Kate Hagsten, plants director for the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe's Division of Resource Management; Raining White, invasive species specialist with the Leech Lake tribe, and Bobby Henderson, a field botanist with the USFS, search for the imperiled goblin fern in the Chippewa National Forest on July 29, 2022. (Brian Peterson/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

The federal government this month returned nearly 12,000 acres of land in the Chippewa National Forest to the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe.

The transfer of 11,778 acres brought to an end a battle that has lasted more than four decades for the northern Minnesota tribe to get its land back.

The Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe is one of Minnesota’s 11 Native American tribes and its third largest, with about 10,000 tribal citizens.

“It took more effort than it should have taken in order to return land that was stolen,” Leonard Fineday, the tribe’s secretary treasurer, said in an interview. “But the work was well worth it. And I can tell you that the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, the people of Leech Lake, are here to stay, and we are in this for the long haul to get our land back.”

The tribe’s land was illegally transferred to the federal government in the mid-20th century. The tribe began to formally take steps to get that land back in the 1980s, and at that time, learned that only an act of Congress would allow it.

U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum carried on Rep. Rick Nolan’s efforts to get the tribe’s land back after he left Congress in 2019, sponsoring the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe Reservation Restoration Act in the House. Sen. Tina Smith carried a companion bill in the Senate.

The bill passed in 2020 and former President Donald Trump signed it into law before he left office. Rep. Pete Stauber, who now represents the area, also supported the bill.

“Congress is realizing that what happened in the past was wrong, and they deserve an apology for that and they deserve to have their land returned to them.” McCollum said in an interview.

McCollum and Smith have championed Indigenous issues. McCollum was the Democratic co-chair of the bipartisan Congressional Native American Caucus for six years, stepping down in 2018 so that two Native American lawmakers, former Rep. Deb Haaland of New Mexico and Rep. Sharice Davids of Kansas, could eventually go on to co-lead it.

McCollum now serves as the caucus’ chair emeritus. Smith sits on the Indian Affairs Committee in the Senate.

The tribe may be getting an additional 4,000 acres, as Smith works on a separate bill to accomplish that. Smith said she has bipartisan support; Sen. Amy Klobuchar is a co-sponsor.

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“That’s the story of people in Indian country who have trust and treaty rights that have been ignored and those promises broken for so long,” Smith said in an interview. “It is a good thing that we are making some headway here after so many years.”

Fineday said that more than 11,000 acres will remain forest land. But, he said, members of the tribe are increasingly faced with homelessness and there is a growing need for housing and infrastructure. Therefore, the land could be used for additional housing for members of the tribe if needed.

“Overall, the intention is to preserve the integrity of the forest while meeting the needs of our people within our homelands,” he said.