The state, federal and Indian Affairs Council exhibit, "Why Treaties Matter" is making a stop in the Minnesota State Capitol this week, coinciding with the start of the 2012 legislative session.

"We need everyone working cooperatively, constructively together in order to achieve the full potential of this state for all of our citizens, for all people. And it is in that spirit that I welcome this exhibit here to our Capitol today," said Gov. Mark Dayton, who was introduced as a "friend to Indian County." Dayton said that some of Indian treaty rights have been "ignored" and "trampled upon" in the past.

The exhibit, which was partly funded with Legacy money, has already made 10 stops across the state will continue its journey through the end of 2012.

The total project cost was about $325,000, which includes all the preparatory work, private funding, foundation funding and the Legacy funding, said David O'Fallon, president of the Minnesota Humanities Center. It does not include the funding from the places that the exhibit visit. The Humanities Center is a co-sponsor of the exhibit.

"For far too long treaty rights have been unknown or reported very slowly or not at all," said Kevin Leecy, chairman of the Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe and chairman of the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council. He said the treaties didn't give the tribes land -- the tribes ceded land to the state.

The materials for the exhibit bespeak of history, sovereignty and tradition.

"These treaties represent the hard choices that that Dakota and Ojibwe people were forced to make between resistance and accommodation...The most remarkable aspect of the story that treaties tell is not what Ojibwe and Dakota people give up, but what they retained," according to the handouts.

The preview materials also mention the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988, which confirmed tribal rights to conduct gaming, and stress the value of the 18 Minnesota Indian casinos. Lawmakers have long discussed the possibility of breaking the Indian monopoly on gaming in the state.

O'Fallon, of the Minnesota Humanities Center, said the intent is not to take a position on gaming but to highlight the Indian perspective and share information.

There is, he said, "no other agenda."