Mille Lacs Indians

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Mille Lacs Indians" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (March 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The Mille Lacs Indians (Ojibwe: Misi-zaaga'iganiwininiwag), also known as the Mille Lacs and Snake River Band of Chippewa, are a Band of Indians formed from the unification of the Mille Lacs Band of Mississippi Chippewa (Ojibwe) with the Mille Lacs Band of Mdewakanton Sioux (Dakota).^{[citation needed]} Today, their successor apparent Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe consider themselves as being Ojibwe, but many on their main reservation have the ma'iingan (wolf) as their chief doodem (clan), which is an indicator of Dakota origins.^{[citation needed]}

Mille Lacs Indians, because of their mixed Chippewa-Sioux heritage, have become the cultural lynch-pin linking the two former warring nations into a single people, providing Ojibwe culture and customs to the Dakota just as providing Dakota culture and customs to the Ojibwe. All of the drums held among the Mille Lacs Indians are of Dakota origins, singing Dakota melodies but translated into Ojibwe.