meeting. In 1889 with the passage of the Indian Allotment Act to officially relocate all scattered Ojibwe bands in Minnesota to the White Earth Indian Reservation, the Treaty-established Sandy Lake Reservation of approximately 27 mi² (70 km²) was erased from the maps, forcing the Non-removable Sandy Lake Band to be a federally recognized tribe without a reservation. On 4 March 1915, President Woodrow Wilson issued an Executive Order to set aside a tract of land within the Sandy Lake Indian Reservation for the Fond du Lac Band along the banks of the Sandy Lake. In addition, on August 24, 1940, Sandy Lake community managed to secure 147 acres (59.5 ha) parcel of land adjacent to the northeast corner of the original reservation for the benefit of the Sandy Lake Band, and other small tracts of land within the original Sandy Lake Reservation area. However, in 1980, the Bureau of Indian Affairs issued a Solicitor's Opinion that the Executive Order re-established a reservation at Sandy Lake and that the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe is empowered to exercise control over the reservation. The Non-removable Sandy Lake Band of Mississippi Chippewa lost their independent federal recognition under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 when the Bureau of Indian Affairs approved the constitution of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, which grouped all the scattered bands in the Mille Lacs region to form the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, and then placing their lands under the auspices of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, as Mille Lacs Reservation District II. Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, according to the Bureau of Indian Affairs-approved constitution, thence comprised the Non-removable and Removable Mille Lacs Indians of the Mille Lacs Lake Reservation, Non-removable Sandy Lake Band of Mississippi Chippewa of the Sandy Lake Reservation, Rice Lake Band of Mississippi Chippewa, and the Snake River and Kettle River Chippewa Communities of the St. Croix Chippewa Indians. During the early years of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, each of the historical Bands that formed the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe had a representative on the new amalgamated Band's tribal council known as the Reservation Business Committee (RBC). However, after the a significant revision to the RBC structure, allowing for only one elected representative from each RBC district, Sandy Lake Band was faced with losing full representation. In protest, many Sandy Lake Tribal members dis-enrolled from the Mille Lacs Band and formally began