No fertilizers. No pesticides. No outboard motors. These are not recent environmental regulations -- they are rules the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa has maintained on Nett Lake for as long as anyone can remember. The 7,300-acre lake at the heart of their reservation in northern Minnesota is said to be the largest producer of wild rice in the United States, and every grain of it is still harvested the old way: two people in a canoe, one poling through the rice beds, the other using carved wooden knocking sticks to gently tap ripe grains into the hull. The Bois Forte -- whose Ojibwe name, Zagaakwaandagowininiwag, translates to 'Men of the Thick Woods' -- have guarded this place and this practice across centuries of treaty negotiations, allotment schemes, and land loss. That they still harvest rice by hand on a pristine lake speaks to a persistence as deep-rooted as the wild rice itself.
The Bois Forte reservation is not a single contiguous territory but three distinct sections scattered across northern Minnesota. The primary holding is the Nett Lake Indian Reservation -- called Asabiikone-zaaga'iganiing, 'At the Lake for Netting,' in Ojibwe -- covering 162.9 square miles around Nett Lake in Koochiching and St. Louis counties. The second-largest parcel is the Deer Creek Indian Reservation, 35.1 square miles in Itasca County, originally set aside for the Little Forks Band of Rainy River Saulteaux. Today Deer Creek's human residents have relocated, and the land serves as a natural resources reserve. The smallest and most accessible section is the Lake Vermilion Indian Reservation, just 1,039 acres in St. Louis County near the city of Tower. This is where the band operates Fortune Bay Resort Casino, The Wilderness at Fortune Bay golf course, and the Atisokanigamig -- Legend House -- Heritage Center. Together, the three parcels total nearly 200 square miles.
The Bois Forte's relationship with the United States government began with a treaty in 1854 that set aside an undefined region around Lake Vermilion. An 1866 treaty officially established the Nett Lake and Itasca County sections, and an 1881 executive order defined the Lake Vermilion boundaries. Then came the Nelson Act of 1889, which surveyed and subdivided reservation lands across Minnesota. While the federal government did not force Bois Forte members to relocate to the White Earth Indian Reservation as it did with other bands, the allotment process opened the door for timber companies and white settlers to acquire land within reservation boundaries. By 1981, only about 41 percent of the Nett Lake reservation remained in tribal ownership -- a slow hemorrhage of territory that mirrored the experience of Indigenous nations across the continent.
In 2022, a historic reversal began. The Conservation Fund, working with the Indian Land Tenure Foundation and its subsidiary Indian Land Capital Company, facilitated the return of 28,089 acres of forest land to the Bois Forte Band -- land previously held by timberland owner PotlatchDeltic Corporation. It was the largest restoration of land to the reservation since the Treaty of 1866 first established the Nett Lake and Deer Creek sectors. The returned acreage falls within reservation boundaries, surrounding the wetlands and rice beds that sustain the band's cultural and economic identity. The Bois Forte plan to manage the restored forests under a plan that balances conservation with economic and cultural benefits, ensuring that the thick woods their name describes remain thick for generations to come.
Fifty percent of the Bois Forte reservation is wetland, and that statistic defines everything about life here. The boreal landscape of northern Minnesota is a maze of lakes, bogs, and streams, and the Bois Forte have shaped their economy and culture around water. Nett Lake's wild rice harvest remains central to tribal identity, with only band members permitted to gather from the lake. The 2020 census counted 984 people across the reservation's combined sections and off-reservation trust land, with 3,052 enrolled members of the Bois Forte Band as of 2007. At Lake Vermilion, where red ochre once gave the water its Ojibwe name -- Onamanii-zaaga'iganiing, 'At the Lake with Red Ochre' -- the band has built an economic hub. Fortune Bay Resort Casino and the Heritage Center draw visitors into a landscape that rewards attention: the dark forests, the still lakes, the rice beds bending in autumn wind.
Located at 48.09N, 93.19W in northern Minnesota's boreal lake country. The reservation's Nett Lake section is visible as a large lake surrounded by dense forest in Koochiching and St. Louis counties. The Lake Vermilion section lies near the city of Tower, MN, along the scenic shore of Lake Vermilion itself -- identifiable from altitude by its complex shoreline and many islands. Falls International Airport (KINL) at International Falls is approximately 50 nm to the north. Range Regional Airport (KHIB) at Hibbing is roughly 55 nm to the south-southwest. From 4,000-6,000 feet, the patchwork of boreal forest, lakes, and wetlands that defines this region is striking. The boundary between cutover and mature forest visible in many areas reflects the land use history central to the Bois Forte story.