According to
Anishinaabe prophecy,
Gichi Manidoo, the Great Spirit, told the Anishinaabe people to move west from the Atlantic coast until they found the "food that grows on water." After a series of stops and divisions, the branch of Anishinaabe known as the
Lake Superior Chippewa found
wild rice near the
Chequamegon Bay on the south shore of
Lake Superior at the site of the present-day Bad River Lapointe Reservation. They made their final stopping place at nearby
Madeline Island. After the 17th century, Anishinaabe people settled throughout northern Wisconsin into lands formerly disputed with the
Dakota Sioux and the
Meskwaki. Those that remained near the trading post of La Pointe on Madeline Island were known collectively as the
La Pointe Band; they engaged in the
fur trade with neighboring French-Canadian settlers. They also pursued other seasonal occupations such as fishing, ricing, and hunting by men, and berry-picking, harvesting
maple sugar, and gathering nuts, roots and medicinal plants by women. After a disastrous attempt at
removing the Lake Superior Bands in the 19th century, which resulted in the
Sandy Lake Tragedy, the federal government agreed to set up permanent reservations in Wisconsin. At this point, the La Pointe band split: members who had converted to
Roman Catholicism were led by
Kechewaishke (Chief Buffalo) and took a reservation at
Red Cliff. Those who maintained traditional
Midewiwin beliefs settled at Bad River. The two bands, however, maintain close relations to this day. The reservation land was set aside for the Bad River Lapointe Band in the
Treaty of La Pointe, made with the US government and signed on Madeline Island on September 30, 1854. The treaty land included almost on Madeline Island, which is considered the center of the Ojibwe Nation. The band is one of six Ojibwe bands in present-day Wisconsin and one of eleven
federally recognized tribes in the state. In Odanah during the late 19th century, the
Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration created St. Mary's School, an
Indian boarding school. Students came from a variety of tribes to learn English and
Western topics as well as Christianity. During this period, timber companies on the reservation leased land for lumbering, but they cheated the tribe of their leasing fees and destroyed much of the land by
overlogging. During the
Allotment period, the tribe leased almost half its land base, which originally covered all the area of modern-day Ashland, Wisconsin. == Revival of sovereignty==