Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa

Red Cliff Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa

Natural Environment

Art

l525

1854

Education

1935

1693

Suicide

Sovereignty

French Fur Trading Post

The first permanent French fur trading post on Moo-ning-wana-kawn-ing was established in 1693 by Michael Cadotte (Wisconsin Historical Society, 2024). He married Ikwesewe, the daughter of a Chippewa Chief. Ikwesewe's Catholic name is Madeline Cadotte, and the island is named after her (Wisconsin Historical Society, 2024).

Recognition as a Tribe

Native American tribes must meet numerous demands established in the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act to be formally recognized by the United States government (Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, n.d.). On June 15, 1935, the Red Cliff Band ratified a constitution, including a representative form of government (Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, n.d.). Today, the Red Cliff Band has a nine-member board of elected officials (Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, n.d.).

1854 La Pointe Treaty

In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act, forcing Native Americans East of the Mississippi River to cede lands to the United States for land to the west of the Mississippi (United States Department of State Office of the Historian, n.d.). On September 30, 1854, the Red Cliff Band's Chief Buffalo and other elders of the Chippewa signed a new treaty with President Millard Fillmore (Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, n.d.). While the 1854 La Pointe Treaty ceded much of the Chippewa's ancestral land, it established Reservations for the Chippewa on ancestral land on the northern and western shores of Lake Superior (Stone, 2021). For his part in the treaty, the U.S. government gave Chief Buffalo land that is now part of the Red Cliff Reservation; the initial intention of the treaty was to send the Red Cliff Band to the location of the Bad River Reservation (Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, n.d.). However, some Red Cliff members refused and stayed on Chief Buffalo's land. The treaty was amended in 1863, giving the Red Cliff the land that makes up today's Reservation (Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, n.d.). The U.S. government used the land ceded by the Chippewa for timber and mining of ores, such as copper (Stone, 2021). Additionally, the Chippewa preserved 200 acres on Madeline Island for traditional gatherings (Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, n.d.).

(Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, n.d.)

Interaction with the Natural Environment

Given the location of the Red Cliff Reservation, the Red Cliff Band has access to Lake Superior and its shores, wetlands, and a boreal forest. As part of their stewardship of the land, the Red Cliff Band maintains the shorelines, a fish hatchery, and wildlife and forestry in the forest (Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, n.d.). Projects led by the Red Cliff Band include monitoring the American Marten population, making bat boxes, timber harvesting, and prescribed fire burns (Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, n.d.). The harvested timber comes from dying or already dead trees, and prescribed burns create space for wild berries to grow (Learning From the Ojibwe: Combining Culture and Dendrochronology Tools, 2022). Members of the Red Cliff Band hunt, fish, and gather wild foods (Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, n.d.). The Red Cliff Band has a variety of activities that engage members of the Reservation in nature. Examples include an annual elk camp for the elk hunting season and the planting of wild rice (Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, 2024). Since 1994, the Reservation has operated a fish hatchery, which has restocked Lake Superior near the Red Cliff tribal land with brook trout and walleye (Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, n.d.). State Representative Tom Tiffany proposed redesignating the Apostle Islands as a National Park, which the Red Cliff Band opposes (Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, 2024). Tiffany stated that the redesignation would create the first national park in Wisconsin. Red Cliff officials have quickly noted that Frog Bay Tribal National Park was the first national park in Wisconsin (Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, 2024). Additionally, the tribe opposes the redesignation because environmental impact studies have not been completed (Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, 2024). As of August 2024, Tom Tiffany had not met with the Red Cliff Band to discuss their concerns.

Origins

The Chippewa inhabited the southern shores of Lake Superior around 1525 (Warren, 1885). Their journey from the St. Lawrence River in Canada to the Apostle Islands occurred in response to a prophecy shared with them during a period of disease and death (Warren, 1885). In the prophecy, the Chippewa were told that they would make a generation-long journey guided by a sacred shell (Warren, 1885). The journey would involve seven stops and end at a location where the food grew on the water (Warren, 1885). The sacred shell guided the Chippewa to Moningwunakauning (Home of the yellow-breasted woodpecker), or what the non-Natives call LaPointe on Madeline Island (Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, n.d.). The food that grew on the water was wild rice, which is still grown by the Chippewa today (Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, n.d.). Madeline Island is the center of the Earth to the Chippewa (Warren, 1885).

Madeline Island. Picture by Craig Jacquart.

Suicide in the Native American Population

Suicide was the second leading cause of death in Native Americans aged 10-34 in 2022 (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health, 2024). In 2021, Native Americans were 50% more likely than whites to die from suicide; Native American males were 45% more likely than white males, and Native American females were nearly 80% more likely than white females (Murphy et al., 2024). The disparity in suicide rates is even more significant when segregated by age. For example, Native American males aged 15-24 are more than two times more likely to die by suicide (58.6 deaths/100,000 people) than white males of the same age (24.6 deaths/100,000 people) (Murphy et al., 2024). Similarly, Native American females aged 15-24 are four times more likely than white women of the same age to die from suicide (Murphy et al., 2024). These elevated rates of suicide in Native Americans could be affected by higher rates of mental health and lower rates of therapy in the Native American population than whites (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2023)

Red Cliff Reservation, WI

Red Cliff, WI, is the official of the Red Cliff Reservation. The Reservation contains 14,541 acres on the shore of Lake Superior (Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction-American Indian Studies et al., n.d.). The Reservation was established in 1854 when chiefs from the La Pointe Band of Chippewa (which eventually split into the Red Cliff and Bad River Bands) signed a treaty with the U.S. government (Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, n.d.). The official language on the Reservation is Anishinaabemowin (Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction-American Indian Studies et al., n.d.). As of 2021, the Red Cliff Band had 7,363 members, 1,209 of who lived on the Red Cliff Reservation (Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, n.d.).The 2020 U.S. Census indicates that 83% of the population on the Reservation are members of the Red Cliff Band (U.S. Census Bureau, n.d.).

*: U.S. Census Bureau. n.d. ^: Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewea, 2018

Tribal Sovereignty

Sovereignty allows Native American tribes to govern themselves on their Reservation. It recognizes the rights of Native Americans as separate political entities and enables them to create and enforce their laws (Wisconsin Department of Administration Division of Intergovernmental Relations, 2024). The Red Cliff Band, for example, has its own court and government, which includes an elected nine-member tribal council (Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, n.d.). Furthermore, sovereignty gives tribal nations the right to manage their infrastructure, environmental protection, education, and taxation (Wisconsin Department of Administration Division of Intergovernmental Relations, 2024). Reservations do not pay federal or state taxes. However, individual Reservation members are subject to federal taxes unless they receive income from treaty resources (Wisconsin Department of Administration Division of Intergovernmental Relations, 2024). Who has criminal jurisdiction on a Reservation may depend on the state where the Reservation is located. For example, in Wisconsin, all Reservations, except the Menominee Reservation, are subject to state criminal jurisdiction (Wisconsin Department of Administration Division of Intergovernmental Relations, 2024).

This Land is a podcast from host Rebecca Nagle that explores two federal cases challenging Tribal sovereignty.

Art of the Red Cliff Band

The Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa includes beadwork, fishing decoys, paintings, drums, flutes, and artwork made of birch bark. Members of the tribe that work with birch bark perform their art sustainably; they take only the top layers of the birch bark so that the tree from which they are harvesting the bark is not harmed (Stankard, 2023). The artwork of the Red Cliff Band reflects their close relationship with nature, including the forests and lakes that are a part of the Red Cliff Reservation (Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, n.d.). Rabbett Strickland is a Red Cliff artist who has gained recognition for his paintings. Rabbett's art comes to him in his dreams, and his paintings feature the trickster Nanabozhoo. His paintings combine Renaissance, Baroque, and traditional art (Washburn Cultural Center, 2017). Another member of the Red Cliff Band, Rita Vanderventer, had her beadwork displayed along with work from other Native American female artists at the Casper Center Gallery on Madeline Island in 2023 as part of a display called Convergence (Convergence, 2023).

See Rabbett Strickland's Art

See Rita Vanderventer's Art

Red Cliff Clan Emblem

The Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa's emblem features seven black animals (Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, n.d.). These seven animals are a bear, a loon, a fish, a crane, a marten, a deer, and a hawk. The animals represent the seven original clans of the Chippewa (Bosma, 2017). Each animal has a white line from the mouth to the heart. This symbolism may indicate the importance of oral tradition, connecting members through time and keeping the traditions of the Chippewa alive (National Museum of the American Indian, n.d.).

Dropout Rates and Achievement Gap

The national graduation rate for Native Americans and Alaskan Natives in the United States for the 2021-2022 school year was 74% (National Center for Education Statistics, 2024). The state with the highest graduation rate was Mississippi (91%), and the state with the lowest graduation rate was South Dakota (46%) (National Center for Education Statistics, 2024). The Wisconsin DPI tracks attendance, chronic absenteeism, and dropout rates across the state; the data presented in the table below compares these rates for Native American and White students during the 2022-2023 school year (Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, 2024).

Nationally, Native Americans score lower on the ACT than whites. Between 2017 and 2020, the average composite score for Native Americans in Wisconsin was 16.7 and 21.6 for white students (US News and World Report, 2024). Bayfield High School’s 2024 school report card indicates that 31.6% of Native American students were proficient or advanced on the ACT, while 46.9% statewide were proficient or advanced (Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, 2024). This trend was recapitulated on state tests for elementary and middle schools in Bayfield (Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, 2024).