Bemidji

Bemidji lies on the southwest shore of Lake Bemidji in northern Minnesota, where the upper Mississippi flows through a chain of lakes and pine forest. Wild rice grew in the shallow waters, fish filled the lake, and moose and deer lived in the surrounding woods. Ojibwe families used the lakeshore for camps and fishing sites, travelling by canoe between the lakes in open water and on foot across the portages in winter. The Ojibwe name for the lake describes a place where waters cross, and the channel between Lake Bemidji and Lake Irving was a key link in their travel routes. Fur traders followed these waterways into the Ojibwe country in the early nineteenth century.