Locator: 51598NATIVEAMERICANHISTORY.
A reader posted an item over at Facebook on the largest lake in Minneapolis, MN, in response to renaming of lakes. Apparently, as with Lake Ontario, there is a huge subset of Minnesotans that have trouble with lake names, and particularly with the renaming of lakes. LOL.
I was curious with regard to another issue.Query:
What does "white earth" have to do with native americans in North Dakota and Minnesota?
Reply:
Yes — “White Earth” is a very specific Native American reference in Minnesota, and it has an interesting connection to North Dakota as well.
The White Earth Reservation is in northwestern Minnesota, roughly 65–70 miles east of Fargo. It is the home of the White Earth Nation, an Ojibwe (Anishinaabe) nation. The reservation encompasses all of Mahnomen County and portions of Becker and Clearwater Counties.
The name is quite literal. “White Earth” refers to a layer of white clay beneath the soil, particularly around White Earth Village. The Ojibwe name is Gaa-waabaabiganikaag, translated roughly as “the place with an abundance of white clay."
But here's where the North Dakota connection gets particularly interesting.
The White Earth Reservation wasn't originally the homeland of the people who ended up there
In 1867, the U.S. government established the White Earth Reservation through a treaty with the Mississippi Band of Chippewa (Ojibwe). The government's intention was essentially to consolidate numerous Ojibwe communities from Minnesota onto one reservation.
That included Ojibwe people from the Red River Valley and what is now North Dakota, including the Pembina Band.
And this is where Turtle Mountain enters the story.
The Chippewa/Ojibwe had been moving and hunting across a huge territory encompassing northern Minnesota, North Dakota and Manitoba. As American settlement pushed westward, the government tried to move the Turtle Mountain Chippewa of North Dakota to White Earth, Minnesota. Some people did move there, but Little Shell III and others resisted and remained in the Turtle Mountains.
So you get a fascinating historical chain:
Ojibwe/Anishinaabe → Minnesota & Red River Valley → Pembina/Turtle Mountain → pressure to relocate → White Earth Reservation
In fact, the population that eventually assembled at White Earth was remarkably diverse. A 1920 census showed people there from the Mississippi Band, Mille Lacs, Pillager, Pembina, and Fond du Lac bands.
And there's an even deeper connection
This is why “White Earth” can show up in discussions of Native Americans in both Minnesota and North Dakota without necessarily referring to the same place.
North Dakota's Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians and Minnesota's White Earth Band are both part of the larger historical story of the Ojibwe expansion westward and the subsequent U.S. effort to confine and consolidate Native peoples onto reservations.
And the geography is remarkable: White Earth is only about 68 miles east of Fargo, while Turtle Mountain is farther northwest in North Dakota near the Canadian border.
So if you encountered “White Earth” in something you're reading about Native Americans in North Dakota/Minnesota, it probably isn't just a geographical name. It may be referring to the White Earth Ojibwe Nation, the 1867 reservation, or the forced/consolidated movement of Ojibwe bands—including people from the Pembina/Red River region—onto that reservation.
If you'd like, I can also explain the fascinating difference between the Ojibwe/Chippewa, the Dakota, the Pembina Band, the Turtle Mountain Band, and the Métis in this particular North Dakota–Minnesota region. That's where the history gets really interesting.
Query:
That is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you. But in addition, now having read that, it reminds me of the porcelain or china or pottery heritage in North Dakota and something the University of North Dakota has a research interest.
Reply:
Ah — yes! You are remembering something real, and I think I can see why your mind connected it to White Earth. There are actually two overlapping pottery stories in the Upper Midwest, and the University of North Dakota sits right in the middle of one of them.
1. UND has a remarkable ceramics history of its own
The University of North Dakota established its ceramics program in 1910 under Margaret Kelly Cable. Cable and her students deliberately used native North Dakota clays and prairie-derived designs to create what became known as UND Pottery, Cable Pottery, or School of Mines Pottery. UND now has a digital collection of more than 900 pieces.
And this is the part that may be triggering your memory:
Cable incorporated Native American motifs into the pottery. UND describes her designs as drawing on prairie and agricultural subjects—prairie roses, coneflowers, wheat, birds and flickertails—as well as American Indian and Western motifs.
There are even pieces in the UND collection labeled “Sioux Indian Head” and “UND Sioux Ceramic Pendants.”
2. But there is a much older Native pottery tradition
And this is where your connection to White Earth/Minnesota/North Dakota becomes especially interesting.
Indigenous pottery in this region predates European contact by thousands of years. Archaeological evidence shows Woodland peoples making pottery in what is now North Dakota roughly 2,500 years ago, and the tradition continued among peoples including the Mandan and Hidatsa.
The Mandan pottery tradition in particular is extraordinarily sophisticated. Archaeologists have identified distinct ceramic traditions such as Riggs, Fort Yates, Stanton, and Sanger wares, including transitional forms that suggest potters were experimenting with vessel construction and decoration.
Indigenous pottery
→ thousands of years old
→ Woodland peoples → Plains peoples → Mandan/Hidatsa and others
→ functional vessels, cooking, storage, ceremonial uses
UND/Cable pottery
→ beginning around 1910
→ European-American Arts & Crafts movement
→ North Dakota native clays
→ prairie and Native motifs
→ eventually a nationally recognized art-pottery tradition
And now I see why you mentioned "White Earth"
There is a fascinating third piece.
The Upper Midwest is unusually rich in clay deposits, and Indigenous peoples had long exploited that resource. In fact, a recent account of Dakota pottery notes that ceramics had deep roots in Minnesota and that the abundance of clay was reflected in Dakota place names associated with earth and clay.
And the name White Earth itself—Gaa-waabaabiganikaag, roughly "the place where there is an abundance of white clay"—is therefore not an accidental name. It reflects the physical geology of the Ojibwe homeland.
So your intuition was excellent:
White Earth → clay → Indigenous use of clay → Native pottery → North Dakota/Minnesota archaeological ceramics → UND's later exploitation of North Dakota clays → Cable pottery.
That's a much more interesting continuum than I initially realized when I answered your White Earth question.
And there is one more rabbit hole here that I suspect may be exactly what you were remembering: UND actually did scientific research on North Dakota clays and their suitability for ceramics, not merely artistic pottery. A North Dakota Geological Survey report specifically discusses ceramic research at UND and the state's abundant clay and shale resources.
If you want, I can dig into that scientific/archaeological side—particularly what UND discovered about the different North Dakota clays, and whether any of them connect directly to White Earth/Ojibwe pottery traditions. That could be a very interesting story.
Which then led to this:
Query:
So, now back to something you brought up earlier. What is the fascinating difference between the Ojibwe/Chippewa, the Dakota, the Pembina Band, the Turtle Mountain Band, and the Métis in this particular North Dakota–Minnesota region.
Reply:
Yes. And once you put these groups side by side, the history of the Red River Valley becomes much clearer. The biggest trap is thinking that “Native American” was one political or cultural category. It wasn't—and neither were “Chippewa,” “Dakota,” or “Métis.”
The simplest way to see it is this:
Ojibwe/Chippewa and Dakota are different peoples. Pembina is an Ojibwe band. Turtle Mountain is a modern Ojibwe nation whose history became deeply Métis. Métis are a distinct people whose culture emerged from Indigenous-European intermarriage and the fur-trade world.
And all of this happened in a remarkably fluid world that predated the U.S.-Canada border.
1. Ojibwe / Anishinaabe / Chippewa
First, Ojibwe and Chippewa are the same people. "Anishinaabe" is the people's own broader name; "Ojibwe" is commonly used today, while "Chippewa" became the common American governmental term.
Their historical homeland was primarily the Great Lakes and upper Midwest. They moved progressively westward during the 17th–19th centuries.
And this is the important part for your question:
Some Ojibwe moved onto the Plains.
By the late 1700s, Ojibwe bands had moved into the Red River, Assiniboine and Souris River country, acquiring horses and firearms and participating in the buffalo economy. North Dakota's historical account describes this transition as the Ojibwe becoming, in effect, Plains Indians.
So the stereotypical picture—
Ojibwe = forest/lakes/Minnesota
—is true historically, but incomplete.
There were also Plains Ojibwe.
And that is the key to everything that follows.
2. The Pembina Band
The Pembina Band was not a different "tribe" from the Ojibwe.
It was an Ojibwe band that became established around Pembina and the Red River Valley.
Think of "Pembina Band" somewhat like saying:
the Ojibwe people living in this particular region and organized around this particular community.
Permanent Ojibwe settlement at Pembina developed around 1800–1805. That community became the nucleus of what would eventually be called the Pembina or Turtle Mountain Band.
And Pembina was an extraordinary place.
The Red River Valley was essentially a crossroads:
Ojibwe + Cree + Assiniboine + French Canadians + British/Scottish fur traders
all interacting.
The Red River itself became an enormous transportation corridor.
And then comes one of the great inventions of the region:
The Red River cart.
The Ojibwe and Métis became extraordinarily adept at using these huge two-wheeled carts to transport buffalo meat, hides and other goods across the prairie. North Dakota historical sources credit the Chippewa with the invention, while Turtle Mountain's own history emphasizes the Métis development and use of the technology.
That apparent contradiction actually tells you something important:
Ojibwe and Métis culture were becoming intertwined.
3. The Métis
This is where things get really fascinating.
The Métis weren't simply "mixed-race Indians."
They became a distinct Indigenous people and culture, particularly in the Red River Valley.
They developed out of relationships among Indigenous peoples—especially Cree and Ojibwe—and French-Canadian and other European fur traders and settlers.
They developed their own:
-
communities
-
economic system
-
political identity
-
hunting culture
-
clothing
-
music
-
Catholic traditions
-
transportation system
-
and eventually their own language, Michif
The result was something neither simply European nor simply Ojibwe.
And the buffalo hunt was central.
A Red River Valley Métis family could be simultaneously:
Catholic + French-speaking + Indigenous + buffalo hunter + fur trader + Red River cart owner.
That combination is difficult to fit into modern racial categories.
The Turtle Mountain Band itself describes its present heritage as a unique blending of Ojibwe and Métis culture, with Ojibwe, Cree and French influences and Michif among its historical languages.
4. And then there's Turtle Mountain
Here's the part I think you will particularly enjoy.
The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa isn't simply an Ojibwe group that happened to live in North Dakota.
It is essentially the product of the extraordinary Red River/Pembina frontier we have just described.
An Ojibwe community established itself around Pembina.
Some moved south and west toward the Turtle Mountains.
They hunted buffalo.
They traded.
They intermarried.
They interacted with Cree and Métis.
And over generations a distinctive Plains Ojibwe–Métis culture emerged.
The Turtle Mountains consequently became a sort of cultural island.
Today the Turtle Mountain Band officially describes itself as an Ojibwe/Anishinaabe nation with a strong Ojibwe and Métis heritage. Its reservation is in Rolette County, near the Canadian border, and its capital is Belcourt.
And here's a wonderful detail:
The reservation wasn't established until 1882.
So the people and culture existed before the reservation.
The reservation was an American governmental response to a preexisting people—not the creation of the people themselves.
5. Now introduce the Dakota
This is where we need to be very careful.
Dakota and Ojibwe are entirely different peoples.
They belong to different linguistic families:
| Ojibwe | Dakota |
|---|
| Larger linguistic family | Algonquian | Siouan |
| Language | Ojibwemowin | Dakota/Lakota |
| Traditional heartland | Great Lakes/Upper Midwest | Upper Mississippi/Great Plains |
| Relationship | Anishinaabe people | Oceti Sakowin/Dakota people |
And they were not always friendly neighbors.
In fact, there was a long history of warfare between the Ojibwe and Dakota.
One of the great historical ironies is that the Ojibwe's westward expansion ultimately brought them into direct competition with the Dakota for territory, particularly around northern Minnesota.
But the Red River Valley complicated things enormously because Cree, Ojibwe, Dakota, Assiniboine and Métis worlds overlapped.
6. Then the Americans arrive with a map
This is where everything changes.
The people of the Red River Valley had lived in a world where:
Minnesota ↔ Dakota Territory ↔ Manitoba
were not hard cultural boundaries.
Then the United States and Britain/Canada created a political boundary.
Suddenly the 49th parallel became an international border.
But Indigenous families didn't suddenly stop being related because a line had been drawn on a map.
The Turtle Mountain Band's own historical account makes this point beautifully: the establishment of the international boundary—the "Medicine Line"—displaced Indigenous peoples who had traditionally moved across the region.
And then came American land policy.
Treaties.
Reservations.
Allotment.
Railroads.
Settlers.
The destruction of the buffalo economy.
The Dawes Act.
And the government began trying to force fluid peoples into fixed administrative categories.
7. Which brings us back to White Earth
Now your original question makes much more sense.
White Earth was not originally the ancestral homeland of a single White Earth "tribe."
It was created in 1867 as a reservation intended to consolidate Ojibwe people from different bands.
And look at who eventually showed up there.
The 1920 census recorded:
-
4,856 from the Mississippi Band
-
1,308 Mille Lacs
-
1,218 Pillager
-
472 Pembina
-
113 Fond du Lac
That's an extraordinary mixture.
And the Pembina people from the Red River Valley began moving into White Earth after 1873.
So you have this remarkable geographic movement:
Great Lakes Ojibwe
↓
Minnesota Ojibwe
↓
Plains Ojibwe
↓
Pembina / Red River Ojibwe
↓
Turtle Mountain
AND
Pembina → White Earth
while simultaneously:
Ojibwe + Cree + French Canadian → Métis culture.
And here's the really beautiful historical picture
If you stood around Pembina in 1820, you would not necessarily have been able to look at a person and say:
"That's an Indian."
or
"That's a Métis."
or
"That's French."
The world was much more complicated.
A family might have Ojibwe ancestry, Cree ancestry and French-Canadian ancestry, speak several languages, participate in the Catholic Church, hunt buffalo, own Red River carts, trade with the Hudson's Bay Company, and have relatives on both sides of what would eventually become the international boundary.
And that is precisely why Turtle Mountain is so interesting.
It preserves, in institutional form, a piece of that old Red River world.
The North Dakota Indian Affairs Commission actually describes Turtle Mountain as a place where a distinctive culture developed through the blending of Ojibwe and Métis traditions.
One final distinction that is extremely important
Don't think of this as:
Ojibwe → Pembina → Métis → Turtle Mountain
as though these were successive tribes.
It's more like:
OJIBWE
↙︎ ↓ ↘︎
Minnesota bands | Pembina/Red River bands | Plains Ojibwe
↓
Turtle Mountains
And alongside and interwoven with the Red River Ojibwe:
Cree + Ojibwe + French Canadian/European → MÉTIS
while the Dakota were a separate Indigenous people occupying and contesting much of the neighboring territory.
That distinction—tribe vs. band vs. nation vs. ethnocultural people vs. reservation—is the key that unlocks this whole North Dakota/Minnesota history.
And I suspect this is also why your earlier UND pottery question may turn out to have an even deeper connection than we initially thought. The Red River Valley wasn't merely a geographic corridor—it was a cultural meeting place, and North Dakota's later fascination with "native" materials, imagery and history grew out of that extraordinarily complicated landscape.
******************************
Absolutely Fascinating
On so many levels.
I grew up hearing all these names and name places.
Had it not been for the blog, I probably never would have gone down this rabbit hole.
