DULUTH, Minn. (AP) — Federal legislation is advancing in Washington that would release $28 million to six northern Minnesota Chippewa bands to settle land transactions dating to the 1800s.
The settlement is for unscrupulous deals that drastically reduced the land controlled by the Chippewa by 1900. Five of the bands have reached a deal on how to divide the money originally awarded in 1999. The Bureau of Indian Affairs has withheld the money pending a unanimous agreement on its distribution by all six bands, which include the Fond du Lac, Bois Forte, Grand Portage, Leech Lake, Mille Lacs and White Earth.
Sen. Al Franken and Reps. Chip Cravaack and Collin Peterson have pushed legislation to release the funds. The Duluth News Tribune (http://bit.ly/wZDtsk ) says the bill will be before a Senate subcommittee March 1.
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Information from: Duluth News Tribune, http://www.duluthsuperior.com
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
Comments (9)
Add commentMy great grandfather
was'nt treated with the proper respect when he arrived at Ellis Island. I want to get paid for his suffering.
Your great grandfather didn't
Your great grandfather didn't get his land taken from him. He was new to this land. It was the unfair treatment of the NATIVE AMERICANS that allowed your great grandfather to come to here.
Oh please get over it
For a sovereign nation, you people sure have your hand out alot! Oh boo-hoo!!
LOL ( Oh please get over it)
Just like the U.S government does to the federal government to keep its programs going. HELLO!!
Im sure you also think the jewish should just get over it as well. Oh of coarce not if your jewish.
Its no mistake it takes this long to settle things with the government. They are hoping the following gernerations will forget. In my opinion the reason why so many non natives in america are so down on natives is because natives may be the states as well as the private secters biggest threat domesticly to gain large quantities of prime Real Estate. Im just your average everyday joe but........just sayin
I think the natives have every opportunity
Do you know that every one of them could go to college for FREE?
Thats right free, many have went to college. Deduct that from the $28 million settlement please and then make them start paying for their own college.
Time to tax them in the casinos and time to take their "fishing rights" away too, unless of course they make birch bark canoes, wooden hand spears and lanterns made of a burning stick.
They have more of an opportunity to make something of themselves than I ever had and I made it just fine. They go for a job, they pretty much have to get hired under the equal employment opportunity act of 1972 because most places do not have enough minorities.
Many natives are brilliant minded, self sufficient and wonderful people, however, just like every race, color and creed, they have bad eggs. Too bad when you get everything given to you, there always turns out to be more bad eggs than good ones.
settlement
Good lord--they lost the war-- get over it. Neither my Dad or I "took" their land (or captured them for slaves) and I'm 99.9% sure my Grandpa didn't either. I'm sure if I checked into it some country in Europe "owes" me a lot of money because some roving band of people took over some distant relatives land. When will the "feel sorry for me" way of thinking end?
little history
The federal government and Indian tribes made an agreement in the 19th century that would give the tribes their own land and the United States their own land.
The United States decided that it would 'help' the tribes by managing the land in their sovereign tribal nations. The federal government would issue permits for recovering natural resources and land leases then give the money from tribal lands to the tribes.
Low and behold, the federal government 'accidentally' mismanaged the money owed to the tribes and spent it on frivolous wasteful items not related to Indians at all. Not only was the money mismanaged; the land wasn't just leased, but outright sold in many cases. So the tribes had "reservations" but the land inside the reservations (in excess of 90% of land in some cases) was sold by the United States Federal Government.
Quite a shock to everyone, I'm sure. The federal government seems to be a first rate property management firm. I guess that is the one thing that the federal government is not good at.
The federal government owes these tribes. And $27 million is a joke. It doesn't owe the tribes because they have their hand out, it owes the tribes because the federal government entered into a contract with the tribes and did not follow through with the terms of the contract. Am I happy that my government has proved itself to be incapable of following through with a simple contract? No, but I'm not going to take my anger out on the people who were wronged by my government.
The way I understand it
the Ojibwa pushed west and sent the Sioux packin' who then moved on to the plains. So, the Sioux should be able to sue the local Ojibwa for their share of the property. They will, in turn, sue motleylarry to get theirs. And so on, and so on.....
By the time it's all said and done, the lawyers will be the only ones with any money....and the politicians will take credit for allowing it all to happen.
Then you don't understand it
I know the intricacies within the minor differences of the two situations can be tough to spot, but trust me they exist. Let's try it this way:
The Ojibwe and Sioux did not enter into a legally binding contract in regards to future monetary payments for land use.
The United States and the Ojibwe did enter into a legally binding contract in regards to future monetary payments for land use.
I know it's only three letters different, but when the three letters are N, O and T the sentence has quite a different meaning.