The Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of the Chippewa is located on a reservation on the south shore of Lake Superior. The reservation, which is 124,234 acres (503 km²), is in northern Wisconsin straddling Ashland and Iron counties. The band has approximately 6000 members, of which about 1500 live on the reservation. Most people live in one of four towns: Odanah, Diaperville , Birch Hill and Frank's Field . Odanah, the administrative and cultural center, is located five miles east of the town of Ashland on U.S. Highway 2. Over 90% of the reservation is wilderness.
The reservation land was set aside for the Bad River Band in the treaty with the United States signed on Madeline Island on 30 September, 1854, when the band was known as the Lapointe Band. The treaty land included almost 200 acres on Madeline Island, the center of the Chippewa Nation. The band is one of six in Wisconsin that is federally recognized.
Sixteen thousand acres of the reservation are high-quality wetlands due the Kakagon River and Bad River sloughs. The wetlands are ideal for the cultivation of wild rice, the historical occupation of the Chippewa. The sloughs constitute the only remaining extensive coastal wild rice marsh in the Great Lakes region. The Bad River Chippewa also operate a fish hatchery that stocks local rivers and lakes with 15 million walleye annually.
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