The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people of southern Canada and the northern Midwestern United States. In the United States, they have the fifth-largest population among Native American peoples, surpassed in number only by the Navajo, Cherokee, Choctaw and Sioux. In Canada, they are the second-largest First Nations population, surpassed only by the Cree. They are one of the most numerous indigenous peoples north of the Rio Grande.
The Ojibwe people traditionally speak the Ojibwe language, a branch of the Algonquian language family. They are part of the Council of Three Fires and the Anishinaabeg, which include the Algonquin, Nipissing, Oji-Cree, Odawa and the Potawatomi. Historically, through the Saulteaux branch, they were a part of the Iron Confederacy, joining the Cree, Assiniboine, and Metis. The St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin is a federally recognized tribe governed by a five-member council elected for two-year terms. The Tribal Council is responsible for the general welfare of tribal members and the management of day-to-day tribal business. The Council is governed by the tribal constitution and by-laws, which were originally ratified in 1934 under the Indian Reorganization Act. Their current population (as of 2014) is 1,054 tribal members. Due to not having a formal Indian Reservation, the lands constituting the St. Croix Indian Reservation are composed of small tracts of lands representing communities made up of families who have frequently lived in the same vicinity for generations. The reservation communities are scattered with about 50 miles (80 km) being the longest distance between any two of them. The five major communities are Sand Lake, Danbury, Round Lake, Maple Plain, and Gaslyn. They occupy land in Barron, Burnett, and Polk counties. Of the total resident population of 641 persons as of the 2000 census, 370 live in Burnett County, 197 in Polk County, and 74 in Barron County. The total area of the separate tracts of lands equals 9.140 km² (3.529 sq mi, or 2,258.49 acres), including off-reservation trust lands.