Mille Lacs Co. asks Interior Department to vacate reservation boundary opinion, tribe 'deeply disappointed'
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Mille Lacs County Commissioners passed a resolution last week that could reignite a longstanding dispute over the boundaries of the Mille Lacs Reservation.
County commissioners passed a resolution that asked the federal government to withdraw a legal opinion that confirms the boundaries of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe’s reservation. The border of the reservation encompasses several towns located in Mille Lacs County.
The passage of the resolution is yet another twist in a legal battle fought between the county and the tribe that first arose over policing concerns.
In 2016, the Mille Lacs County revoked a law enforcement agreement between the two governments, leaving tribal police without the power to enforce state laws. A short time earlier, the band had successfully applied to the federal government to exercise law enforcement jurisdiction.
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In approving the tribe’s law enforcement application, the Interior Department issued a legally binding “M-Opinion.” The opinion affirms that the 61,000-acre reservation set aside for tribe by an 1855 treaty remains intact. It’s that opinion the county is asking the federal government to withdraw.
The resolution passed by county officials states that “Opinion M-37032 issued during the Obama Administration is unsupported, creates confusion regarding the status of the former Mille Lacs Reservation, is being used by Governor Walz and Attorney General Ellison to justify the State’s changed position on the Reservation.”
The resolution goes on to re-state the county’s position that the reservation consists of only 4,000 acres. In court filings made in 2020, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison backed the tribe’s assertions that the band’s reservation was never disestablished, reversing the state’s policy.
In a statement to MPR News, the band is “deeply disappointed” over the county’s decision to jumpstart tensions.
The statement goes on to say that the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe sees the resolution as a move that “undermines months of government-to-government engagement.”
“As a result of that long and costly history, we believed both governments were beginning to make headway toward a more constructive, government-to-government relationship,” said Virgil Wind, chief executive of the Mille Lacs Band. “We did not claim the work was finished, but reopening long-settled federal law through misleading arguments is inconsistent with good-faith relations and threatens the progress we were starting to see.”
In an email to MPR News, County Administrator Dillon Hayes wrote that it was a recent decision by a federal appeals court that jump-started the county’s decision to pass the resolution.
A decision by the 8th circuit last year rendered the law enforcement issue moot but vacated the findings of two lower courts, re-opening questions around the boundaries of the reservation.
Hayes says county has spent just under $10 million fighting in court with the band, “the majority of that being attributable to the period between 2018 and 2023 immediately after the litigation was initiated by the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe.”
Mille Lacs County has not yet responded to additional follow-up questions.
No word on when the federal government might respond to the county’s request to withdraw its opinion on the reservation boundaries.
