Over the last year, Waabigwan Mashkiki has continued expanding across Minnesota. One of the biggest reasons that growth has been possible is because White Earth Nation helped establish something no other tribe in the country had done before.
- 01Before 2025
An industry waiting on the rollout
Much of Minnesota's emerging cannabis industry was still waiting on licensing and rollout processes — and a window of opportunity was opening.
- 022025 · The compact
First tribe in the country
White Earth Nation became the first tribe in the country to secure a cannabis compact allowing the Nation to regulate tribally owned cannabis businesses off reservation — while retaining full tribal sovereignty.
- 032025 · Moorhead
The first off-reservation dispensary
Already positioned to move, Waabigwan opened Minnesota's first off-reservation tribal cannabis dispensary in Moorhead.
- 04Since then
Four dispensaries and growing
Operations now run in Mahnomen, Moorhead, St. Cloud, and East Grand Forks — the recent East Grand Forks opening being the company's fourth dispensary and third off-reservation site in Minnesota.
- 05Next
Chanhassen comes online
Chanhassen is preparing to come online next — extending the footprint into the Twin Cities metro.
This is what sovereignty looks like in action — not just protecting authority but using it to build something lasting.
— Waabigwan Mashkiki
Sovereignty in action
That compact created a major opportunity at a critical moment in Minnesota’s emerging cannabis market. The growth that followed is creating jobs, expanding opportunity, and helping build long-term economic strength for White Earth Nation and its people.
This is what sovereignty looks like in practice — not just protecting authority, but using it to build something lasting.
