Brief History Of The White Earth Indian Reservation

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Many people often forget about the native americans when it comes to the history of the United States. In fact much of its history revolves around them. In particular there are seven Indian Reservations just in Minnesota.

The White Earth Indian Band is located in the North - Central region of Minnesota in the White Earth Reservation. It is located 68 miles east of Fargo, North Dakota and 225 miles Northwest of Minneapolis, St. Paul, Minnesota. The reservation is contained within the Becker, Clearwater, and Mahnomen counties. White Earth Reservation is composed of many different Indian bands besides White Earth, such as Naytahwaush, Elbow Lake and Rice Lake. The west portion of the White Earth Indian Reservation is Prairie; in the middle …show more content…

This constitution will change their government and expand the tribe’s members. “The new constitution eliminates blood quantum which requires a person to prove they have 25 percent Indian blood and changes to a system based on family lineage” (White Earth Band). This will make the population of White Earth even larger. They had 3,492 total vote cast and 79 percent voted for the new constitution. The government will expand because they will switch from their five-membered Reservation Business Council to an independent executive, legislative, and judicial branch. This new system will help ensure economic stability on the reservation. Before they can go through with this, however, they must resolve a conflict: The Minnesota Chippewa Tribe (MCT) is governing six different tribes, so they have to get the rest of the tribes to agree. “There’s some significant differences between the current MCT structure and this new proposed constitution and so they’re going to have to engage a process with MCT to figure out how they’re going to resolve those differences to allow White Earth to remain a part of MCT” (White Earth Band). However, the numbers are on White Earth’s side. White Earth makes up over half the population of the MCT. If the conflict gets resolved and the White Earth Band can go forth with this, they will elect a president, a chief judge, and members of the legislative council. These new officials will