Mille Lacs Lake

Mille Lacs is a broad lake in central Minnesota, surrounded by forests, wetlands and smaller lakes. The Dakota called it Mde Wakan, Spirit Lake, and held it to be a place of religious and cultural importance. The Ojibwe name Misi-zaaga’igan describes a lake that spreads widely. Its outlet, the Rum River, flows south toward the Mississippi. Dakota and Ojibwe communities have both made their homes around its shores, drawing on fish, game and wild rice.