Proposed Bill Would Transfer State Land Around Upper Red Lake to Red Lake Nation

A new bill introduced by Senator Mary K. Kunesh, a DFL lawmaker from New Brighton, seeks to transfer all state-owned land and property within a mile of Upper Red Lake and within the Red Lake State Forest to the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians. The bill, Senate File 194, allocates $20 million to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in fiscal year 2026 to purchase private land ahead of the proposed turnover.
The funding for this one-time appropriation is available until June 30, 2035.
The bill requires the DNR commissioner to identify any legal or financial obstacles to transferring the land and submit a report by January 15, 2026, to key legislative committees.
This is a resurrected version of HF 4780, a Minnesota House bill from the last session that did not pass. That previous bill met significant opposition from outdoors enthusiasts and non-tribal property owners in the Upper Red Lake area.
The Red Lake Tribal Council, however, remains committed to seeing the land transfer through. In pushing for the bill, the council referenced historical injustices tied to the 1889 Treaty, stating, “The United States’ illegal disposition of Upper Red Lake does not, and cannot, suffice to diminish the boundaries of the Red Lake Reservation.”
The council called on the Department of the Interior to rectify past wrongs and restore the reservation boundaries to the intention of Red Lake leaders in 1889.
Other tribal efforts to regain ancestral lands in Minnesota have seen mixed success. Last year, the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe regained more than 11,000 acres of ancestral land that had been part of the Chippewa National Forest, while efforts by the White Earth Nation to reclaim land in the White Earth State Forest faced opposition and did not gain legislative support.
Source: Bemidji Pioneer, January 16, 2025.