In the Leech Lake area, descendants of early people included contemporaries of the woolly mammoth, and artifacts of huge ivory tusks have been found in their burial grounds around Leech Lake. A Native American civilization known as the Laurel Culture existed in northern Minnesota before the birth of Christ, and the Blackduck Culture existed in the area about 1,000 years later. The Mandans and the Gros Ventures were on Leech Lake at one time, and the Dakota Sioux arrived during the 1600s. In the middle of the 1700s, the Ojibwe drove the Dakota Sioux out of the area and made Leech Lake their home. The prehistoric Native American woman depicted took care of her children and did the ricing, gardening, and gathering of maple sap for sugar, and later the Ojibwe sought to live up to their motto, “We Come Together”.