A rash decision by the Mille Lacs County Board to revoke a beneficial partnership with a local tribal police force has spotlighted the antiquated "us-vs.-them" attitudes long plaguing this central Minnesota tourism mecca when it come to relations with the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe.

Officials must quickly rebuild this law enforcement partnership so that public safety is not compromised by reducing the number of officers patrolling the mostly rural county. More important, it's time for Mille Lacs County's elected and community leaders to end the disgraceful legal fights and other maneuvering to deny the reservation's historic boundaries or even its existence.

The tension flaring this summer over the agreement, a mutual-aid arrangement in which tribally funded officers supplement county officers, is less about public safety than it is about taking all possible measures to thwart recognition of broader reservation boundaries. At the heart of the issue: whether the borders set by an 1855 treaty between the band and the U.S. government remain intact.

The county's termination of the law enforcement agreement appears to be rooted in fears that the tribe's desire to prosecute more crimes at the federal level — which could lead to longer sentences for offenders — could lead to recognition of the broader boundaries as part of other criminal-justice court proceedings.

Recognizing the historic boundaries means the reservation would encompass 61,000 acres, an area far larger than the approximate 8,500 acres the tribe holds in trust or fee land status. This move would not result in a tribal takeover of citizens' privately owned property within the border — fears that have long simmered in the area. But recognition would belatedly help right the shady dealings of a less-enlightened age that resulted in broken land promises to band members and thousands of acres dubiously awarded to settlers. The band has "more than 4,300 member citizens,'' according to its website.

An influential legal opinion issued late last year supports the 1855 boundaries. The exhaustively researched "M-Opinion" is from the U.S. Department of Interior's Office of the Solicitor. Its conclusions are not binding but do represent the position of the federal government and the agency charged with trust responsibility for American Indians. Downplaying the M-Opinion, as Mille Lacs County officials have done recently, is wishful thinking. So is mounting another expensive legal battle to challenge broader reservation borders. The county did so unsuccessfully in federal courts about a decade ago.

But the M-Opinion has regrettably reignited ill-informed concerns on the board about the band's potential jurisdiction over non-Indians. That's despite the fact that the Mille Lacs County attorney specifically stated in a 2000 memo that the law "generally says that the band could not tax, zone or prosecute non-Indians" in the disputed area. For an updated view, an editorial writer checked with independent Indian law expert Jessica Intermill. She confirmed that federal law continues to "heavily restrict" tribal jurisdiction over non-tribe members.

It's worth noting that reservation boundaries run through several well-known American cities — among them, Green Bay, Wis., and Phoenix. The type of tribal takeover belligerently promoted on Mille Lacs-area websites such as PERM.org has not materialized.

Restoration of the law enforcement agreement should be a top county priority. But responsible leaders will also recognize that it's time to forge a broader agreement recognizing the 1855 borders. Ongoing legal battles are not a smart use of limited county resources. Nor is it wise economically. The county's backward relations with the band undermine its efforts to promote the area as a modern vacation destination to younger generations. Moving forward is in everyone's best interests.