Bemidji is a city in Beltrami County, Minnesota

Beltrami County, Minnesota

Beltrami County is a county located in the northern part of the U.S. state of Minnesota. As of 2010, the population was 44,442. Its county seat is Bemidji. Portions of the Leech Lake and Red Lake Indian reservations are in the county. The northernmost portion of the Mississippi River flows...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Its population was at 13,431 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat

County seat

A county seat is an administrative center, or seat of government, for a county or civil parish. The term is primarily used in the United States....

 of Beltrami County

Beltrami County, Minnesota

Beltrami County is a county located in the northern part of the U.S. state of Minnesota. As of 2010, the population was 44,442. Its county seat is Bemidji. Portions of the Leech Lake and Red Lake Indian reservations are in the county. The northernmost portion of the Mississippi River flows...

. Bemidji is the most major city in North Central Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

 and the largest commercial center between Grand Forks, North Dakota

Grand Forks, North Dakota

Grand Forks is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat of Grand Forks County. According to the 2010 census, the city's population was 52,838, while that of the city and surrounding metropolitan area was 98,461...

 and Duluth, Minnesota

Duluth, Minnesota

Duluth is a port city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is the county seat of Saint Louis County. The fourth largest city in Minnesota, Duluth had a total population of 86,265 in the 2010 census. Duluth is also the second largest city that is located on Lake Superior after Thunder Bay, Ontario,...

. Bemidji houses many Native American services, including the Indian Health Service

Indian Health Service

Indian Health Service is an Operating Division within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services . IHS is responsible for providing medical and public health services to members of federally recognized Tribes and Alaska Natives...

. The city is the central hub of the Red Lake Indian Reservation

Red Lake Indian Reservation

The Red Lake Indian Reservation covers 1,258.62 sq mi in parts of nine counties in northern Minnesota, United States. It is divided into many pieces, although the largest piece is centered about Red Lake, in north-central Minnesota, the largest lake entirely within that state. This section lies...

, White Earth Indian Reservation

White Earth Indian Reservation

The White Earth Indian Reservation is the home to the White Earth Nation, located in northwestern Minnesota. It is the largest Indian reservation in that state...

 and the Leech Lake Indian Reservation

Leech Lake Indian Reservation

The Leech Lake Indian Reservation or Gaa-zagaskwaajimekaag in the Ojibwe language, is an Native American reservation located in the north-central Minnesota counties of Cass, Itasca, Beltrami, and Hubbard. It is the land-base for the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe...

. Bemidji lies on the southwest shore of Lake Bemidji

Lake Bemidji

Lake Bemidji is a small glacially-formed lake, approximately 11 mi² in area, in northern Minnesota in the United States. Located less than 50 mi downstream from the source of the Mississippi River, it both receives and is drained by the Mississippi.-Geography:The lake is located in southern...

, the northernmost lake feeding the Mississippi River

Mississippi River

The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...

 and, as such, is deemed "the first city on the Mississippi." Bemidji is also dubbed the "curling

Curling

Curling is a sport in which players slide stones across a sheet of ice towards a target area. It is related to bowls, boule and shuffleboard. Two teams, each of four players, take turns sliding heavy, polished granite stones, also called "rocks", across the ice curling sheet towards the house, a...

 capital," of the U.S.