10/03/2026
We are blessed to have 3 of these beautiful and intuitive ponies with us here on the farm.
Please be sure to come and visit us, and learn more about their breed, their resilience, and their story.
🐴 In 1977 four mares walked across a frozen lake, and that is the only reason the Ojibwe pony still exists.
These small ponies belonged to the Ojibwe, and in the 1940s a herd of them at the Bois Forte Indian Reserve in northern Minnesota was rounded up and destroyed on the advice of missionaries.
By 1977 four mares were all that was left. Canadian health officials had reportedly deemed them a health risk and announced plans to destroy them. Before the authorities could act, five men from the Bois Forte and Lac La Croix First Nations took the four mares across the ice to the Minnesota reserve.
The mares were bred to a registered Spanish Mustang stallion named Smokey SMR 169. The first new generation included Keokuk, born in January 1980, and Nimkii, born in January 1985, and those two founded the bloodlines the breed still runs on.
Breeders have brought the population back to about 150, spread across ranches, farms and breeding sanctuaries in Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta and parts of the United States.
You will see the breed called three things: the Lac La Croix Indigenous pony, the Lac La Croix Indian pony, and the Ojibwe pony.
Had you heard of this breed before today?
