Mille Lacs Indian Trading Post debuted its services as a general store for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe in 1918. In future decades, it evolved into a center for local Ojibwe to trade and sell their art and educate visitors about Ojibwe culture.

In the fall and early winter of 1850, the US government forced thousands of Lake Superior Ojibwe to leave their homeland in Wisconsin and gather at Sandy Lake, in Minnesota Territory, to receive an annual treaty payment. When the money never arrived and the government provided spoiled rations, many tried to return to Wisconsin. As a result, about 400 Ojibwe people died from starvation, disease, and exposure in what is known as the Sandy Lake Tragedy.