Our History
The Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians is part of the Algonquian family of aboriginal North Americans. Through a series of treaties and agreements from 1863 through 1905 we gave up land but never ceded the main reservation surrounding Lower Red Lake and a portion of Upper Red Lake. Tribal leadership during this period skillfully resisted allotment legislation and held the land intact for the Tribe as a whole. Today the Tribe's Independence Day, July 6, is in honor of the courage of our chiefs in resisting allotment during the negotiations of the 1889 Nelson Act. And we are the only Chippewa Band in Minnesota not affiliated with the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, the umbrella governmental organization formed under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934.
Our reservation, located in northern Minnesota 30 miles north of Bemidji, has four districts, which include Red Lake, Redby, Ponemah and Little Rock. It is the most populous reservation in the state. Our tribal government has full sovereignty over the reservation and is governed by its own constitution.
Red Lake operates three casinos all under the Seven Clans Casinos brand. They are located in Thief River Falls, Warroad, and Red Lake. The casino logo makes use of the official tribal seal, which shows the two large, deep linked lakes, with the animals of the Red Lake Anishinaabe clans above it.
