I examine how water governance has served to colonize Indigenous lands in the Boundary Waters of Minnesota and Ontario. Although Ojibwe First Nations are increasingly involved in co-managing their resources, I find that their treatment as stakeholders, not sovereign nations, resistance to Indigenous epistemology and ontology, and the denial of Settler colonial violence frustrate the decolonization of water management around the lake. I continue working with the First Nations and partners from the University of Manitoba to establish community-led monitoring programs for wild rice and lake sturgeon.