Mapping settler colonial appropriation: Heidi Katter, ‘Evading the Map: The Power of Cartographic Ignorance at the White Earth and Red Lake Ojibwe Reservations’, The Yale Historical Review, 2021 | settler colonial studies blog

Mapping settler colonial appropriation: Heidi Katter, ‘Evading the Map: The Power of Cartographic Ignorance at the White Earth and Red Lake Ojibwe Reservations’, The Yale Historical Review, 2021

24Jul21

Excerpt: In July 1889, the United States government sent a commission to northwestern Minnesota to counsel with the Ojibwe of the White Earth and Red Lake Reservations. The object of these visits was straightforward: to negotiate the terms of the newly established Nelson Act, An act for the relief and civilization of the Chippewa Indians in the State of Minnesota. The ambiguous title fails to convey its insidious intentions. The commission was charged to “negotiate…for the complete cession and relinquishment in writing of all [the Ojibwe’s] title and interest in and to all the reservations…except the White Earth and Red Lake Reservations.” The lands of White Earth and Red Lake would “be allotted…in severalty…in conformity with” the General Allotment Act of 1887, also known as the Dawes Act. Any lands remaining after granting Ojibwe individual allotments would “be disposed of by the United States to actual settlers only under the provisions of the homestead law.”1 Even though the Ojibwe at White Earth and Red Lake retained the “privilege” of remaining on their reservations, the Nelson Act powerfully advanced settler colonialism as the federal government infiltrated Ojibwe territory.

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