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The MOU between the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa, Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, and the Superior National Forest document and FAQs are now available
U.S. Forest news release
The Superior National Forest has uploaded the Memorandum of Understanding to our website Tribal Relations page, along with a Frequently Asked Questions to help answer questions our partners, cooperators, and the public may have about the impact the MOU will have on the Forests operations.
“The framework that this MOU lays out is a meaningful step for the Superior National Forest to meet our tribal trust responsibilities and make sure we are protecting the Bands’ Tribal Treaty Rights under the 1854 Treaty,” said Tom Hall, Forest Supervisor, Superior National Forest, “we are working to strengthen the relationship with the Bands as well as remain committed to engaging all of the public through NEPA comment periods, public meetings, social media and our web presence.”
A few of the key Questions from the FAQ document include:
What is the intent of the MOU between the SNF and Tribes?
The co-stewardship MOU between the SNF and the Tribe’s is intended to outline the relationship and level of engagement for natural resource management, Ojibwe cultural life-ways (living cultural resources and Tribal Cultural properties), enhance opportunities for economic development (education, training and employment), Tribe’s right to self-governance, advancement of Environmental Justice, and issuance of special use permit or land exchange within the Superior National Forest and trust lands within the 1854 Treaty boundaries.
What are the areas of focus, or provisions of the MOU?
There are three provisions in the MOU focused on Tribal Resource Management, Tribal Access, and Tribal Special Designation areas. Resource management priorities address the culturally important habitats, species, plants, vegetation, connectivity, and climate change as defined by tribes. Tribal access priorities address maintaining and enhancing access, ensuring land exchanges, special use permits, and Tribal identification processes do not detract from the ability to exercise Treaty-Reserved Rights, and developing clear processes for personal and commercial harvest purposes.
Will the MOU affect any public, partner, cooperator, or industry engagement?
Public, partner, cooperator, and industry involvement in the NEPA process, including opportunities for comment and objection, is unaffected by the MOU.
Why weren’t external groups included in the Forest Service and Band dialogue?
Tribal Governments are afforded special rights as domestic dependent nations that are recognized by Treaties signed with the federal government. The Forest Service engages in a special government to government consultation with the Band to fulfill its legal trust duty. The legal status held by tribes’ means the rights of tribal governments are different from the public and our agency partners.
Did You Know: The 1854 Ceded Territory makes up approximately 5.5 million acres of what is Northeastern Minnesota. The Superior National Forest boundary is just under 3.9 million acres. The remaining 1.6 million acres is a mixture of State, County and Private Land.
Tribal Relations
The Superior National Forest is within the traditional homeland of the Dakota and Ojibwe people. They occupied the area for thousands of years before the establishment of the United States and the creation of the Superior National Forest. On September 30, 1854, the Tribes entered into a Treaty of La Point with the United States under which they ceded to the United States ownership of their lands in the northeastern portion of what is now called Minnesota (the “Ceded Territory”) the area that makes up nearly the entire Superior National Forest is part of that Ceded Territory.
The Bois Forte Band of Chippewa Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa maintain strong cultural connections to the natural resources found in the Superior National Forest. Since the 1970s, tribes have been successfully reasserting hunting, fishing and gathering rights in the ceded territories of Minnesota.
There are locations across the Superior National Forest that illustrate the longterm use of the land by the Dakota and Ojibwe people. Archaeological excavations have found stone tools and fish bone that show people have camped and fished the vast waters of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) for as many as 10,000 years. From well used campsites and portages within the BWCAW, to the petroglyphs scattered across the Forest the picture of the past is vividly clear!
The Superior National Forest is dedicated to working with the bands of the 1854 Treaty in the spirit of shared stewardship of the landscape as well as conducting Government-to-Government with all Federally recognized tribes with interest in the management of federally managed lands.
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