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Opinion: The facts about Shakopee trust land bid
Wednesday, February 1, 2006

"Scott County Commissioner Barbara Marschall does a huge disservice to Scott County residents and the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community (SMSC) as she misleads the public on the SMSC's pending fee to trust land application. Her distortions reveal a desperate and irrational campaign to stop the SMSC from exercising its well-established legal authority, as a government, over the land it owns.

We want Scott County residents to know the facts on the fee to trust issue. The federal fee to trust process is a very open process. Scott County, Shakopee and Prior Lake analyzed hundreds of pages of detailed information provided to the federal government by the SMSC. Over a five-year span, the county and cities filed hundreds of pages of comments to the Interior Department. This issue has been looked at from every angle, from front to back, from top to bottom. We are confident that an objective review of the application and the facts will lead reasonable people to conclude that taking SMSC's land into trust meets the real needs of the tribal government, satisfies federal law and does no harm to Scott County taxpayers. Let us repeat that: There will be no harm to Scott County taxpayers.

Marschall's distortions are blatant. We offer factual information to set the record straight."

Get the Story:
Willie Hardacker: Commissioner is distorting truth to block tribe's land trust request (The Minneapolis Star Tribune 2/1)
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Relevant Links:
Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community - http://www.shakopeedakota.org