Northwest Trail

For untold generations, Indigenous people traversed North America’s interlocking waterways by canoe. When moving between drainage systems, it was necessary for them to bridge the high ground that kept the waters separated. This meant carrying, or “portaging,” canoes and belongings between watersheds. One of the most important portage routes in Minnesota, known today as the Northwest Trail, connected the Mississippi River to Lake Superior.

Gunflint Trail

The Gunflint Trail is a nationally designated scenic byway, also known as Cook County Road Twelve. It starts in Grand Marais and runs fifty-seven miles northwest to Trail’s End Campground near Saganaga Lake on the border with Canada. The trail, which cuts through parts of the Superior National Forest and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, is a popular destination for fishing, camping, canoeing, hiking, and other outdoor recreation.

Rocks with pictographs at Nett Lake, ca. 1934. Photograph by Monroe P. Killy.

Rocks with pictographs at Nett Lake

Rocks with pictographs at Nett Lake, ca. 1934. Photograph by Monroe P. Killy.

Nett Lake Reservation of Ojibwe, ca. 1920.

Nett Lake Reservation of Ojibwe

Nett Lake Reservation of Ojibwe, ca. 1920.

Ojibwe children at their home near the head of Pelican Lake (outside the Nett Lake Reservation), 1918.

Ojibwe children at Pelican Lake

Ojibwe children at their home near the head of Pelican Lake (outside the Nett Lake Reservation), 1918.

Wigwam on Nett Lake Reservation of Ojibwe, 1918.

Wigwam on Nett Lake Reservation of Ojibwe

Wigwam on Nett Lake Reservation of Ojibwe, 1918.

Destruction of Bois Forte Ojibwe Homeland, 1891–1929

From 1890 to 1910, timber speculators and lumbermen patented most of the valuable pine lands in north-central Minnesota—the homeland of the Bois Forte Ojibwe. By the 1920s, dams and deforestation had so damaged the landscape that it could no longer support the tribe’s subsistence economy, and its members were forced onto their reservation at Nett Lake.

A souvenir totem pole, created ca. 1970, with a depiction of the Hamm’s bear. This piece is a good example of Hamm’s Brewing Company’s use of generic and often inaccurate Indigenous iconography in their advertising. Although this object was made by an Ojibwe family, totem-pole carving is not an Anishinaabe tradition; the art form is practiced by Indigenous groups on the West Coast of the United States and Canada, including the Haida, the Tlingit, and the Nuxalk.

Hamm’s Beer miniature totem pole

A souvenir totem pole, created ca. 1970, with a depiction of the Hamm’s bear. This piece is a good example of Hamm’s Brewing Company’s use of generic and often inaccurate Indigenous iconography in its advertising. Although this object was made by an Ojibwe family, totem-pole carving is not an Anishinaabe tradition; the art form is practiced by Indigenous groups on the West Coast of the United States and Canada, including the Haida, the Tlingit, and the Nuxalk.

Dakota imprisoned at Fort Snelling

For six days beginning November 7, 1862, about 1,700 Dakota people—mostly women and children—who had surrendered but had not been sentenced to death or prison, were removed from the Lower Sioux Agency to a concentration camp along the river below Fort Snelling. Posted to YouTube by the Minnesota Historical Society, May 6, 2013.

Dakota elder Vernell Wabasha talks about the Jeffers Petroglyphs site

Dakota elder Vernell Wabasha talks about the Jeffers Petroglyphs site. Posted to YouTube by the Minnesota Historical Society on April 23, 2009.

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