Eleven Minnesota Tribes including the Red Lake Nation and the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa have banded together to take on the University of Minnesota about land the Tribes sold to them over 150 years ago.
Citing a report done through the University of Minnesota, they found that the University should raise the number of Native American faculty, and make a dramatic increase in financial assistance to students.
Most astonishingly, they should atone for their “mistreatment” of the natives in the past by handing back the land per Fox News.
One massive problem stands in their way.
The US has offered reparations to Native Americans in the past. Most famously, in 1980 the Supreme Court ruled that the Sioux nation was due over $105 million following the government’s illegal taking of land.
As the Washington Post explained “But many Native American leaders called for the return of the sacred land, not financial compensation. The money which sits in a trust and has since grown to more than $1 billion, remains unclaimed.”
This topic has come up again more recently as well when in 2020 the High Country News focused on “land-grab universities.” In their article, they cited Abraham Lincoln’s signature on the Morrill Act took 10 million acres of land from 250 Tribes.
This 4th of July, it's high time we recognize that the US exists on stolen Indigenous land and commit to returning it. Learn more and take action now: https://t.co/45smaBmORH pic.twitter.com/a6qp7LXUAE
— Ben & Jerry's (@benandjerrys) July 4, 2023
As the National Archives website pointed out, many were forced to take horrible deals by threats of violence or by substandard living conditions. Little to no choice was presented to them as it is written.
While the conditions of the past are horrific, every man woman, and child is responsible for where they go. The rich and the poor have their share of drug abuse problems, addictions, and failures. If these Tribes and their people have failed to live up to their expectations, that is on them.
Refusing to take any compromise and digging their heels in won’t do any good at this point.
