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White Earth Nation

Native American band in Minnesota, USA

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 18, 2026
Entity authorityQ7994663
Source-derived summary

The White Earth Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, also called the White Earth Nation (Ojibwe: Gaa-waabaabiganikaag Anishinaabeg, lit. "People from where there is an abundance of white clay"), is a federally recognized Native American band in northwestern Minnesota. The band's land base is the White Earth Indian Reservation.

With 19,291 members in 2007, the White Earth Band is the largest of the six component bands of the federally recognized Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, formed after the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act. It is also the largest band in Minnesota.

The five other member tribes of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe are the Bois Forte Band (Nett Lake), Fond du Lac Band, Grand Portage Band, Leech Lake Band, and Mille Lacs Band.

History

The White Earth Nation was formed by joining multiple Chippewa bands from north central Minnesota. They had been displaced by European-American settlement and consolidated onto a reservation in Mahnomen, Becker, and Clearwater Counties. Six Minnesota Chippewa bands enroll members separately today, but they combine numbers when identifying the entire tribe. According to the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe council, the White Earth Band had 19,291 enrolled members in July 2007, making it the largest Anishinaabe tribe in the state.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “White Earth Nation” as native American band in Minnesota, USA. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around White, Earth and Nation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2007, 1934—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with White, Earth and Nation providing the first useful test.
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A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “White Earth Nation”, the useful work is to connect “native American band in Minnesota, USA” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7994663. Authority coordinates are 47.086, -95.861. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2007 and 1934.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from White Earth Nation” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.