Redby, MN

Redby is a census-designated place within the Lower Red Lake unorganized territory in Beltrami County, on the south side of Lower Red Lake. The 2020 census counted 1,302 residents. Red Lake School District serves the community through the Red Lake Elementary and Secondary complexes, while Red Lake Nation programs, roads, public safety, fisheries, and industrial work shape the local map. The name comes from nearby Red Lake; the Ojibwe name Madaabiimog keeps another layer of place visible.

Redby is part of the Red Lake Nation, a sovereign Ojibwe community whose land is held in common and whose government maintains its own schools, services, economic development, and college. The Redby industrial park and fisheries process Red Lake walleye, connecting the settlement to current work as well as the lake itself. A sawmill reopened in Redby in 1936 and became the third-largest mill in Minnesota, with mill profits returning to the reservation community. Today, school, fisheries, tribal services, and the long roads around Lower Red Lake define the rhythm. Redby is a working Red Lake community whose history and present-day economy are closely tied to the Nation's land and water.