''Medweganoonind'' (meaning "who is heard spoken to," recorded variously in English as Med-we-gan-on-int, May-dway-gon-on-ind, May-dway-gwa-no-nind and Ma-dwa-ga-no-nint; died 1897 or 1898, lived approximately 84 or 91 years) was a chief of the

Ojibwe The Ojibwe (; Ojibwe writing systems#Ojibwe syllabics, syll.: ᐅᒋᐺ; plural: ''Ojibweg'' ᐅᒋᐺᒃ) are an Anishinaabe people whose homeland (''Ojibwewaki'' ᐅᒋᐺᐘᑭ) covers much of the Great Lakes region and the Great Plains, n ...

tribe at Red Lake,

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

. Medweganoonind was a tall and strong man. According to

Joseph Gilfillan Joseph Alexander Gilfillan (1838 – November 18, 1913) was an Episcopal missionary to Native Americans of the Ojibwa Tribe on White Earth Reservation in northern Minnesota during 35 years from 1873 until 1908. Biography Joseph Alexander G ...

, "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." 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 An act for the relief and civilization of the Chippewa Indians in the State of Minnesota (51st-1st-Ex.Doc.247; ), commonly known as the Nelson Act of 1889, was a United States federal law intended to relocate all the Anishinaabe people in Minneso ...

. He took responsibility in front of a visiting commission appointed by President

Benjamin Harrison Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833March 13, 1901) was the 23rd president of the United States, serving from 1889 to 1893. He was a member of the Harrison family of Virginia—a grandson of the ninth president, William Henry Harrison, and a ...

for defending the rights of the Red Lake Band to a diminished reservation at Red Lake. That reservation remained the common property of the tribe, and was not individually allotted as the U.S. government preferred. The

Medweganoonind Library ''Medweganoonind'' (meaning "who is heard spoken to," recorded variously in English as Med-we-gan-on-int, May-dway-gon-on-ind, May-dway-gwa-no-nind and Ma-dwa-ga-no-nint; died 1897 or 1898, lived approximately 84 or 91 years) was a chief of the Oji ...

Red Lake Nation College Red Lake Nation College is a public tribal land-grant community college on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Red Lake, Minnesota. It is fully accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and enrolls about 150 students. The college is supported ...

is named after Chief Medweganoonind.

References

American Ojibwe people Native American leaders Year of birth unknown People from Red Lake, Minnesota {{NorthAm-native-bio-stub