Bemidji ( bə-MIJ-ee) is a city and the county seat of Beltrami County, in northern Minnesota, United States. The population was 14,574 at the 2020 census. According to 2021 census estimates, the city is estimated to have a population of 15,279, making it the largest commercial middle between Grand Forks, North Dakota and Duluth.

As a central city for three Indian reservations, Bemidji is the site of many Native American services, including the Indian Health Service. Near Bemidji are the Red Lake Indian Reservation, White Earth Indian Reservation, and the Leech Lake Indian Reservation. Bemidji lies on the southwest shore of Lake Bemidji, the northernmost lake feeding the Mississippi River; it is nicknamed “The First City on the Mississippi”. Bemidji is with the self-proclaimed “curling capital” of the U.S. and the alleged birthplace of legendary Paul Bunyan.

According to Minnesota Geographic Names, its publicize derives from the Ojibwe Buh-mid-ji-ga-maug (Double-Vowel orthography: bemijigamaag), meaning “a lake bearing in mind crossing waters”. This publicize stems from the pretension that the Mississippi River flows directly through the Lake. Shay-now-ish-kung, an Ojibwe leader, moved to the Place in 1882 and became the first remaining settler of Bemidji. He informed to the front white settlers of the say of the lake, but they misunderstood him to aspiration that bemidji was his own name. Consequently, he was known to them as Chief Bemidji.

On occasion, in Ojibwe, Bemidji is called Wabigamaang (“at the lake channel/narrows”), because allowance of the city is situated upon the Lakes Bemidji/Irving narrows, on the south decline of Lake Bemidji, and extends to the eastern shore of Lake Irving.