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The Red Lake Band of Chippewa restricted access to its reservation in northern Minnesota after 16-year-old Jeff Weiss killed his grandfather and eight others before taking his own life on March 21, 2005. 

Tribal leaders allowed journalists to gather in a parking lot on the reservation, but forbade them to travel anywhere else on the reservation. Such restrictions are legal because the reservation is a sovereign nation.

On March 25, 2005, four days after the shooting, MPR News hosted a discussion of sovereignty issues with Robert Clinton, a professor at at Arizona State University's College of Law. 

Ten years ago, on March 21, 2005, 16-year-old Jeff Wiese shot his grandfather, his grandfather's partner and seven of his classmates at Red Lake High School before shooting himself. 

For four people who lived through the shootings that day, the trauma has echoed in ways that would have been hard to predict, from where they find comfort to how they sit when they're in public.

Survivors talk about the shooting, days later

In the days after the Red Lake shooting, the Red Lake Band of Chippewa restricted access to its reservation. The move was legal because the reservation is a sovereign nation. On March 25, 2005, MPR News hosted a discussion of sovereignty issues.

Robert Clinton, of Arizona State University's College of Law, explains the sovereignty of the Red Lake Indian Reservation

From the archive: Explaining tribal sovereignty

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