Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation (Ojibwe language: Mikinaakwajiwing) is a reservation located in northern North Dakota, United States. It is the land base for the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians. The population of the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation consists of Plains Ojibwe (also known in the US as Chippewa) and Métis peoples; the reservation was established in 1882. Reservation The main reservation is located in Rolette County, North Dakota. The reservation is , and it has one of the highest population densities of any reservation in the United States. It has a land area of and a 2016 estimated population of 6,369 persons. It also has extensive off-reservation trust lands, which make the reservation's lands the most widely dispersed of all reservations in the nation. These lands are spread across 22 counties in three states: North Dakota, Montana, and South Dakota. Including these lands, the reservation's land area is a total of . Its total resident population at the 2000 census was 8,331. The largest portion of off-reservation trust land is located in Rolette County, with significant parcels in Phillips, Blaine, Sheridan, and Roosevelt counties in Montana; and in Williams County, North Dakota. Sixteen other counties have lesser amounts of trust land. The main part of the Turtle Mountain Reservation is located in Rolette County, North Dakota. It covers . Another is located in Rolette County, North Dakota, around the Turtle Mountain Reservation. Total acres in Rolette County are . Another is managed by the Trenton Agency. Much of the Trenton land is in Montana. The remaining land, totaling , is located primarily in Montana, with small parcels in North Dakota and South Dakota. It is one of a few Native American reservations that protected its lands against white settlement. The total area of the Turtle Mountain Reservation is . Geography The Turtle Mountains range along what is now the Manitoba and North Dakota border. They consist of a vast spreading of hills, wetlands, and plateaus situated along the border, and are where the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation is located. The American portion of the plateau is not as extensively covered by a forest as in the Canadian part of the plateau. The forest that covers the plateau is clear evidence that the boreal forest extended much further westward. It is only slightly higher in elevation than the neighboring prairie, about or more, though there are several prominent points, including