Sandy Lake is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

Native American village located in Turner Township, Aitkin County,

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

, United States. Its name in the

Ojibwe language Ojibwe ( ), also known as Ojibwa ( ), Ojibway, Otchipwe,R. R. Bishop Baraga, 1878''A Theoretical and Practical Grammar of the Otchipwe Language''/ref> Ojibwemowin, or Anishinaabemowin, is an Indigenous languages of the Americas, indigenous la ...

is ''Gaa-mitaawangaagamaag'', meaning "Place of the Sandy-shored Lake". The village is administrative center for the

Sandy Lake Band of Mississippi Chippewa Sandy Lake Band of Mississippi Chippewa (Ojibwe language, Ojibwe: ''Gaa-mitaawangaagamaag-ininiwag'') are a historical Ojibwa tribe located in the upper Mississippi River basin, on and around Big Sandy Lake in what today is in Aitkin County, Minn ...

, though the administration of the

Mille Lacs Indian Reservation Mille Lacs Indian Reservation is the popular name for the land-base for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe in Central Minnesota, about 100 miles (160 km) north of Minneapolis-St. Paul. The contemporary Mille Lacs Band reservation has significan ...

, District II, is located in the nearby East Lake.

History

The original village was seasonally mobile, located anywhere along the shores of

Big Sandy Lake Big Sandy Lake is a lake in Aitkin County, Minnesota, approximately nine miles north of McGregor. The lake is considered fertile walleye ground with several habitat types, including the open main basin, the deep, cold eastern basin, and a sha ...

or along the

Savanna Portage Savanna Portage State Park is a state park in the U.S. State of Minnesota established in 1961 to preserve the historic Savanna Portage, a difficult trail connecting the watersheds of the Mississippi River and Lake Superior. The portage trail cr ...

, fostering both trade along the portage and of hunting, fishing and gathering of foods, medicine and other materials. In 1850, without much notice Sandy Lake hosted the United States' annuity payments to the

Ojibwe The Ojibwe (; Ojibwe writing systems#Ojibwe syllabics, syll.: ᐅᒋᐺ; plural: ''Ojibweg'' ᐅᒋᐺᒃ) are an Anishinaabe people whose homeland (''Ojibwewaki'' ᐅᒋᐺᐘᑭ) covers much of the Great Lakes region and the Great Plains, n ...

. However, due to intentional poor planning on behalf of the United States, Sandy Lake experienced the

Sandy Lake Tragedy The Sandy Lake Tragedy was the culmination in 1850 of a series of events centered in Big Sandy Lake, Minnesota that resulted in the deaths of several hundred Lake Superior Chippewa. Officials of the Zachary Taylor Administration and Minnesota ...

that led to the death of over 300 guests of the community. In 1855, the ''Gaa-mitaawangaagamaag Ishkonigan'' (Sandy Lake Indian Reservation) was established under the 1855 Treaty of Washington (10 Stat. 1165), along with five other

Indian Reservation An American Indian reservation is an area of land land tenure, held and governed by a List of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States#Description, U.S. federal government-recognized Native American tribal nation, whose gov ...

s for the

Mississippi Chippewa Mississippi River Band of Chippewa Indians () or simply the Mississippi Chippewa, are a historical Ojibwa Band inhabiting the headwaters of the Mississippi River and its tributaries in present-day Minnesota. According to the oral history of the Mis ...

s and three Indian Reservations for the

Pillager Chippewa Pillager Band of Chippewa Indians (or simply the Pillagers; in the Ojibwe language) are a historical band of Chippewa (Ojibwe) who settled at the headwaters of the Mississippi River in present-day Minnesota. Their name "Pillagers" is a translati ...

s. With the

Dakota War of 1862 The Dakota War of 1862, also known as the Sioux Uprising, the Dakota Uprising, the Sioux Outbreak of 1862, the Dakota Conflict, or Little Crow's War, was an armed conflict between the United States and several eastern bands of Dakota people, Da ...

, the Sandy Lake Band went with the Mille Lacs band to Fort Ripley to offer to fight the Sioux. Consequently, the Sandy Lake Band was not forced to relocate elsewhere. However, many were pressured to do so, with many members relocating to the White Oak Point Indian Reservation. Those who remained were in such a minority the Sandy Lake Indian Reservation allotments under the

Nelson Act The Bankruptcy Act of 1898 ("Nelson Act", July 1, 1898, ch. 541, ) was the first United States Act of Congress involving bankruptcy in the United States, bankruptcy to give companies an option of being protected from creditors. Previous attempts ...

and forced land-sales illegally erased the Reservation off the maps. In 1915, with the assistance from the neighboring Fond du Lac Band, the Sandy Lake Cemetery was again secured. In 1940, the current village site was secured.

History

References

Further reading