The Manoominikeshiinyag were one of the three major Bands forming the Biitan-akiing-enabijig (Border Sitters), named because of their proximity to the Eastern Dakota peoples.
The St. Croix Band arrived in the area nearly 600 years ago; according to their oral tradition, they were directed to move southward from Lake Superior to "the place where there is food upon the waters."
This treaty assured the signatory Tribes of the right to continue to enjoy traditional hunting, fishing and gathering practices in the territory.
Confident that the Tribe could maintain exercising their hunting, fishing and gathering rights in the area ceded to the United States in 1837, the St. Croix Band did not agree to relocating to a reservation.
The US government urged the St. Croix Band members of Wisconsin to relocate to the Lac Courte Oreilles Indian Reservation so that they could receive annuity payments.
Unlike neighboring Tribes existing on resources available on their respective Reservations, the St. Croix Band adapted to the rise of the logging industry by utilizing it as a source of wage labor.
By 1902, the Rice Lake Band of Mississippi Chippewa that had removed to the White Earth Indian Reservation returned to east-central Minnesota.
Today, the St. Croix Band communities in Minnesota form the Mille Lacs Indian Reservation District III, located primarily in Pine County.