Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, 1953-1954

The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa is both a place and a people. As the name of the reservation, it carries a mixed meaning. On the one hand, it is the legacy of violence, displacement, and racism. In previous generations it has been a place of confinement, and its full size has been reduced by government trickery, racist intervention, and outright theft. It is too small for the land to support its population, but there are also very few outside jobs, leading to extreme poverty and, at times, starvation. Although the colonial legacy has scattered the tribe across several reservations in both the U.S. and Canada, the reservation also has little access to the outside world; much of it has no electricity, and there is no telephone at all. On the other hand, it is land that belongs to the people behind...