If you go to the Grand Casino, Mille Lacs, be sure to meander down the road and go to the Mille Lacs Indian Museum and Trading Post, right on the shore of Mille Lacs Lake. There, you can learn the history of the area Ojibwe, plus visit the historical trading post.

Mille Lacs Indian Museum

The museum itself describes the history, culture and artwork of the Mille Lacs area Ojibwe. The highlight of the museum is the Four Seasons Room.

As seen in the video, when you go to the Four Seasons Room, you will be totally immersed in what it was like for the Ojibwe to live and work in Minnesota several hundred years ago. The life-size figures make you feel you are living with them as you move from season to season, tapping maple syrup in the spring,  fishing in the summer, harvesting and preparing wild rice in the fall, and living in their teepee's in the winter while ice fishing and hunting.

They have a 20-minute overview every hour on the 1/2 hour - don't miss it!

Mille Lacs Indian Trading Post

After your museum visit, be sure to go the adjacent trading post.

The trading post provides an interesting history of Jeannette and Harry Ayer, a white couple who originally set up the trading post and cabins in the 1930's. They gave their property and their collection of Ojibwe-made items to the Minnesota Historical Society in 1959, who then created the Mille Lacs Indian Museum.

The trading post also sells a wide variety of American Indian-made fine arts and crafts, including items such as baskets, jewelry, moccasins, beadwork and locally harvested wild rice and maple syrup.

Before you go, be sure to check out the Mille Lacs Indian Museum website so you don't miss their many events and workshops.