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Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe - Minnesota (U.S.)

Native American

image by Donald Healy, 15 January 2008

The band
The flag

See also:

The Band

map image by Peter Orenski based on input from Don Healy

Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe - Minnesota

The Mille Lacs Reservation, located about 100 miles north of Minneapolis, is home to the Mille Lacs Band of the Ojibwe (Chippewa) Nation [see Leech Lake Band of the Ojibwe]. The Mille Lacs Ojibwe pioneered a potent aspect of their claim to nationhood. All vehicles registered on their reservation display license plates of the Mille Lacs Ojibwe, not of the state of Minnesota. This demonstrates that the land and the people of this small reservation are outside the purview of the government of Minnesota and answer solely to the United States. A few other tribes, such as the Comanche, the Spokane, and the Colville, have subsequently adopted their own license plates, but the Mille Lacs Ojibwe appear to have been among the first. This small band also possesses a flag, with at least two copies known (one is at the Mille Lacs Ojibwe Tribal Headquarters).

The Flag

The flag is blue, with a blue disk in the center ringed in white. On the white appears "MILLE LACS BAND" in black at the top and "OF OJIBWE" at the bottom. The blue disk contains a white silhouette map of Minnesota and approximately centered on that map is a smaller blue disk, for the Mille Lacs, or "thousand lakes" of the reservation. (Minnesota itself is known as "the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes".) Crossing the horizontal axis of the larger blue disk is a brown peace pipe. Above the pipe an orange sun rises over the waters of the lake, radiating three rays upwards and symbolizing a new life and beginning for the band. Below the peace pipe, in green, is a wild rice plant, the source of sustenance for the Ojibwe and a symbol of life and independence.

© Donald Healy 2008
information provided by Peter Orenski, 15 January 2008