Letter of Support for Legislation Returning Land to Indigenous Nations in Minnesota
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
St. Paul, MN | April 25th, 2024: Organizers with the Rise & Repair Alliance delivered the following letter signed by 21 Minnesota-based environmental, faith & Native organizations to members of Minnesota’s Senate and House of Representatives in support of several bills which return lands to Indigenous nations within the geographic boundaries of Minnesota.
PDF Version of Letter: Click to View
Press contact: info@riseandrepair.org.
Full Text of Letter Below in this Post
LETTER OF SUPPORT FOR LEGISLATION RETURNING LAND TO INDIGENOUS NATIONS WITHIN GEOGRAPHIC BOUNDARIES OF MINNESOTA
April 25th, 2024
Dear Members of the Minnesota Senate & House of Representatives ,
This year, the Minnesota legislature has an opportunity to meaningfully protect important wilderness areas and work to repair grievous historical wrongdoings. Each of the following bills return state-owned lands unjustly taken from tribes within the geographic boundaries of our state.
SF 3480 / HF 4304 ~ Returning White Earth Forest to White Earth Nation: In 1943, Minnesota designated approximately 155,000 acres within the White Earth Reservation a State Forest under the management of the State. This bill returns that land to tribal stewardship.
SF 5080 / HF 4780 ~ Returning Upper Red Lake to the Red Lake Nation: A federal 1889 “Chippewa Commission” unilaterally drew the Red Lake Reservation boundary through Upper Red Lake even though the Tribe did not agree to cede any portion of the lake to the U.S. or to Minnesota. This bill returns Upper Red Lake’s eastern half to tribal stewardship in accordance with that understanding.
HF 4193 / SF 3986 ~ Cloquet Forestry Center Land Return: In 1909, Minnesota established the Cloquet Forestry Center on 2,000 acres of land inside the Fond Du Lac Reservation. By 2003, the state expanded its in-reservation holdings to 3,400 acres. This bill returns this land.
HF 5121 / SF 5162 ~ Mille Lacs County Land Return: This bill returns to the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe land adjacent to Lake Mille Lacs that Minnesota’s DNR has determined is not needed for its resource management.
HF 3783 / SF 3557 ~ Sale of Tax-Forfeited Lands within Reservation Boundaries: This bill offers tribes the right to purchase tax-forfeited lands within reservation boundaries at fair market value before the land is opened to public sale.
The displacement of Indigenous peoples and fraudulent theft of their lands for statehood and settlement is a dark chapter in American history. It must neither be ignored nor forgotten, especially here in what we now call Minnesota.
Although these are being referred to as “land transfer” bills, a more accurate description would be “land return” bills. Each of these bills return lands that are located within reservation boundaries, and that were seized by the State of Minnesota in violation of Federal treaties and without the consent of the tribes.
As Minnesotans, we remind our elected officials that you are sworn to uphold the constitution of the United States of America, including Article VI, commonly referred to as the “Supremacy Clause”:
“This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.” [U.S. Const. Art. VI - Emphasis Added]
Passing this legislation honors U.S. commitments to these tribes and continues a long-overdue process of reconciliation. As strong advocates for Indigenous rights and climate justice, we firmly believe that returning Indigenous lands to Indigenous management is necessary to restoring respectful relationships with each other and the land.
These bills, though, do not just work towards addressing both historical and ongoing wrongdoings. They also work to protect all of what we now call Minnesota for the generations to come as we navigate amidst what scientists have described as the “sixth mass extinction.” Across the world, the integral importance of Indigenous land stewardship is gaining attention. According to the United Nations, Indigenous people make up less than 5% of the global population[1], yet Indigenous people protect 80% of Earth’s remaining biodiversity[2]. Indigenous stewardship of land benefits tribal and non-native communities by effectively protecting and conserving threatened ecological systems. In a 2021 report published in Ecology & Science, the authors summarized:
“equitable conservation, which empowers and supports the environmental stewardship of Indigenous peoples and local communities represents the primary pathway to effective long-term conservation of biodiversity, particularly when upheld in wider law and policy.” [3]
That is certainly the case in Minnesota. An MPR News article highlighted that state mismanagement of invasive-species response spurred introduction of the Red Lake bill. Red Lake Nation’s Legal Counsel Joe Plumer said, “The DNR told us they had neither the money nor the manpower to address zebra mussels in Upper Red Lake.” The article continues,
“Red Lake Secretary Sam Strong said the tribe’s joint work plan with the state DNR is important to the tribe, but he’s concerned the state’s program isn’t enough to protect the lake from zebra mussels. Strong says that the state DNR can check only a small percentage of boats launched on public landings along Upper Red Lake.
If the state bill were passed, Strong says the Red Lake’s DNR could inspect and decontaminate those fishing boats.” [4]
To be sure, non-Native community members have raised concerns about these bills, especially in the Senate Environment, Climate & Legacy Committee on March 7th, 2024. Against publicly available information, concerns were raised that these areas will no longer be accessible to the public and that emergency response efforts will be impeded. This letter includes publications from the White Earth and Red Lake Nations, which provide essential context & understanding about this legislation.
We would like to highlight from these materials that with each of these bills:
No private land will change hands - these bills simply return state-owned lands to tribal stewardship.
Access to all private land will remain open and unobstructed.
White Earth Forest and Upper Red Lake will remain open for public use.
The undersigned organizations fully support these important bills and we ask you, as Minnesota lawmakers and stewards of state land and our collective future, to pass them during this legislative session.
Sincerely,
- Julia Nerbonne | Executive Director, Minnesota Interfaith Power & Light
- Patty O'Keefe | Senior Field Strategist, Sierra Club North Star Chapter
- Margaret Levin | State Director, Sierra Club North Star Chapter
- Pouya Najmaie | Policy and Regulatory Director, Cooperative Energy Futures
- Jane Dow | Co Chair, Beyond Plastics Greater Mankato Area
- Amanda Koehler | Policy Manager, Land Stewardship Project
- Dawn Goodwin | Co-Founder, R.I.S.E. Coalition
- Amanda Otero | Deputy Director, TakeAction Minnesota
- B. Rosas | Policy Manager, Climate Generation
- Jenna Warmuth | Midwest Regional Director, Vote Solar
- Jessica Intermill | Owner, Intermill Land History Consulting
- Jessica Intermill | Owner, Intermill Law Office PLLC
- Sarah Augustine and Alison (Doe) Hoyer | Executive Director (Sarah) and Repair Network Organizer (Doe), Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery
- Tee McClenty | Executive Director, MN350
- Sherri Knuth | Policy Team Co-Lead, Unity Church-Unitarian, Act for the Earth Team
- Katharine Kline | Executive Director, Minnesota Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Alliance
- Rex McKee | Reverend, Episcopal Church in Minnesota
- Kate Winsor | Core Team Member, Northeast Metro Climate Action
- Maggie Schuppert | Campaigns Director, CURE
- John Farrell | Co-Director and Energy Democracy Director, Institute for Local Self-Reliance
- Jean Ross | Board Chair, Vote Climate
[1] United Nations
[2] Broom, Douglas
[3] Dawson et al
[4] Melissa Olson, “How Zebra Mussels spurred the Red Lake Nation push to return tribal lands,” March 29, 2024
Works Cited in this Letter
Dawson, N. M., B. Coolsaet, E. J. Sterling, R. Loveridge, N. D. Gross-Camp, S. Wongbusarakum, K. K. Sangha, L. M. Scherl, H. Phuong Phan, N. Zafra-Calvo, W. G. Lavey, P. Byakagaba, C. J. Idrobo, A. Chenet, N. J. Bennett, S. Mansourian, and F. J. Rosado-May. 2021. The role of Indigenous peoples and local communities in effective and equitable conservation. Ecology and Society 26(3):19. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-12625-260319
Olson, Melissa. “How Zebra Mussels Spurred the Red Lake Nation Push to Return Tribal Lands.” MPR News, 29 Mar. 2024, https://www.mprnews.org/story/2024/03/29/how-zebra-mussels-spurred-the-red-lake-nation-push-to-return-tribal-lands. Accessed 2 Apr. 2024.
“Background - International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.” United Nations, United Nations, https://www.un.org/en/observances/indigenous-day/background. Accessed 2 Apr. 2024.
Broom, Douglas. “5 Ways Indigenous People Are Protecting the Planet.” World Economic Forum, World Economic Forum, 3 Aug. 2023, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/08/indigenous-people-protecting-planet/. Accessed 2 Apr. 2024.