Grand Casino Mille Lacs and Grand Casino Hinckley directly employ approximately 3,000 people, of whom about 93% live in the rural Minnesota counties surrounding the casinos. The Mille Lacs Band is the 40 th largest employer in Minnesota, employing more than 4,100 people in the tribal government and its businesses, including Grand Casino Mille Lacs and Grand Casino Hinckley. More than 1,400 Band members live in District 1, making it the most populous of the three districts.ĭistrict II and IIa are near the cities of McGregor and Isle.ĭistrict III is near the city of Hinckley, where the Grand Casino Hinckley is located. District I is where the Mille Lacs Band Government Center and Grand Casino Mille Lacs are located. The Mille Lacs Reservation consists of three districtsĭistrict I is made up of the four northern most townships in Mille Lacs County with the exception of the Isle community. The Mille Lacs Reservation was established by the Treaty of 1855, which set aside 61,000 acres as the Band’s reservation on and around the south end of Mille Lacs Lake. By the mid-1700s, the Ojibwe had established themselves in the region around Mille Lacs Lake in what is today East Central Minnesota.
About 500 years ago, the ancestors of the Mille Lacks Band began migrating west from the Atlantic coast of North America.