Red Cliff is notable for being the band closest to the spiritual center of the Ojibwe nation, Madeline Island.

According to tradition, the Ojibwe came from the Atlantic coast via several stopping places to Chequamegon Bay directed by the Great Spirit {Gichi Manidoo} to find the "food that grows on water" (wild rice).

During the 17th century, French fur traders and Jesuits arrived on Madeline Island and set up a trading post at La Pointe with a Catholic mission.

During the early reservation period, most tribal members were forced to make their living working for white employers in nearby Bayfield, Wisconsin.

At the turn of the 19th century, the Commission of Indian Affairs allowed lumbering companies to cut most of the timber on the reservation.

Despite the fact that the Ojibwe had reserved the rights to hunt, fish, and gather in treaties signed in Wisconsin Supreme Court case Gurnoe vs. Wisconsin (1972), the court found in favor of a Red Cliff tribal member upholding that the tribe reserved the right to harvest reasonable amounts of fish.

[citation needed] During the Wisconsin Walleye War (1987–1991), Red Cliff was not a site of violence in the way other Lake Superior bands were.

Red Cliff also runs Legendary Waters Resort and Casino, which sits on the shore of Lake Superior.

[9] The Red Cliff Band established the Frog Bay Tribal National Park on the reservation in 2012.

[11] The park protects about 175 acres (0.71 km2) of boreal forest, wetland, and undeveloped Lake Superior coastline.