Ojibwe Nation Archipelago
Reservation tourism in WI & MN
Native American nations can be fascinating places to visit, but make no mistake – you might tell yourself you are entering a sovereign nation when you cross the reservation boundary but you aren’t. You’ll still be bound by the registry laws of whatever US state you’re in.
Nor should you get any funny ideas if you are of native ancestry that you can somehow escape your registry status by moving to the reservation of whatever tribe you belong to. You can’t. As you must already realize, the oppression of the registry will follow you onto the reservation whether you’re a visitor or become a resident. That’s why I have placed the registry laws of Wisconsin and Minnesota at the beginning of this blog entry, rather than any tribal registry laws. There may be a few tribal laws on the books but they’ve got bigger concerns than having yet another outsider passing through.
Another point that must be clearly made to anyone planning to travel to Indian Country is that you are NOT going to a tourist attraction. This is not Pennsylvania Dutch Country where you as a tourist are invited to gawk at the locals driving their buggies and eat at an expensive smorgasbord. To the contrary, you are about to enter upon a place where quite frankly you don’t belong. Your visit is merely tolerated, and as far as I’m concerned that is as it should be.
Most recent visit: July 2025
Despite this lack of an
invitation, however, on my 2025 road trip to WI & MN I wanted to travel
through as many reservations as I could squeeze into the time allotted. These included the following:
Ojibwe Nation – Lac du Flambeau
Band
Ojibwe Nation – Lac Courte
Oreilles Band
Ojibwe Nation – Leech Lake Band
Ojibwe Nation – White Earth Band
Point of clarification: You
won’t see “Ojibwe Nation” on your Rand McNally or GPS map. Instead it says Chippewa Indians. I never saw that word used on any reservation
so I won’t use it here.
One thing was very clear to me as I traveled through the Ojibwe Archipelago – the Ojibwe people love their lakes and forests and will do whatever it takes to protect them from exploitation by outsiders. In the past that would’ve been fur traders, mining and logging. Wow, logging … that must’ve been just horrible for the Ojibwe to witness.
Today the danger comes from an invasion of tourists and gamblers. How can each Band harness the economic potential of these new invaders without sacrificing their lands and culture in the process? One approach followed by all Ojibwe Bands I visited is severely restricting on their lands all the commercial crap that supports the recreation tourism that has overwhelmed this region – especially northern Wisconsin.
As soon as I crossed any reservation boundary all that disappeared, replaced by sacred lakes and forests. Commercial development is restricted mostly to their towns. The few billboards you’ll see have either public service messages or promote businesses in the towns. As a retired town planner I wholeheartedly endorse that approach.
The main tribal town is where you will find tribal offices and government, public health and welfare services. Each Band also provides a rural transit system to get their people to these services. I came across a couple of museums but they were closed and had only occasional hours.
There is usually a reservation store in the tribal town. Nowadays it looks and acts much like a supermarket and center of community life. I’ve started visiting these stores to see how the town is doing. I didn’t see any local restaurants – why is that? Instead there’s a food counter at the reservation store but they only sell the same crap you’d get off-reservation.
Beyond that I adapted my approach to visiting small towns to each Band of the archipelago. See the reservation, visit the tribal town’s downtown and check on its residential neighborhoods. Out of concern for privacy I took very few photos.
What did I find?
Wisconsin - From the 50
state visitor guide :
Wis. Stat. 2019 §§301.45
through 301.50
Registration Triggers and Deadlines:
10 days for initial
registration, after entering state, and for updates. Employment defined as a period exceeding 14
days or 30 days in a calendar year. §301.45(3).
Per Wisconsin SOR response
letter (2019), the 10 day period also applies to visitors. No mention of any limit per month or year.
Per Wisconsin SOR response
letter (2019), a procedure is
available for removal from registry after departure.
Residency/Presence and Other Restrictions:
Registrants must provide notice before going on school grounds. §
301.475.
Duration & updates:
15 years to life. Verification: SVPs – 90 days; others annually. §301.45(4).
Ojibwe Nation – Lac du Flambeau Band
This Band lies just west of the main recreation tourist region of northern Wisconsin, but turns its back on their neighbors’ garish commercialism. Lac du Flambeau means Lake of the Torch, and there’s lots of torch imagery here. The town is in the center of the reservation surrounded by a couple of nice lakes.
This Band’s casino is right at the main intersection downtown. They are hoping that some gamblers will take a break and patronize the cluster of businesses they have there. Reservation store okay. Town has an impressive group of tribal administration and public health and welfare facilities.
Continuing west, WI 47 passes between two of the lakes. Here there are several very nice lakefront vacation home neighborhoods. It looks like these expensive vacation homes are this Band’s concession to the tourist industry, bringing in tax revenue and seasonal customers for their town. If I was looking for a desirable lakefront vacation home, secluded but close to all my vacation needs, this would be the place.
On the other hand I suppose there’s nothing to prevent tribal leaders and elites from suburbanizing to these nice lakefront neighborhoods, right? The tribe gets the tax income either way. That could also explain why the old neighborhoods in Lac du Flambeau are total slums – everybody left who could. I remember seeing a small apartment complex under construction as I headed back east out of town.
Ojibwe Nation – Lac Courte Oreilles Band
This Band is about the same area as Lac du Flambeau, but differently situated, between the nearby county seat of Hayward and Chequamegon Nat. Forest. They have put their casino not far off reservation on the way to Hayward. The tribal town, Reserve, is tiny although there is a reservation store.
I’m guessing that instead of duplicating all the public health, welfare and business services available so close at hand, the Lac Courte Oreilles Band is better off contracting with the providers in Hayward and making sure they have good rural transit service to get their people there. That way Band members have their beautiful lakes and forests to themselves.
Similar to Lac du Flambeau, one of the Lac Courte Oreilles Band’s lakes has a peninsular lakefront community called Northwood Beach. I respected privacy by not venturing in but I imagine it to be another mixture of outsider vacation homes and local leaders and elites.
Small Town Notes
Hayward:
From Wisconsin blog post – Guess what? Behind all that shlock on US 63 there’s a real town! Downtown is right off US 63 and benefiting from tourist growth.
Here I will add – “All that schlock on US 63” includes the public health, welfare and business services the Lac Courte Oreilles Band needs.
Minnesota - From the 50
state visitor guide :
Minn. Stat. 2019 §243.166
Registration Triggers and Deadlines:
5 days for initial
registration and updates.
Visitors: Presence in state for more than 14 days or
30 days per calendar year triggers obligation to register. §243.166(1b).
Registrants without a primary address register within 24 hours of entering new
jurisdiction, & provide updates in-person weekly.
Residency/Presence and Other Restrictions:
None. Only Level 3
offenders are placed on the public website. (per NARSOL Digest, June 2018, p.7)
Duration & updates:
10 yrs – life. Updates annually (weekly for those without permanent residence). §243.166.
Each of the two Ojibwe Bands in Minnesota is larger in area than both of the Wisconsin Bands put together. Also, both reservations but especially the Leech Lake Band include and are surrounded by state and federally protected lands and forests that interconnect with vast network of protected lands that extend all the way up to Voyageurs National Park on the Canadian border (see my blog post “Flirting with Ontario”). Although that’s probably a blessing and a curse. There are more Ojibwe Archipelago reservations up north too – most notably the Red Lake Band – that I didn’t get to visit on this trip.
From a distance it looks like a perfect set up for a people who love their lakes and forests, so I certainly hope the Ojibwe have retained or wrestled back control of their hunting, fishing and occupational rights to these lands.
Last, and not only not least but most important, the source and headwaters of the Mississippi River lie at Lake Itaska in Itaska State Park and Mississippi Headwaters State Forest, both located smack in between the Leech Lake Band and White Earth Band’s territories. Although the Ojibwe may have had this beating heart of their homeland stolen from them, I came away with reason to imagine that they never forget its role in their culture and exert some influence over what goes on there.
Ojibwe Nation – Leech Lake Band
Coming from the east
I elected not to follow US through the middle of the reservation. Instead I took a side trip on MN 6, 200 &
371. This took me through Chippewa
National Forest. Within the Leech Lake
Band territory I found a series of roads leading off to Leech Lake with signs
saying “Resort ---->” Some said “RV
Resort” and some didn’t.
As you can imagine, vacation tourism in Minnesota is all about its 10,000 lakes. The Leech Lake Band includes really nice likes. It looks to me like the concession to vacation tourism this Band has made is to accommodate a series of self-contained “resorts” around their lakes. Again, I respected privacy by not going to see these resorts but I think we can all conjure up an image of what a nice secluded lakefront RV resort with its own resort store and café might be like. Pretty nice, actually. Meanwhile the Ojibwe people have the rest of their lands to themselves.
I wondered if Walker was the reservation town, but it’s not. It’s an Anglo town. The reservation town is Cass Lake and it’s a dump although it has all the usual public health, welfare and business services I’ve come to expect. I stayed at a nearby national forest campground that night.
Itasca State Park and Mississippi Headwaters State Forest are beautiful places and it broke my heart to know how it’s been torn away from its native people. To add insult to injury, the nearby town of Bemidji boasts the world’s largest statue of Paul Bunyan – America’s symbol of forest destruction and denudation. He stands there with his stupid ox, sticking a thumb in the eye of the Ojibwe people. I refuse to disgrace this post by including my photo of him here ... I'll put it in my Minnesota blog - properly defaced.
However … it so happened that while I was at Itasca State Park a school bus pulled up and unloaded a class of summer day care kids on a field trip. The bus said “Cass Lake Tribal Schools.” This lifted my spirits. The Ojibwe Nation is doing what it takes so their children will honor and protect their native heritage. As CSN sang: “Teach your children well … And feed them on your dreams …”
Ojibwe Nation – White Earth Band
The White Earth Band is different than the others. Going west, somewhere around the Headwaters of the Mississippi America’s Northern Forests give way the fertile open land of the Great Plains. This is farmland, it was late June, the crops were growing and the agricultural economy looked as strong as I have ever seen in my new home state of Iowa. And why shouldn’t the Ojibwe be great farmers? They were right here growing corn long before the europeans got here.
As I have said, if the agricultural economy is strong the town will prosper. The White Earth Band reservation town is Mahnomen, and sure enough it’s prosperous. Mahnomen has everything a Great Plains agricultural town could ask for – starting with an active rail line and a couple of nice giant grain elevators in the middle of town so the Ojibwe farmers cooperative can get their products to market.
Not only that but there are a couple of other small industries in the town with parking lots full of employees. It’s the county seat of Mahnomen County which is entirely within White Earth Band territory. Add all those tribal administration and services into the mix and gee whiz, I wonder who’s running this town, right? The downtown is the usual reservation style jumble, but I swear, the residential neighborhoods are laid out just like any other prosperous Midwestern farm town. Oh yeah, there's a casino too.
However … as I sat in a convenience store parking lot and watched a tribal rural transit bus drop off an old person having difficulty walking inside, I wondered about the challenge to the White Earth Band’s culture and heritage that this very prosperity represents. Any time you have more jobs than local people can fill you’re going to be invaded by outsiders wanting those jobs.
The same goes for
Mahnomen’s nice neighborhoods. I can’t
help wondering who’s really living there (but no I won’t look it up). Also, if the farms are successful outside
agricultural corporations will want in.
The White Earth Band could easily become the victims of their own
success.
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