Description
The Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, known as “the non-removeable band,” remained steadfast in the face of challenges to the Treaty of 1855, which granted them 61,000 acres of land along the south shore of Lake Mille Lacs for their use indefinitely. Soon Euro-American entrepreneurs encroached on these rights and encouraged Ojibwe families to move elsewhere, but Mille Lacs Band members held firm. They Would Not Be Moved traces the history of a people defending their rights through decades of opposition to their sovereignty and their stewardship. Loggers and settlers claimed parcels, taking advantage of lax governmental oversight. Neighbors may have wished away the Mille Lacs Reservation, but historical maps, contemporary newspaper accounts, and congressional declarations make clear the reservation was never dissolved.
Bruce White opens this essential history with oral traditions of the people at home on the land. He interprets treaty negotiations to outline how each side understood the signed agreements. Local newspapers show that some nearby communities supported the Mille Lacs people, and family narratives relate the challenges and successes of those who stayed to defend their rights. Ultimately, the story of the Mille Lacs Reservation is one of triumph—of courage and survival and successful resistance.
About the Author
Bruce White has dedicated more than four decades to researching Native history in Minnesota and North America. His books include We Are at Home: Pictures of the Ojibwe People and, with Gwen Westerman, Mni Sota Makoce: The Land of the Dakota. He has authored expert reports used in court cases testing treaties and the application of laws relating to Native people. His expert report in the 1994 Mille Lacs hunting and fishing case was quoted by Sandra Day O’Connor in her 1999 majority opinion upholding the rights of the Mille Lacs Band to hunt and fish in the ceded area of the Treaty of 1837. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Melanie Benjamin is chief executive of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Ayndusokeshig, the son of Mozomonay, spoke about the promises made to Mille Lacs Band members by Minnesota senator Henry Rice to remove the early settlers on the reservation. This had not been done:
Instead of moving them off they came onto the reservation in big swarms, like mosquitoes and settled there after the treaty was signed. . . . When you got a mosquito bite on your finger it only sting[s] you a little while but these white people when they came there and took possession of all our property, our little gardens, even our blueberry patches; we could not pick our blueberries there, they drove us out of our rice fields, we could not get our rice, they would not let us pick our rice there. . . .
For myself I know that I had a little house built there and a little garden. I was driven twice out of my little house, they did the same thing to all the Mille Lac [Ojibwe] there. Even they went so far, in our little villages, they came around and drove us away but when we didn’t go they would take our household stuff and set it on fire and drove us away and scattered us all over.
Ayndusokeshig complained that no allotments had been given after the 1889 Nelson Act. “We have been waiting for ex-Senator Rice to fulfill his promises. We are waiting for what ex-Senator Rice promised to be fulfilled, what he promised.”
Product details
- Publisher : Minnesota Historical Society Press (October 1, 2024)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 320 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1681342960
- ISBN-13 : 978-1681342962
- Item Weight : 1.15 pounds
- Dimensions : 5.83 x 1.02 x 8.9 inches
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