Ojibwe aboriginals in Cass Lake/Leech Lake Minnesota Including their History Treaties Essay

I. IntroductionThe Ojibwe (Plural Ojibweg) are masses who belong to the First kingdom and of a big Native American language group. They are on top in damage of prevalence among the North American internal language folk musics. Scholars and Elders of Ojibwe perceive that the group has pastal relations with some(prenominal) separate muckles that share some language points. The Ojibwe oral tradition gives light to such(prenominal) speculations as it assigns the Ojibwe to be part of the Three Fires of Anishinabe, along with the Ottawa and the Potawatomi (Turtle Island Productions, 2003).In the Ojibwe language, Anishinabe pertains to original mint, original man, or one of the raft. This is how the Ojibwe pile prefer to be c all in alled. The word Ojibwe is spelled in many forms, owing to how the Euroepans of early condemnations comprehend and spelled it. Some of the forms include Ojibewa, Ojibwe, Otchipwe, Chippewa, or Chippeway (Turtle Island Productions, 2003). For the pu rposes of this paper, the term Ojibwe leave be utilisationd.The Gaa-zagaskwaajimekaag, or the bloodsucker Lake Indian Reservation, houses the Ojibwe people in the north-central move of manganese. jibe to the census of 2000, it is the largest Indian substitute in the state, with its population amounting to 10,205 in that stratum ( phlebotomize Lake Indian Reservation, 2007). The almost dominant community deep d confess it is the Cass Lake. Ten other communities within the making include Bena, Pennington, Sugar Point, lubber Club, Onigum, Smokey Point, Inger, Squaw Lake, Mission and Oak Point (Indian personal business Council, 2007).How the Ojibwe people came to live in this area of Minnesota and how their settlement was established throughout histories of treaties will be the subject of this paper. Contemporary issues that face the Ojibwe people of Leech Lake will oerly be discussed.II. The Leech Lake Ojibwe and their HistoryAccording to history shared through oral trad ition, the Ojibwe people originally lived along the bays of North America, speculated to be both in Hudson Bay or in St. Lawrence gulf. By the 1400s, the climate in the North America became way cold so that in effect, the jump Ojibwe caboodles pertinacious to move towards Lake Huron, and later further north to occupy the shores of Michigan. Their course continued westward until they reached Lake Superior in the 1500s (Sultzman, 2000).Pushed by war and fur trade, the Ojibwe people do an expansion towards the west, east and south until they had control over a vast portion of southern Ontario and lower Michigan in 1701, and won over the northern portions of Wisconsin and Minnesota in 1737. Movements continued until the Ojibwe people had settlements in so many areas by the 1800s, Minnesota to include. However, eventual coup of the whites ripd the Ojibwe onto reservation (Sultzman, 2000).another(prenominal) way to view the Ojibwe migration is to take subsequently what their oral tradition discusses that one of their miigis or radiant cosmoss related a prophesy that the Ojibwe people should move further west if they desire to watch their traditions amidst the arrival of European immigrants. Thus the Ojibwe people do the movements discussed above, some of them at last settling in Minnesota (Ojibwa, 2007).It was on the small islands of Leech Lake where the Ojibwe in Minnesota start-off settled in the 1700s. The area became home to the coddler Ojibwe and Mississippi bands, but southwest portions of it were taken by 1847 treaties to be allot for the tribes that were moved from Wisconsin. (Ojibwa, 2007). The rest of the Leech Lake Ojibwe lands were relinquished to the United States governance by the treaty of 1885, leaving the Ojibwe with the establishment of the 670,000-acre Leech Lake Indian Reservation (Oakes, February, 2005).The first treaties that were set in place were usually termed as Peace and friendship Treaties. The aim of such treaties is to build healthy ties among the Ojibwe people and the Europeans. Such treaties provided the rump for resource sharing to be made possible between the aborigines and the settlers (Ojibwa, 2007).The treaties that followed, however, entailed cessions of lands. These were perceived to overhaul as advantageous for the territorial interests of the U.S. However, such cessions were not tended to(p) by clear terms that were understood entirely by the Ojibwe people. The flat coat behind this is the disparate heathenish perspectives of the Ojibwe and the government regarding the land. The government sees the land as a commodity, and something of worth at that. Thus, for them, land could be purchased, entitled for exclusion, and traded without ascendence (Ojibwa, 2007).The Ojibwe people, on the other hand, perceive land to be non- easy lay. For them, land should be shared completely to everyone, in the same way that water, air and temperateness should be treated. During the period of trea ty conferences, the Ojibwe did not know anything about exclusive land ownership or entitlement, moreover of selling land. Thus, modern time legal debates on treaties and of interpreting them usually expound on the dissimilarity among cultural understanding of terms in such treaties. Only with cultural sensitivity and comprehension could obligations and rights based on such treaties could be understood (Ojibwa, 2007).One such treaty where cultural sensitivity could be use would be that of 1864. With the intention of transferring other Ojibwe bands in Minnesota to Leech Lake, the 1864 conformity was made to expand and fortify the reservation. Changes in plans were made however so that in 1967, the White Earth Reservation was established to house all of the Ojibwe. 1873 and 1874 executive director orders reduced the lands of the Leech Lake Reservation (Indian Affairs Council, 2007).Tax forfeitures, allotments, and seizures for government forests and parks later reduced the remaining land until only or so five to six percent of the original area was left to the Ojibwe people (Giese, 1997). The severe reduction of Ojibwe lands was the gravest that any tribe in Minnesota has experienced. This was made worse by the increasing valuation for the lakes and forests of the reservation as whites progressively settled in Minnesota. It was only in recent years that the conventionalism of land loss was inverted (Oakes, February, 2005).III. Further Treaties and Relevant Events in Leech Lake Ojibwe HistoryIn 1881, the United States Army Corps of Engineers began to build dams at lake outlets including that of Cass and Leech Lake to provide a stable water power for Minneapolis. In the course of such activities, water levels rose seven feet such that Ojibwe homes, rice beds, food and sepulcher drive were destroyed (Oakes, February, 2005).Meanwhile, the Dawes affect of 1887, along with the Nelson Act of 1889, made it possible for individual Ojibweg to be allotted and sell p arts of reservations lands to settlers, railroads, and timber companies. Because of land sales, fraud, and tax forfeitures, more Ojibweg lost their lands through these Acts (Oakes, February, 2005).By 1898, the Leech Lake Ojibwes anger over their loss of land and heedless enter activities in the area reached boiling point, resulting in gunfire switch over that lasted for three days and seven finiss among federal soldiers. The battle was recorded as the last between American soldiers and American-Indian natives. In gratitude to the stoppage of what could be a full-blast Ojibwe revolt, the government forgave the involved Ojibweg. In 1908, the concern of aggressive logging activities in the region pushed the United States government to form the Chippewa National Forest (Oakes, February, 2005).It was in 1912 when a white family started the pioneer fishing resort on Cass Lake. From there, several people followed suit until tourism became the reservations second study industry, though it was not the natives who drew much of the profit. On the other hand, 1925 dictum to the decline of timber supply in Cass Lake and the fall of the great logging boom (Oakes, February, 2005).In 1933, the outpour of white settlers in the reservation ended as the US Government Land Office in the area closed. heretofore to date, white settlers in the area remain to be more than half(a) (Oakes, February, 2005).1937 saw to the Leech Lake Ojibwe adopting its first ever constitution. Legal activities of the tribe create as 1972 saw to the Ojibwe band settling a lawsuit for the reassertion of their right to hunt, fish, and gather within the bounds of the reservation beyond what is modulate by the state. This was the first of its kind and affirms the drive of the Ojibwe people to bear their traditions alive, beyond the restrictions of the government (Oakes, February, 2005).The year 1975 was witness to the growing determination of the Ojibwe people to repugn for their rights as a peo ple when 75 Ojibwe students walked out of their classes in complain against racism, cultural insensitivity, and discrimination in Cass Lake Junior-Senior High School. In response to this, the Ojibwe people started the culture-based school, Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig, for their youth (Oakes, February, 2005). To date, the school is showing great progress.Meanwhile, the Ojibwe started operating casinos in 1983 afterwards the rule of the federal courts stated that Indian tribes must be presumptuousness the liberty to gamble, as respect to their culture. In 1998, the Ojibwe created its own police force through a federal grant, by which it started to administer its own well-mannered rules (Oakes, February, 2005).It was in 2002, however, that a major breakthrough in the political theater happened when Elaine Fleming became the first Ojibwe to be elected as mayor by the residents of Cass Lake (Oakes, February, 2005).IV. The Leech Lake Ojibwe TodayToday, the Leech lake Ojibwe culture remains vib rant and developing. The Ojibwe in the reservation continue attending jiingotamog gatherings for their spiritual customs, and the niimiidimaa for their social customs. Traditional methods of hunting, harvesting, and making medicines and kale are solace creation prolonged. Ojibwe people still participate in sun dance ceremonies. Even the sacred scrolls of old are being kept hidden for future interpretation (Ojibwa, 2007).Ojibwe people excessively maintain their traditional burial methods of erecting Spirit houses over burial mounds and markers made of wood with the deads doodem written on it. These special burial grounds perk up been viewed with much value that they commit become endanger to thieves. The Native American Graves security department and Repatriation Act was made to serve to such issues and have benefited the preservation of the Ojibwes burial traditions (Ojibwa, 2007).The Leech Lake Ojibwe band has also been pioneering in securing their rights to fish, hunt, an d plant wild rice practices which are enter in their culture as a people (Indian Affairs Council, 2007). Another aspect that determines the maintenance of the Leech Lake Ojibwes cultural integrity is its subsequence of its traditional extraction of medicine and food from plants, as well as other such activities bound by tradition (US Environmental Protection Agency, 2007).Meanwhile, the Leech Lake Ojibwe had organized community councils with the intent of airing their political concerns. They have also seen to it that they have their own means to health services, education, fire protection, and such community necessities. The band even started a burial insurance design in 1995 (Indian Affairs Council, 2007).As for the State, it pays the Leech lake Ojibwe tribe for controlling its use of resources within the reservation. Furthermore, the Ojibwe also deputizes the conservation officers of the State so that their own tribal natural resource codes will be enforced (Indian Affairs Co uncil, 2007).Because the Ojibwe band was permitted to operate casinos, such casinos have made the band Cass Countys biggest employer (Indian Affairs Council, 2007). Through an Ojibwe currently residing in Oregon, the Leech Lake Ojibwe also markets their very own products of wild rice and locally-made craft baskets internationally (Giese, 1997).Today, the Leech Lake Ojibwe tribe decided that the reservation must keep its existence in line with the treaties and executive orders upon which it was founded. This is because even with the said treaties and orders at place, they could still exist as a people within the bounds of their cultures, traditions, and beliefs (US Environmental Protection Agency, 2007).For one, the tribe still holds its constitutional and natural sovereign power over the reservation and its people. Further, the tribe also holds power over the activities of outsiders in the reservation, for as long as such activities affect or threaten to affect the well-being, poli tical integrity, heath, and economic security of the Leech Lake Ojibwe (US Environmental Protection Agency, 2007).The Ojibwe people, with the treaties in place, are also able to maintain regulatory authority over the water resources of the reservation. This is because having the intrinsic rights to the reservations waters, their intent is to ascertain that their water resources would remain practicable for generations to come, the reservation being their permanent home. The Ojibwe people of Leech Lake also serve for the protection and preservation of its waters since with this comes the promotion of the tribes historic and religious set. By doing so, they are also able to maintain a suitable environment for the reservations wildlife, something which has been embedded in the values of the Ojibwe as a people (US Environmental Protection Agency, 2007).However, though the Ojibwe people of Leech Lake have been perceived to have maintained their culture and traditions, a sad fact loom s over the band. The number of youths in the reservation who have been involved in drugs, alcohol, violence, and imprisonment is appalling. Murders have been common in the area. Statistics indicate that the Leech Lake Reservation is one of the worst places for children in all of Minnesota (Oakes, April, 2004).A 1999 government research found Cass County to be the poorest in terms of childrens safety and health. It was also determined in 2002 to have the most children who live in foster and care homes. Majority of these cases entail Ojibwe children who were flea-bitten by their parents or taken forcibly away from them on grounds of neglect, delinquency, or even abuse. The main thrust behind this seems to be alcoholism, which kick up the Ojibwe people of whatever age and gender. Parents leave their children behind on accounts of being drunk, or imprisoned because of some crime they did while drunk (Oakes, April, 2004).Thus, death looms eight years earlier over the lives of the Ojibw e in the Leech Lake reservation (Oakes, April, 2004). And this fact is something to be bothered about, especially when considering the current status and welfare of the Leech Lake Ojibwe people. It is a threat that must be dealt with, if the centuries of battling with treaties, fighting for their rights, and maintaining their cultures and traditions will not be put into waste.The Ojibwe of Leech Lake are a splendiferous people who have a great history behind them, and a great culture and tradition with them. It thus matters, more than the treaties, to make efforts to keep their welfare and their people alive, because if not, we know that something great will die.