Pine County Courthouse welcomes Mille Lacs Band flags with ceremony, recognizing collaboration
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The Pine County Courthouse held a ceremony with drums and song on Friday morning to welcome flags representing the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe into the building.
Pine County and the Mille Lacs Band established a government-to-government collaboration in 2012. The tribal nation is divided into three districts with the third district being in Pine County near Hinckley.
Virgil Wind, chief executive of the Mille Lacs Band, shared in a statement with MPR News, “this relationship has reflected a shared respect for collaboration, understanding and service to our communities.”
District Judge Stoney Hiljus said displaying the flags within the courthouse is a symbolic image of the relationship between the court and tribal nation.
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“We have resources that go back and forth and collaborate, and we recognize in the state court system that those who are in court in front of us may also have appearances in tribal court,” Hiljus said.
Hiljus said under the Indian Child Welfare Act and Minnesota Indian Family Preservation Act tribal court has primary jurisdictions over tribal families who live within Pine County. The Indian Child Welfare Act, or ICWA, was enacted in 1978 to rectify the removal and out-of-home placement of Native American children from their homes.
The Minnesota Indian Family Preservation Act was enacted to strengthen protections for Native American children and families in child welfare cases. The act emphasizes tribal authority and involvement.
Minnesota law dictates the two acts must be considered by the justice system across the state.
“We honor their court orders, and they also honor ours on the reservation,” Hiljus said.
Wind added in his statement that the tribal flags being welcomed into the courtrooms represents a “long-standing presence of Mille Lacs Band in Pine County and affirms the importance of visibility, cultural recognition, and tribal sovereignty within public institutions.”
Hiljus added that he hopes tribal citizens can feel recognition of heritage and the community they live in.
“For us at the court system, it's a reflection that, in fact, we are honoring their history, recognizing the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe sovereignty as a government,” Hiljus said.
Tribal flags will be displayed next to Minnesota state flags in the courthouse’s three courtrooms.
Chandra Colvin covers Native American communities in Minnesota for MPR News via Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues and communities.
