Sokaogon Chippewa Community
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The Sokaogon Chippewa Community, or the Mole Lake Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, is a
federally recognized tribe This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States of America. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. , 574 Indian tribes were legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the United ...
of the
Lake Superior Chippewa The Lake Superior Chippewa (Anishinaabe: Gichigamiwininiwag) are a large number of Ojibwe (Anishinaabe) bands living around Lake Superior; this territory is considered part of northern Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota in the United States. They ...
, many of whom reside on the Mole Lake Indian Reservation, located southwest of the city of Crandon, in the Town of
Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...
,
Forest County, Wisconsin Forest County is a county (United States), county in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 9,179. Its county seat is Crandon, Wisconsin, Crandon. The Forest County Potawatomi Community ...
. The reservation is located partly in the community of
Mole Lake, Wisconsin Mole Lake, Wisconsin is a census-designated place located in the town of Nashville in Forest County, Wisconsin, United States. Description The community is located on Wisconsin Highway 55 in the Mole Lake Indian Reservation. As of the 2010 ce ...
. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Mole Lake Indian Reservation was in 2020. The band also had of
off-reservation trust land In the United States, off-reservation trust land refers to real estate outside an Indian reservation that is held by the Interior Department for the benefit of a Native American tribe or a member of a tribe. Typical uses of off-reservation trust ...
. Including the community's additional fee land, the Sokaogon Chippewa Community managed a total of as of 2010. The reservation includes land around Rice Lake, Bishop Lake, and Mole Lake. The combined population of Sokaogon Chippewa Community and Off-Reservation Trust Land was 507 at the 2020 census. About 500 members of the tribe live on the reservation, while an additional 1,000 members of the community live off it. The tribe is active in the harvest of
wild rice Wild rice, also called manoomin, Canada rice, Indian rice, or water oats, is any of four species of grasses that form the genus ''Zizania'', and the grain that can be harvested from them. The grain was historically gathered and eaten in both ...
in the swampy areas on and off their reservation.


History

The area was the site of the 1806
Battle of Mole Lake The Battle of Mole Lake was a battle fought in 1806 between Sioux and Chippewa warriors. It was fought over wild rice beds located in Forest County, Wisconsin, United States.United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (in case citations, 7th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the courts in the following districts: * Central District of Illinois * Northern District of Il ...
in the Lac Courte Oreilles v. Lester B. Voigt case, commonly called the Voigt decision, reaffirmed that the Sokaogon and other Chippewa tribes in northern Wisconsin should be allowed to exercise their treaty rights even off their reservations. This allowed the Sokaogon to harvest rice even on areas that the tribe did not own. Mole Lake is the site of one of Wisconsin's oldest surviving log cabins, now referred to as the Dinesen Log House. This special piece of historic American architecture built in the late 1860s–early 1870s was listed on Wisconsin's most endangered properties in 2003 and was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 2005. It has undergone a complete restoration and opened to the public in April 2010. In the early 1870s, Wilhelm Dinesen, a Danish adventurer, traveled to northern Wisconsin and took residence in the cabin and became friends with the Mole Lake Chippewa. He called the cabin "Frydenlund", or "Grove of Joy". After 14 months of hunting, fishing, fur trapping, and roaming the wilderness, went back to Denmark. He fathered a daughter when he returned to his homeland, who grew up as the author
Karen Blixen Baroness Karen Christenze von Blixen-Finecke (born Dinesen; 17 April 1885 – 7 September 1962) was a Danish author who wrote works in Danish and English. She is also known under her pen names Isak Dinesen, used in English-speaking countrie ...
, or Isak Dinesen and wrote a book entitled ''
Out of Africa ''Out of Africa'' is a memoir by the Danish people, Danish author Karen Blixen. The book, first published in 1937, recounts events of the seventeen years when Blixen made her home in Kenya, then called East Africa Protectorate, British East Afr ...
'', which went on to become a major Hollywood motion picture. As stated in the April 2003 issue of
Wisconsin Trails ''Wisconsin Trails'' magazine was a bimonthly regional magazine that covered life around the state of Wisconsin, from people, history and culture to travel, nature and environmentalism. Its circulation as of mid-2007 was about 50,000. It existed be ...
magazine, "Wilhelm Dinesen's legacy among the Chippewa is assured. A few months after he left Denmark, you see, Kate, the Chippewa woman who had been his cook and housekeeper, bore a daughter, Emma, who went on to have children of her own." The log cabin will be the center of an annual August event and visitors may see and hear history, folk music, enjoy traditional Native American food, Native American arts and crafts, Woodland Indian beadwork, birch bark basketry, and buckskin moccasin demonstrations, wild rice soup, introduction to the Ojibwe language, walk-through of historical displays, early fur trappers and traders camp and more. This event promises to be the beginning of a new era of opportunity for Wisconsin and its citizens.


Resistance to proposed Exxon mine

In the late 1960s, Exxon discovered a zinc-copper ore deposit near Mole Lake, one of the richest ore deposits of its kind in North America. In 1976, Exxon announced its plans to explore the zinc-copper resources, which were in close proximity to four indigenous communities (including rice fields used by the Sokaogon Chippewa). The proposed mining spurred a controversy lasting three decades. "From the perspective of the area's Indian tribes—the Sokaogon Chippewa, the Potawatomi, the Menominee, and the Stockbridge Munsee—the environmental and social impacts of the proposed mine were inseparable. Any contamination of the area's surface of groundwaters was a threat to survival." Concerns about the impact of the proposed mine were diverse. In addition to the Sokaogan Chippewa's concerns regarding the impact of the mine on their wild rice fields, further downstream, the Menominee took issue with the "3000 gallons of wastewater per minute" the mine was predicted to release into a tributary leading to the Wolf River. Along with the neighboring
Forest County Potawatomi Community The Forest County Potawatomi Community ( pot, Ksenyaniyek) is a federally recognized tribe of Potawatomi people with approximately 1,400 members as of 2010. The community is based on the Forest County Potawatomi Indian Reservation, which cons ...
, the Sokaogon Chippewa took over ownership and bought the nearby
Crandon mine Crandon mine was a mine proposed for northeastern Wisconsin, USA. It was to be situated near the town of Crandon and the Mole Lake Ojibwe Reservation in Forest County. The mine was the center of a multi-decade political and regulatory battle bet ...
at a price of $16.5 million to prevent its reopening. The tribes argued that the opening of the zinc and copper mine would harm the environment and jeopardize access to their rice fields. The land is now under the control of the two tribes and no mining is planned into the future.


References


External links


Sokaogon Chippewa Community websiteMole Lake Casino website
run by the Sokaogon

{{authority control Ojibwe in the United States Ojibwe governments Native American tribes in Wisconsin Populated places in Forest County, Wisconsin