Leech Lake Indian Reservation

The Leech Lake Reservation has the second highest population of any reservation in Minnesota with White Earth Nation being the largest Minnesota Ojibwe tribe, Leech Lake Nation has a resident population of 11,388 indicated by the 2020 census.

Rather, it grew from the amalgamation of multiple treaties, executive orders, and various articles of legislation spanning many decades.

Some parcels were held by individual tribal members, but much of the reservation was alienated into the ownership of timber companies and white settlers.

In addition, the United States established what became the Chippewa National Forest in the early twentieth century on the remaining unallotted tribal land.

The Department of Interior discontinued these transfers in 1959 after finding that it had acted illegally by selling allotments without the consent of tribal landowners.

In 2020, Congress passed legislation to return approximately 11,760 acres of this illegally taken land from the Chippewa National Forest back to the Leech Lake Reservation.

The reservation consists of eleven villages; two additional communities have a substantial number of Leech Lake Band members.