University working to repair relationship with Fond du Lac Band

Thursday, November 7, 2013  

The University of Minnesota is trying to repair its relationship with the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians.

Tribal members were upset when the university's Cloquet Forestry Center put up "no trespassing" signs on the reservation. The center owns land on the reservation but the tribe retains gathering and other rights under the LaPointe Treaty of 1854.

“It’s here on [our] reservation, but they [told] us that we can’t use it,” Jason Hollinday, the tribe's planning director, told Minnesota Daily. “A lot of people have problems with that.”

The center took down the signs last month after acknowledging the tribe wasn't consulted. They had been up since 2008, the Daily reported.

“We’ve seen, over the years, the political fallout of that,” researcher Carrie Pike, who served as interim director for more than a year, told the paper. “It’s been damaging to the University.”

The center is reaching out to tribal members in hopes of healing the wounds.

Get the Story:
U, tribe connect over land dispute (Minnesota Daily 11/7)