Minnesota Monuments to the Chippewa:

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 1892 U.S. Army goes to White-Earth and Leech-Lake to raise a Regiment of Chippewa.[237]

Spanish American War[238][239] [240] A full blood Wisconsin Civil War veteran Louis Beche, offered President McKinley a band of 500 Lake Superior Chippewa warriors.[241]

WWI[242]

• Private William J. Ashmun (Bad-River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa) French Croix-de-Guerre with gilt star[243][244]
• Private Frank J. Bell (White-Earth Band of Chippewa) French Croix-de-Guerre, Distinguished Service Cross
• William J. Bluesky (The Lac-Courte-Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa) Silver Star
• Sniper Private Samson Comego, chief of the Chippewa Alderville Reserve, 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal
• Sniper Private Peter Comego, the Chippewa Alderville Reserve, 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal
• Sergeant James M. Gordon (Red-Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa) French Croix-de-Guerre
• Private David Kejick (Shoal-Lake First Nations Chief) Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM))
• Sergeant Joseph P. LaJeunesse (White-Earth Band of Chippewa) Distinguished Service Cross, Purple Heart. It has been contended that Sgt. LaJeunesse was denied a Medal of Honor because he was Native American.[245]
• Sniper L/Cpl. Johnson Paudash, (Hiawatha First Nation), Military Medal, Distinguished Service Medal
• Sniper Corporal Francis Pegahmagabow (Parry Island band Chief), Military Medal with 2 bars (3 awards} his medals and sniper rifle were donated to the Canadian War Museum.
• Corporal Walter G. Sevalier (Bad-River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa) Distinguished Service Cross
• Corporal Angus Oliver Teeple (Bay-Mills band of the Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians) Silver Star
• Private Lawrence A. Vizenor (White-Earth Band of Chippewa) Distinguished Service Cross

52nd Canadian Light Infantry Battalion had nearly 100 Ojibwa from the Thunder Bay area.  At least six were given awards for valor.[176]  In total Canada had 247 Ojibwa, 420 Cree, and 665 Metis enlist for the war.

Modern Warriors of World War I, Erin Fehr, George S. Robb Centre for the Study of the Great War, Park University, Parkville, MO [243]

Between the world wars the 101st Airborne was headquartered in Wisconsin where it gained it's famous insignia.  It goes back to Chief Ahgamahwegezhig (Chief Sky) of the Lac-Flambeau band and the Civil War.[246]

• USCGC Chippewa (1919) ex-USN tug 60 based at Sault Ste Marie.

WWII[247] In 1940, the 32nd Infantry Division recruited 17 Michigan and Wisconsin Oneida and Chippewa(FDL) for training as code talkers.[248] In 2015 Congress authorized a Code Talkers Medal for the Fond-du-Lac band of Chippewa

When the war broke "the Lac-Oreille band had 100 men enlist". To the north "the Grand Portage band had nearly every abled bodied man volunteer".[163]

"A Chippewa Indian was furious when rejected [for military service] because he had no teeth. "I don't want to bite'em," he said, "I just want to shoot'em!"[163]

• Sergeant Tommy Prince (Brokenhead Ojibway Nation) volunteered for the First Special Service Force(FSSF) that the Germans called the Devils Brigade.[249] He received the: Military Medal (King George VI personally awarded), Silver Star, French Croix de Guerre with Silver-Gilt Star (unit award), Distinguished Unit Citation(Italy), and a U.S. Congressional Gold Medal. In addition, he received the British: 1939-1945 Star, Italy Star, France and Germany Star, Defence Medal (United Kingdom), Canadian Volunteer Service Medal with Overseas Clasp, and the War Medal 1939-1945 plus the U.S. Asiatic–Pacific Campaign Medal, and European–African–Middle Eastern Campaign Medal followed by the Korea Medal, United Nations Service Medal Korea, and Canadian Volunteer Service Medal for Korea. He was authorized to wear the Canadian battle honor "Mont Mojo" on his dress uniform as well as the U.S Combat Infantryman Badge. The FSSF was awarded five U.S. campaign streamers and another ten by Canada. Sgt. Prince was the great great grandson of the Salteaux Chief Peguis, who had moved his people from Sault Ste. Marie to the Red River region. Numerous sources claim Sgt. Prince had medals for valor coming for his actions in both Italy and Korea. In Korea his superiors refused to put him up. In Korea the United States awarded his unit the Distinguished Unit Citation for the Battle of Kapyong, so Prince had two PUC's to his credit.

October 28, 2022 Canada issued a non-rated forever stamp depicting Sgt. Prince.[250]

The FSSF adopted the 1866 Indian Scouts crossed arrows insignia minus the USS.  A "U.S." or "Canada" pin was placed above the arrows depending upon the man's nationality.  Subsequently the United States Army Special Forces adopted the crossed arrows from the FSSF.

• Pfc. William A. Davis, Bronze Star Pembina band
• Pfc. Albert E. Fairbanks Air Medal (one cluster) White-Earth Band of Chippewa
• T/Sgt. Oliver Gibbs Air Medal (3 clusters) Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians
• Cpl. Bert Orben Good, Bronze Star Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians
• 1st Lt. Lewis O'Jibway (Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians) Bronze Star (OSS and CIA)
• S/Sgt. Clifton J. Rabideaux (5 clusters) Fond-du-Lac Band of Chippewa
• Aviation Radioman Petty Officer First Class Oliver B. Rasmussen, Purple Heart. Was Chief of one of the Northern Wisconsin bands. Evaded capture for 68 days in Japan after his Curtiss SB2C Helldiver went down[251]. A new reference states he was seriously injured. The United States does not have a medal for evasion in enemy territory. The outcome for captured American aviators in Japan was not good.
• HMCS Chippawa was commissioned 1941 in Winnipeg, Manitoba named for the HMS Chippewa captured in the War of 1812.
• USAT Chippewa 14 October 1943 the War Department, assigned the vessal to the US Army Small Ship Section, Southwest-Pacific Area as a bareboat charter.
• USCGC Ojibwa 1944 (WYT-97) Apalachee-class tug
• USS Chippewa (AT-69) was commissioned 1943
• USS Wabanquot was commissioned 1945 (YTB-525) Hisada class tug.
• 1943 King George VI awarded the Chief of the Red-Gut band (Nicikousemenecaning band) the British Empire Medal along with the Chiefs of three other tribes.
• Chippewa Killed in Action: Minnesota 32, North Dakota 1, Wisconsin 5

Korea

• Sergeant Benny Bowstring (Leech-Lake Band of Chippewa) POW Medal died from starvation as a prisoner, remains not returned
• Private Richard Marvin Fairbanks (White-Earth Band of Chippewa) Bronze Star KIA
• Corporal Charles Jackson Littlejohn ( White-Oak-Point Reservation) Silver Star KIA
• Delbert Ray Snell ( White-Oak-Point Reservation) Bronze Star KIA
• Albert L. Whitebird (Chief of the Bad-River Band of Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa) Silver Star

Vietnam

• Corpsman 3rd Class Donald Parrish (Bay-Mills band of the Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians) Silver Star

Iraq

• Force Master Chief James D. Fairbanks (White-Earth Band of Chippewa) Bronze Star
• USCGC Chippewa(WLR-75404) 1964
• USNS Saginaw Ojibwe Anishinabek (T-ATS-8) commissioned 2019
• USNS James D. Fairbanks (T-ATS-13) under construction

 John Nicolay was sent to represent the President at the Chippewa treaty on the Red River. He was a member of the group accompanying Indian Commissioner Dole. He was present when Commissioner Dole met Hole-in-the-day and witnessed the Chief's surprise tactic of bringing 300 warriors with. Nicolay was at Fort Abercrombie when the Red Lakers treaty cattle were raided.[135] He and the treaty commission were still at Abercrombie when the fort was attacked on September 3. He would have witnessed the Chippewa in G Company involved in the repulse of the Sioux attack which allowed him and the treaty party to escape back to Sauk Rapids and St. Cloud. Lincoln would have been informed of his firsthand Chippewa/Sioux experience.

Interview with the Chippewa, Nicolay attending, The Indian War in Minnesota Daily Alta California, Vol XIV, No. 4640, 5 Nov. 1862, California Digital Newspaper Collection, UC Riverside, CA, 2024 [61]

Nicolay at Fort Ripley[136] Nicolay Chippewa country[137] What Mr. Nicolay says about the Indian War[138] Nicolay spent 6 weeks in Minnesota for the Chippewa.[139]

July-Sept, 1862: John G. Nicolay Papers: Transcripts, 1860-1865, Library of Congress, 2025 [62]

In 1889 plans and specifications for a Indian School at Pipestone were drawn up.[274]  Attendence at the non-reservation boarding schools was by application.   The length of attendence was specified by the parent on the application.   The school surerintendent actively recruited students from reservations until the BIA forbide it.  For Pipestone that was never an issue as many years there were more applications than beds.

In 1890 it was reported tribes had requested a school at the Yankton tribe's Pipestone Reservation.[275] An approbation of $30,000 was requested and $25,000 was approved. The Bureau of Indian Affairs took 100 acres of the reservation land to build the Pipestone Indian Industrial School adjacent to the Pipestone Quarry. The Yankton people long contested that loss and won before the Supreme Court years later. It was one of the BIA's 25 non-reservation boarding schools and amongst the last to be closed. When the school opened the majority of native Americans in Minnesota were Ojibwa and they dominated the school's enrollment throughout it's history. The school had grades 1-8 with a split curriculum, mornings and afternoon groups switching: academics and occupation skills. The school fielded both girls and boys sports teams[276] [277] [278] Post WWI, the Pipestone student body became more diverse, but White-Earth remained the primary source of students until the school closed. Attendance was voluntary and by application. The School superintendent made visits to reservations both in and outside Minnesota to recruit students. The circumstances for the attendance of orphans at the school are not published. In 1952, last year the school was supposed to be open, over 300 students wanted to attend, however due to budget reductions only 130 from Minnesota were accepted. Post WWII newspapers portray the school's secondary tasking as an orphanage.[279] [280] Leaders of the Chippewa were against closing Pipestone School until something could be done to place the kids in permanent situations.[281]

1891 The Yankton tribe filed a complaint that the school would be placed on the Yankton Pipestone reservation not adjacent to it.[282][283]

1893 The Pipestone Superintendent passed through Marshall, MN with three groups of kids. Two were from White-Earth and Mille-Lacs. The third were Sioux he brought via St Paul.[284]

1894 the Avoca Catholic boarding school for Indian girls closed. The students were transferred to Pipestone and Flandreau after permission was received from the parents.[285]

1895 The Superintendents of the Indian schools at Pipestone and Pierre S.D. both went to White-Earth looking to enroll students. Pipestone got 8 or 9.[286]

1897 Six bright students were escorted back to the Rosebud Agency when classes ended in the Spring [287] In the Fall it was reported 67 Ojibwa children from the Detroit Lakes area were enroute to Pipestone.[288][289]

1899 C.J. Crandall, the first Superintendent of Pipestone wrote that the legends surrounding the red Pipestone were mostly the creations of the "white man".[290][291]

1900 Congress considered buying the Pipestone Reservation[292]

1901 Pipestone's students won 12 bronze medals in Agricultural Products at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York.[293][294]

1902 School enrollment reported at 135 mostly Chippewa.[295][289]

1904 Bids were solicited to provide 35,000 pounds of beef for the school. The desired cuts were specified as well as what would be rejected.[296]

1905 The White-Earth Tomahawk reported the Pipestone School matron, Miss Roy, returned for the new school year accompanied by many White Earth students.[297] White Earth Chief William Madison was the Boys Advisor at Pipestone.[298]

1906 The first 3 students to graduate at Pipestone were Clem Fairbanks, Willie Coffey, and Willie McIntosh from White-Earth. In 1906 enrollment was 215.[299]

1908 the BIA prohibited non-reservation school superintendents from going to reservations and recruiting students.[300] The head of the BIA felt too much money was being spent on the training programs at the non-reservation schools and that they should have the same curriculums as public schools.

1912 the students began publishing a school newspaper that some claim make it the first indigenous newspaper in the country.[301] However, The Oglala Light began publishing at the Oglala Indian Training School in Pine Ridge, South Dakota in 1900.

ca. 1914 Two girls displaying a large example of Ojibwa beadwork at Pipestone.[302]

1915 Congress Approbations for the Minnesota Chippewa: Pipestone School $51,725, $4,000 support of the Chippewa school of the Mississippi bands. A request was made to reserve the mineral rights of all tribal land taken by the whites. Another provision was made for a welfare payment be authorized for any tribal member that was destitute, ill, or incapacitated.[303]

1916 The BIA allocated Indian schools $167/student while PITS was spending $224/student[304] In 1914 the boys made the Tri-state Indian school championship.[305]

1918 School enrollment reported at 165: Chippewa 75, Sioux 55, Winnebago 19, Omaha 19.[289] During commencement PITS displayed a service banner with 35 stars for former students in uniform for WWI.[306]

1927 school enrollment was 340 the school's maximum, many applications were turned down[307]

1927 The school boyscouts preformed Longfellow's Song of Hiawatha for the first time.  It became a annual school activity that was later adopted as a community activity.  A Charles Morrison was a student from 1910- 1924 who later returned as a teacher.  He was helped that later non-native preformers learn the correct pronunciation of the Ojibwa words used in the preformance. ( Pipestone Administrative History NM Chapter VIII, NPS 2025,  https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/pipe/adhi8.htm )

1930 school enrollment was 315. 375.In 1930 the football team went 7-3 scoring 220 pts vs. their opponents 72. It was notable as almost all their opponents were High schools and Pipestone only went to the 9th grade. The team represented 11 tribes: Chippewa 5, Sioux 5, Gros Ventre 2, Akira 2, Sac-Fox 2, Winnebago 1, Omaha, 1, Oneida 1, and Cheyenne 1. The toughest game was against the Flandreau Indian School team.[308]

In 1932 Pipestone had the largest enrollment. That year a Hospital was built on the school campus.[309] The building was demolished in 1999.

1940 Applications for enrollment far exceeded school capacity with many turned down to get to the preferred number of 320.

1941 The boys basketball team made the news. It was reported that they had won a tournament two years running and were returning. They were noted for defeating the opposition routinely by 15-25 points. Because of this they had to travel over 100 miles to play teams they would or could compete with them.[310]

1947 enrollment demographics and costs per student reported. [311]

1948 the BIA proposed closing all Indian schools. The people of Pipestone said all the other schools could close except Pipestone. Because of the historical significance of the adjoining Reservation it should be exempted. In 1948 the Minnesota Welfare Board insisted that the Pipestone Indian School reopen. The governor of Minnesota wrote numerous letters that "many of these children have no homes, family's, or places to go". [312] that year the school and hospital closures were put off for a year.[313]

1948 Was the last year the School put on the Song of Hiawatha due to the pending closing.  The local community assumed production in 1949.

1949 The school had nearly 400 applications but only 125 were accepted due to reduced funding. Most of those were year round residents. They did not have homes to return to during summer because they were orphans.[314] That year Minnesota U.S. Senator H.H. Humphrey made efforts on behalf of keeping Pipestone open. Le Sueur News-Herald, Mar. 9, 1949, Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub, 2024, MNHS, St. Paul MN [244]. Communities throughout Minnesota and South Dakota opposed the closing of the Indian School and the Hospital.[315]

In 1952 $135,000 was authorized to fund Pipestone's a last year of operations. That figure equals $1,582,819.32 in 2024 dollars or $12,662/student for 125 students.

1953 the School was scheduled to be closed however, $250,000 was appropriated for the 1953-54 school year. The Indian Bureau diverted $72,000 on that money for the Minnesota foster care program for the placement of Pipestone students. The Bureau was ordered to  return the monies as well as any Pipestone students it had placed.[316]  The Chippewa opposed the closing of the Pipestone school[317][318]

*   1953 Termination Act:

House Concurrent Resolution 108 (H. Con. Res. 108), passed August 1, 1953, declared it to be the sense of Congress that it should be policy of the United States  government to abolish federal supervision over American Indian Tribes as soon as possible and to subject the Indians  to the same laws, privileges, and responsibilities as other U.S. citizens. This includes an end to reservations and tribal sovereignty, integrating Native Americans into mainstream American society.

• The solution to the closing of Pipestone was placing the kids in the Foster Home Program.
• A student's opinion of Pipestone and "The Writings of Ward Churchill Fulsome and Inflammatory", The Ojibwe News, June 10, 2005, p. 4,5, Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub, 2024, MNHS, St. Paul MN [245]
• PITS, Keeping Victimhood in Perspective, Chuck Trimble, FEB 25, 2012 Indian Country Today, [246]

In 1855 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow places the Chippewa at Pipestone in his Song of Hiawatha. He wrote "Here Gitche Manitou called all the tribes together".

2008 Was the last year the Song of Hiawatha was preformed at Pipestone ending what the students started over 70 years before.

Chief William Madison made the newspapers after his tenure at PTIS. In 1940 he held a press conference with the media concerning the failure of the State to erect monuments acknowledging significant Chippewa history,[319] A decade later, in 1950, he ran for the office of State Senator for Minneapolis.[320]

PIPESTONE STUDENT FILES 1910 -1954  ARE AVAILABLE AT:  National Archives at Kansas City, 2025, https://www.archives.gov/kansas-city/finding-aids/pipestone-students.html   (RECORD GROUP 75) IS SUPPOSE TO CONTAIN THE YEARS 1894-1910.  Direct questions to:   
kansascity.archives@nara.gov 

Just north of Rainy Lake, in Canada, the Chippewa had found a jet black stone, steatite/soapstone, that they used to make pipes.[252][253][254] It is slightly harder than the Red Pipestone from southern Minnesota and is less well known in comparison.[255] The Chippewa also quarried steatite near Devils Lake, Sauk County, Wisconsin and other sites in Ontario.[256] [257] [258] [259] [260] Another source has a quarry at Pillager, Minnesota and a quarry north of Duluth that produced a jet black material that took a high polish.[261]

Longfellow's poem places the Red Pipestone quarry in Ojibwa lore stating Gitche Manitou called the tribes together there.[262]

Chief Aysh-ke-bah-ke-ko-zhay (Flat-Mouth), Leech-Lake steatite pipe, collected 1866, Smithsonian[263]

Bois-Forte steatite pipe with lead and catlinite inlaid, ca. 1900, Harvard University Peabody Museum[264]

Cass Lake pipe with lead and catlinite inlaid.[265]

Lake Winnibigoshish/Leech-Lake steatite pipe, Smithsonian[266]

Whiteshell Provincial Park's petroforms serve as reminders of the instructions given to the Anishinaabe by the Creator Gitche Manitou. The Anishinaabe Midewiwin, or Grand Medicine Society, considers the area containing the petroforms to be "Manito Ahbee", where the Gitche Manitou sits. It is the site where the Gitche Manitou lowered the original Anishinaabe from the sky to the ground according to oral history.

• Anishinaabe Pictographs[267]
• Chippewa Pictograph Sites of the Border States; Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin.[268]
• Sanilac Petroglyphs Historic State Park "Ezhibiigadek asin" Ojibwe for "written on stone", Michigan.
• Pimachiowin Aki is a UNESCO World Heritage site on Lake Winnipeg, with over 30 individual sites, it is Canada's largest grouping of pictographs.
• Hegman Lake Pictographs in Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area.
• Lake Superior Provincial Park contains the Agawa Rock Pictographs. "Aagawaa" means "sheltered place" in the Ojibwa.
• Wabakimi Provincial Park has multiple pictographs near Cliff Lake.
• Mazinaw Pictographs National Historic Site of Canada. "Mazinaw" is Ojibwa for "picture" or "writing".

Objiwa appearance: Dress, headdress, hair, tattoos,[269] peircings, body paint, and ornaments.[49]