notably, the Red Lake Band of Chippewa is not part of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe. In 1934 it declined to participate as its people did not want to give up their system of hereditary chiefs. They wrote a constitution in the 1950s and elected their first chairman in 1959.

Services

The Minnesota Chippewa Tribe provides basic services to each of its six member Band, unless the individual Band has signed a compact to provide these services themselves. The services are provided through their offices located in Cass Lake, Minnesota.

• Administration
  • Executive Direction
  • Tribal Operations
    • Enrollment
  • Accounting & Liquor Licenses
  • Human Resources
• Education
  • Scholarship Information
  • Johnson O’Malley
  • Indian Boarding Schools
• Finance Corporation
  • Home Loans
  • Business Loans
  • Homes for Sale
• Human Services
  • Senior Services
  • Investment, Employment and Welfare
  • Food Stamp Nutrition Education

External links

• Minnesota Chippewa Tribe - Official website
• Bois Forte Band of Chippewa
• Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa
• Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa
• Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe
• Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe
• White Earth Indian Reservation Tribal Council