State senator behind Native American land returns sees communication as key to more transfers

State Sen. Mary Kunesh, who has led an historic effort in the Legislature to authorize the return of state land to Native American tribes in Minnesota, thinks more can be done to get such legislation passed. 

During the last session, several bills aimed at returning land to tribes fell short of passage, mired in controversy. Kunesh, DFL-New Brighton, thinks much of the opposition to land returns was because communities didn’t understand the history of why and how the tribes lost the land. That’s something she hopes to change. 

One bill that passed led to the return of land that had been part of a school trust to the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. An environmental bill also authorized the Minnesota Historical Society to return portions of the Lower Sioux Agency Historic Site to the Lower Sioux Indian Community.

Two of the bills Kunesh introduced, however, faced stark opposition: one that proposed that state-owned portions of the White Earth State Forest be transferred to White Earth Nation and the other that proposed transferring Upper Red Lake and some state forest lands to Red Lake Nation. 

Kunesh, who is of Standing Rock Sioux descent, said much of the pushback was from people who thought they would be losing something if the land was returned. 

“It was really interesting, especially for Red Lake, how many people contacted me and said, ‘Well, they’re going to take our business, our businesses are going to fail, our land values, our home values are going to drop if this happens.’ I just asked, ‘Why would that happen?’” she said. “They couldn’t and wouldn’t answer that question.” 

When they did answer, she said, their responses were rooted in assumptions about tribes rather than on information they had received from having talked with them. “It was a huge, alarming sort of uprising (in Red Lake),” she said. “There is a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding.” 

During the next session, she wants to focus on educating people about what a land return would mean. 

“I think it’s really imperative that we continue to try to build the understanding within the community and that we take our time — but not too much time — to bring both of these bills to fruition,” she said “If not this session, we will continue to work on it. It could take a while for it all to happen.” 

Input from tribes

The driving force behind the land return bills has been the tribes, Kunesh said. 

In 2023, Kunesh worked on a bill returning land to the Upper Sioux Community, which she said others had worked on for over 15 years, she said. After that legislation passed, more tribes began to reach out to her. 

“The tribes came to me and asked me to carry those bills,” she said. 

She added: “I think some of the other tribes looked at that and said, ‘Wow, if they’re able to do this, then let’s give it a try.’ It sort of empowered and encouraged them to ask for pieces of land that they had been asking for a long time. This didn’t just happen overnight. Most of the time, these parcels have been in discussion or the tribes have been asking for the return of them for decades.” 

This year, one of the bills regarding land south of Mille Lacs Lake came together after countless years of advocacy from the tribe and legislators. It involved the formal return of state trust lands inside the boundaries of the Mille Lacs Band’s reservation. Following that passage, an agreement was made for the state to return 18 acres of land to the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe and set aside state funds for the project costs. 

Some, including the Mille Lacs County Board, were unhappy with that decision. 

Those 18 acres are just a small portion of the 2.5 million acres of state trust lands across Minnesota that generate revenue for education through mining, timber and land sales. 

Stalled transfers

One return has yet to be formalized by the Legislature — that of the Cloquet Forestry Center. In February, the University of Minnesota announced its plan to return the 3,400 acres to the Fond du Lac Band, although it would still need Legislative approval. 

Rep. Alicia Kozlowski, DFL-Duluth, authored a bill to transfer the title for those acres from the state to the University of Minnesota. That was tabled in March, though some of its language ended up in a bonding bill in the final moments of the session that did not receive a vote, meaning the transfer was not approved. 

“This is all very bureaucratic, and all these things really take a lot of time,” Kunesh said. She thinks the bill’s prospects depend on the future makeup of the Legislature and whether Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, becomes governor if Gov. Tim Walz is elected vice president. 

To avoid delayed transfers, Kunesh wants there to be a specific legislative process for the request of land returns so they can’t be dragged out. 

“I think it’s really important that there is a really good process, step-by-step,” she said. “Otherwise, the (Department of Natural Resources) or the county, or whoever it is that is involved, could really string it out for a long time, hoping that people get tired of it or they forget about it.”

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