Medweganoonind (meaning "who is heard spoken to," recorded variously in English as Med-we-gan-on-int,[1] May-dway-gon-on-ind,[2] May-dway-gwa-no-nind[3]: 132  and Ma-dwa-ga-no-nint;[4] died 1897[1] or 1898,[4]: 148  lived approximately 84[1] or 91 years[3]: 132 ) was a chief of the Ojibwe tribe at Red Lake, Minnesota.[1]

Medweganoonind was a tall and strong man. According to Joseph Gilfillan, "Nobility was stamped upon all his actions and words and his looks...He was very level-headed, true to his friends, patient under seeming neglect, unselfish, and of such a broad vision and sound judgment as would have made him an ideal ruler anywhere."[1]

Medweganoonind was the head chief of the Red Lake Band at the time of the 1889 treaty negotiations, intended to implement the Nelson Act of 1889. He took responsibility in front of a visiting commission appointed by President Benjamin Harrison[5] for defending the rights of the Red Lake Band to a diminished reservation at Red Lake.[3]: 132  That reservation remained the common property of the tribe, and was not individually allotted as the U.S. government preferred.

The Medweganoonind Library of Red Lake Nation College is named after Chief Medweganoonind.[6]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Gilfillan, Joseph A. (April 1901). "The Ojibways in Minnesota". Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society. Monthly Meeting of the Executive Council, Minnesota Historical Society, November 8, 1897. Vol. 9. pp. 75–76. Retrieved 14 January 2024 – via Internet Archive.
  2. ^ Lawrence, Melvin (ed.). "1889 - Minnesota Chippewa Commission". Maquah Publications. Retrieved 19 June 2022.
  3. ^ a b c Mittelholtz, Erwin F. (August 1957). "Noted Red Lake and Pembina Ojibwa Names" (PDF). In Mittelholtz, Erwin F.; Graves, Rose (eds.). Historical Review of the Red Lake Indian Reservation, Redlake, Minnesota: A History of its People and Progress. Bemidji, Minnesota: General Council of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians and the Beltrami County Historical Society. pp. 129–137. Retrieved 14 January 2024 – via U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
  4. ^ a b Whipple, Henry Benjamin (1899). "Chapter XIII". Lights and Shadows of a Long Episcopate. New York: The Macmillan Company. pp. 142–152. Retrieved 14 January 2024 – via Internet Archive.
  5. ^ Harrison, Benjamin (4 March 1890). Peters, Gerhard; Woolley, John T. (eds.). "Message to Congress Reporting on the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota". The American Presidency Project. UC Santa Barbara. Retrieved 19 June 2022.
  6. ^ "Medweganoonind Library". Red Lake Nation College. Retrieved 19 June 2022.