Historic Fort Snelling opened June 4 after a year of being shuttered. Under the bill, the state would take control of the site. (Brian Peterson, Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Senate Republicans want to put government in charge of state-owned historical sites instead of the Minnesota Historical Society, a nonprofit that has overseen more than two dozen significant homes, forts and battlefields for the past 50 years.

The quiet push, tucked in a proposed budget bill to fund state government, would provide more transparency over how these sites are run, Republicans say. But the move blindsided state officials and comes after years of clashes between conservatives and the Historical Society over things ranging from signage at Fort Snelling to the toppling of the Christopher Columbus statue by activists last summer.

"A historical society should not be embroiled in a huge amount of controversy," said Sen. Mary Kiffmeyer, R-Big Lake, who proposed the change. "They should be keeping track of our history."

Democrats in control of the House are pushing back in private deliberations over the budget bill, arguing the Historical Society has a deep partnership with the state that dates back to when Minnesota was still a territory.

"The Historical Society has been here longer than we've been a state," said Rep. Michael Nelson, DFL-Brooklyn Park, the chair of the House's State Government Finance and Elections Committee. "They've been doing this for a long time. They're better equipped to manage these sites."

Under the GOP plan, the State Historic Preservation Office within the Department of Administration would take over operation of 16 sites that are now run by the Historical Society but are fully or partly owned by the state, such as Historic Fort Snelling in St. Paul and Split Rock Lighthouse near Two Harbors.

The Minnesota Historical Society also owns and operates 14 other sites, including the Alexander Ramsey and James J. Hill homes in St. Paul.

Kiffmeyer said she's been contacted by concerned citizens who have said that, because the Minnesota Historical Society is a nonprofit, they were unable to access details about plans for changes on certain historic sites, including Fort Snelling.

Giving the state operation of the sites would make the process more transparent and accountable to the public, Kiffmeyer said. It would also give the state explicit authority over operations on land it owns.

"Does a nonprofit entity just have authority to deal with the state-owned land and deal with contracts on that land when they are not a state agency?" Kiffmeyer said. "I don't think so."

The State Historic Preservation Office works with local governments and businesses to navigate the National Historic Preservation Act and benefit from tax credits. Their 13-person staff isn't best equipped to handle these sites, Department of Administration Commissioner Alice Roberts-Davis told lawmakers in May. The Historical Society has roughly 300 full-time employees.

"Operating sites is not something that we have the expertise to do, and this is a large portfolio," she said. "We believe it is properly placed with the Minnesota Historical Society."

Kiffmeyer said her bill transfers some of the Historical Society's operating budget to the Department of Administration to handle the new costs, and the department can still choose to contract with the Historical Society.

Kent Whitworth, director and CEO of the Minnesota Historical Society, said its operation is one of the largest in the country and can leverage public funding it gets from the state with memberships and private donations.

The group uses that funding to preserve documents, artifacts and more than 150 buildings on historic sites across the state, as well as to conduct research and educational and marketing campaigns. The organization hires staff for ticketing, guides and other day-to-day needs to operate visitor sites.

The Minnesota Historical Society was founded by the territorial Legislature in 1849 — before statehood — and is named in the Minnesota Constitution and state statutes.

"Governors and Legislatures have affirmed this arrangement," Whitworth said. "The functions that we perform on behalf of the state of Minnesota are all there in statute. This relationship that has developed over generations is, I think, strong and healthy and has been really a great value to the people of Minnesota."

But Republican tensions with the Historical Society have been building over the years. In 2019, Kiffmeyer proposed removing $4 million in state funding from the nonprofit after officials added "at Bdote" language to signs at Historic Fort Snelling. Bdote is the Dakota name for the land at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers.

Supporters of the change said it honored the site's history thousands of years before it became a military site. Republicans called it revisionist history.

Those tensions only intensified after activists threw a lasso around the neck of a statue of Christopher Columbus and pulled it down from its perch outside the Minnesota Capitol. Propelled by the killing of George Floyd last summer, activists said Columbus was a symbol of colonization for Native Americans.

Republicans in the Senate have proposed reinstalling the statue. They sent a letter to the Minnesota Historical Society last July asking to clarify when the statue will be returned to its place on the Capitol grounds. The historical society doesn't have jurisdiction over placement of statues on the Capitol mall, which is under the authority of the Capitol Area Architectural and Planning Board.

Whitworth said he knows sometimes history can be "messy," but he thinks the society has a long track record of being good stewards of Minnesota's past.

"We acknowledge that sometimes history can get complex, sometimes it can be difficult," he said. "But we're committed to sharing the story of all Minnesotans, and our goal is to do that in as fair and thoughtful a manner as we can."