Minnesota Chippewa Tribe

Minnesota Chippewa Tribe
Flag of Minnesota Chippewa Tribe
Flag
Motto: Nimaamawiinomin
We Come Together
Member bands of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe
Member bands of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe
Administrative headquartersCass Lake, Minnesota
TypeTribal governmental authority
Enrolled membership40,677
Leaders
• President
Cathy Chavers
• Vice President
Ferdinand W. Martineau, Jr.
• Executive Director
Gary Frazer
Establishment
• Establishment
June 18, 1934
July 26, 1936

The Minnesota Chippewa Tribe is the centralized governmental authority for six Ojibwe bands in Minnesota. The tribe was created on June 18, 1934; the organization and its governmental powers are divided between the tribe, and the individual bands, which directly operate their reservations. The bands that make up the tribe are:

As of July 2003, the six bands have 40,677 enrolled members. The White Earth Band is the largest, which had more than 19,000 members. According to the 2010 US Census, the Leech Lake Band had 10,660 residents living on its reservation, the most of any single reservation in the state.

It is projected that the tribe will experience a gradual population decrease in the coming decades, unless it lowers its current membership requirement of at least 25% Native ancestry,[1][2] as a consequence of tribal members having children with non-Native Americans (nationwide, 54-61% of all Native Americans marry non-Natives[3]).

Notably, the Red Lake Band of Chippewa is not part of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe. In 1934 it declined to participate, as its citizens did not want to give up the band's system of hereditary chiefs. The Red Lake Band developed its constitution in the 1950s, electing its first chairman in 1959. The Chippewa nation predates the European colonization of the Americas.

  1. ^ https://www.mnchippewatribe.org/pdf/MCT%20Population%20Projections.pdf [bare URL PDF]
  2. ^ https://www.mnchippewatribe.org/pdf/MCT%20Methodology%20Report.pdf [bare URL PDF]
  3. ^ "Interracial marriage: Who is 'marrying out'?". 12 June 2015.