Bois Forte Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe to Resume Forest Management on Over 28,000 Acres

On Tuesday (6-7-22), in the largest land-back agreement in Minnesota and one of the largest-ever in Indian Country, the Bois Forte Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe restored more than 28,000 acres of land within its reservation boundaries back to tribal ownership.

The 28,089 acres acquired by the Band were previously held by timberland owner and lumber manufacturer PotlatchDeltic Corporation. The Bois Forte Band plans to directly manage the restored lands under a forest management plan that emphasizes conservation and environmental protection, balanced with economic and cultural benefits to the Band and its members, according to a statement.

The purchase, financed through a partnership between The Conservation Fund and the Indian Land Tenure Foundation, will restore lands that were sold by the federal government to non-Natives as “surplus” under the Allotment Act, which attempted to break up tribal reservations.

The return of the land to the Bois Forte Tribe is the latest land-back agreement in the state of Minnesota over the past two years. Last month, the Associated Press reported that the federal government would return 12,000 acres of Minnesota land it had wrongfully taken from the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. In February 2021, the Minnesota Historical Society transferred approximately 115 acres of land back to the ownership of the Lower Sioux Indian Community.