Decades after taking it, feds set to return Minnesota land to Leech Lake band

[WhiskeyGrinder]

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2022/05/18/decades-after-taking-it-feds-set-to-return-minnesota-land-to-leech-lake-band

For decades, the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe pressed the federal government to give back tracts of northern Minnesota land it wrongfully took from the tribe in the 1940s and 1950s. Now, Washington is close to returning nearly 12,000 acres.

The roots of the dispute reach back to 1948, when the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs incorrectly interpreted an Interior Department order to mean it had the power to sell tribal land allotments without the consent of a majority of the rightful landowners.

The land transfers were acts of outright theft, said LeRoy Staples Fairbanks III, representative for Leech Lake’s District 3, which includes Cass Lake. “They mailed out letters to people. If they didn't get a response, they took them as ‘Yes.’ They took them as approval,” he said.

Fairbanks said he asked his staff to begin looking into the issue in 2012 after hearing from community members for many years. Then-President Donald Trump signed legislation in December 2020 allowing for the return of the land, which currently sits within the Chippewa National Forest in Cass County.

[rsdsharp]

1. Trump did something good? Obviously, they didn't tell him what he was signing.

They just included it in a stack of those steak house menus he liked to sign, and show to the cameras so they could see what a big boy he was.