Mike Loud named newest chief of Red Lake Tribal Council

RED LAKE — The Red Lake Tribal Council elected new hereditary chief Mike Loud at its Tuesday, April 8, meeting.

The Red Lake Nation is one of the only tribes in the country that continues a tradition of hereditary chiefs. They are selected by elected members of the Tribal Council from descendants of the seven chiefs who brokered the 1889 agreement with the United States.

This agreement shaped Red Lake’s unique sovereign structure as a closed reservation with lands that have never left tribal control. As non-voting members of the Tribal Council, the chiefs serve in an advisory capacity for life.

Mike Loud succeeds his brother Jim Loud, who died in August 2024. Mike Loud spent his first 20 years on the Red Lake Reservation but has lived and worked in Minneapolis. A post from Red Lake Nation College states he has worked as a counselor, community leader and activist for the last 40 years.

The Louds are descendants of Chief Crooked Arm, sometimes called Chief Broken Arm, who was also a representative for the Red Lake Ojibwe in the Old Crossing Treaty of 1863. The United States shifted to bartering with Indian tribes via agreement shortly after this treaty. The Red Lake and Pembina Ojibwe ceded much of what is now northwestern Minnesota and part of North Dakota at the Treaty of the Old Crossing.