Sandy Lake Band of Mississippi Chippewa (Ojibwe: Gaa-mitaawangaagamaag-ininiwag) are a historical Ojibwa tribe located in the upper Mississippi River basin, on and around Big Sandy Lake in what today is in Aitkin County, Minnesota. Though politically folded into the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, thus no longer independently federally recognized, for decades, Sandy Lake Band members have been leading efforts to restore their independent Federal recognition.
History
Pre-treaty/early treaty times
Since the earliest of days, Gaa-mitaawangaagamaag, as the Sandy Lake is known in Anishinaabemowin or the Chippewa language, acted as a commercial hub in both east-west trade (via Savanna Portage) and north-south trade (via the Mississippi River). Originally, the area occupied by the Sandy Lake Band was inhabited by the Gros Ventres (Atsina) Tribe. Approximately 1,600 years ago, the Nakota Sioux advancing northward displaced the Gros Ventres westward. With the arrival of the Chippewa approximately 800 years ago, conflicts between the Assiniboine and the Chippewa pursued. By the time the French fur traders made contact in the Sandy Lake region, the Sandy Lake Band had near full control of the area's trade routes. By the time of the arrival of the European settlers around Sandy Lake, the Sandy Lake Band of Mississippi Chippewa became the instrumental tribe controlling the Savanna Portage trade-route that connected the Lake Superior and east with the Mississippi River and west. Sandy Lake Band became a treaty signatory to the 1787 British Treaty of Peace with the Dakota, Chippewa and Winnebago. Then starting with the 1825 First Treaty of Prairie du Chien, Sandy Lake Band became treaty signatory to it and other successive treaties with the United States.
Sandy Lake Tragedy
Due to last-minute changes in the annual annuity payments from a central region around La Pointe, Wisconsin, to not so central but as well known location of Sandy Lake in the fall of 1850, representatives from 19 Chippewa bands packed up and started an arduous journey to the shores of Sandy Lake, where they had been told to gather in late October for annual annuity payments and supplies. As it turned out, the annuity payments and supplies were late in coming to Sandy Lake, and the people had to wait until early December before they received the limited sums of money and available supplies. Trying to survive on spoiled and inadequate government rations while waiting for the annuities, about 150 Chippewa people died from dysentery and measles at Sandy Lake. Another 230-250 died en route home.
As a result of this tragedy, the Mississippi Chippewa Bands agreed to the establishment of Chippewa Reservations. Sandy Lake Indian Reservation was established in 1855, together with other Mississippi Chippewa Reservations of Lake Pokegama, Rabbit Lake, Gull Lake and Mille Lacs Lake. The same treaty established the Rice Lake Reservation, but due to the Bureau of Land Management claims of the Rice Lake Reservation being within the boundaries of the Sandy Lake Reservation, the Rice Lake Reservation was never formally platted.
Dakota War of 1862
The Sandy Lake Band remained neutral during the Dakota War of 1862 against the United States. Due to this neutrality, the Sandy Lake Band were not forced to relocated to what eventually became the White Earth Reservation in Northwestern Minnesota, though the Band members were socially pressured to relocate and many did. Those who did relocate became the Removable Sandy Lake Band while those who remained became the Non-removable Sandy Lake Band. The Removable Sandy Lake Band members first relocated to Pokegama Lake Indian Reservation near Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Though friction developed between the Pillager Bands of Chippewa and the Mississippi Bands of Chippewa when most of the Mississippi Chippewa reservations were dissolved with all residences relocated to the area surrounding the original Leech Lake Indian Reservation, while all other removable Mississippi Chippewa Bands negotiated relocation to a less hostile area to form the White Earth Indian Reservation, the Pokegama Lake Band and some of the Removable Sandy Lake Band negotiated to remain in the area, forming the White Oak Point Band on the White Oak Point Indian Reservation in 1873, which in 1934 merged with the Leech Lake and other bands of the 5 contiguous Indian Reservations in the area to form the contemporary Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe and the "Greater" Leech Lake Indian Reservation.