Qualla: Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians

Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians: Introduction

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Dakota called them the Ra-ra-to-oans, the People of the Falls. French fur traders, arriving in the 17th century, adopted the name and found something unexpected: a people who had already been living in the dense lake country of northern Wisconsin for centuries, long before Columbus reached the Caribbean. The Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, one of six federally recognized Ojibwe bands in Wisconsin, traces its roots through the Anishinaabe migration guided by the Seven Fires Prophecy, a journey from the Atlantic Coast that carried an entire civilization westward into the birch forests and clear waters of what is now Sawyer County.

Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians: The Ancient Migration

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Anishinaabe people, part of the broader Algonquian language family, originated along the Atlantic seaboard. According to Native American historian William W. Warren, they were living in northern Wisconsin before 1492. The Seven Fires Prophecy, a central spiritual narrative, d...

Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians: Fur Traders and Shifting Worlds

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

During the winter of 1661-62, French fur traders Pierre-Esprit Radisson and Medard des Groseilliers paddled four days from Madeline Island to reach a Huron village believed to have stood near the present community of Reserve on the Lac Courte Oreilles reservation. The French rece...

Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians: Treaties and Tenacity

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Lac Courte Oreilles ceded vast tracts of land through a series of treaties with the United States: the 1837 treaty, the 1842 Treaty of La Pointe, and the first 1854 Treaty of La Pointe. Each agreement redrew boundaries and diminished territory. Yet the band held on. Today the...

Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians: Drums Along the Lakeshore

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Every summer, the sound of drums carries across the lake country during the Honor the Earth Pow Wow, a gathering that draws dancers, singers, and visitors from across the region. In 1991, Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart recorded performers at the event, producing Honor The Eart...

Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians: Warriors and Chiefs

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The band's history is marked by leaders whose names echo through the centuries. Ozaawindib, known as Yellow Head, was an 18th-century chief of the Niibinaabe-doodem, the Merman Clan. Originally leading the Prairie Rice Lake Band near Rice Lake, Wisconsin, he consolidated his peop...