Indigenous Peoples of Minnesota

Two major Native American tribes—the Dakota (or Sioux) and the Ojibwa (Anishinabe or Chippewa)—lived in the area that is now Minnesota. Small groups from other tribes now also reside in the state, including the Winnebago, who once had reservation land there. By the late 1860s treaties had pushed the Indians off lands they had occupied onto reservations.

Many American Indians still live on reservations in Minnesota. Seven Ojibwa reservations are located in the northern part of the state, and four Dakota communities occupy lands in the southern part. Other American Indians reside in urban areas. More than 9,000 people of Ojibwa ancestry live in Minneapolis, and about 3,000 Ojibwa, Dakota, and Winnebago are in St. Paul. There are smaller groups of American Indian people in Duluth and Bemidji.

The Family History Library has many American Indian records from the National ArchivesCentral Plains Region (Kansas City, Missouri). For the Ojibwa, for instance, microfilms of census, vital, land, and family records are available from 1876 to 1955. Additional sources are at the Minnesota Historical Society Library, including:

Powell, Ransom Judd. Papers, Undated and 1843, 1896–1938. St. Paul, Minnesota: Minnesota Historical Society, 1987. (FHL films 1550598–612.) No circulation to Family History Centers. Papers include genealogies, censuses, correspondence, and other records collected by the lawyer for lumber companies that bought White Earth Reservation land.

A research study of one Ojibwa family from Minnesota’s White Earth reservation is in:

Byers, Paula K., ed. Native American Genealogical Sourcebook. Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research, 1995. (FHL book 970.1 B991n.) It includes chapters on historical background, research methods and sources, and libraries and archives holding genealogical information on American Indians. The case study reported on pages 54–64 uses records mostly dating between 1885 and 1915 to trace ancestors and descendants of one Ojibwa family. Records used include Indian censuses, United States censuses, Chippewa Commission and Chippewa Agency records, and the Ransom Judd Powell papers. A bibliography of sources for further study on Minnesota Indians is provided.

Other books include:

Ebbott, Elizabeth. Indians in Minnesota. 4th ed. Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 1985. (FHL book 970.1 Eb17i.) Sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Minnesota, this book deals mainly with social strengths and economic problems of American Indians in modern-day Minnesota. Preliminary chapters give histories of major Indian groups in the state and shifting government policies toward them. Includes maps and tables showing the locations of Indian groups on and off reservations in 1980.

Minnesota Historical Society (St. Paul, Minnesota). Chippewa and Dakota Indians: A Subject Catalog of Books, Pamphlets, Periodical Articles, and Manuscripts in the Minnesota Historical Society. St. Paul, Minnesota: Minnesota Historical Society, 1969. (FHL book 970.1 M666c.) A list of printed and manuscript sources on Minnesota’s two major tribes. Much new material has been added to the collections of the Minnesota Historical Society since this book was published.

See also the chapter on "The Dakota and Ojibwa" in They Chose Minnesota, described in the "Minorities" section of this outline. For sources on the Sioux War of 1862, see the "Military Records" section of this outline. Steps to effective research are listed in the "Native Races" section of the United States Research Outline (30972).

Records of the various tribes can be found by looking under the name of the tribe in the Subject Search of the Family History Library Catalog and under "Indians of North America – Minnesota." Many of the records are also listed in the Locality Search of the catalog under:

MINNESOTA – NATIVE RACES