Plans duel for Chippewa cash

Although the U.S. government settled a lawsuit with the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe in 1999, agreeing to pay $20 million to resolve disputes over a 19th-century land deal, the tribe's six bands still haven't received their money.

The unpaid funds, up to nearly $27 million with interest, have now divided the bands, federal government agencies and Minnesota Democratic Reps. Jim Oberstar and Collin Peterson, all of whom are arguing for different methods of splitting the dollars among the bands.

Oberstar and Peterson, whose districts include different bands entitled to portions of the settlement, have each proposed distribution methods. Each plan embodies a different definition of equality and sovereignty.

The congressmen testified this month before the House Committee on Natural Resources, alongside members of the tribe and a Bureau of Indian Affairs representative.

The issue dates nearly 60 years to lawsuits growing out of the 1889 Nelson Act. Under that law, reservation land -- about 2 million acres at Red Lake in northern Minnesota and 650,000 acres from other reservations -- was allotted to individual Indians and ceded to the United States, with much of the land subsequently being sold to non-Indians.

Proceeds from the land -- which is now in national and state forests, as well as farmland, private timberland and other private ownership -- were intended to benefit the state's Chippewa Tribe. But in its suit, the tribe claimed that the government sold the land for less than it was worth and misspent some of the funds.

The Red Lake Band, which is an independent tribe, also sued for similar claims, settling separately for $27 million.

The Department of Interior and Congress must approve any plans for distributing the money, which led to the legislation before the House committee.

The Peterson-Oberstar plans

Oberstar's legislation upholds the tribe's vote for equal division among the bands because "it is imperative to uphold tribal sovereignty," he testified.

Peterson's legislation upholds a 2001 U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs report, which concluded that distributing the money on the basis of band membership would be fairest.

"The report said that equally splitting the funds six ways, without the consent of every band, is unjust and would give preferential treatment to the membership of four smaller bands at the expense of the two larger bands," Peterson testified.

Still, Peterson said he hopes the tribe can come to a compromise. "My position has always been that Congress should not take an active role in this issue," he testified. "I believe that all of the bands should come to an agreement on how to allocate the money and only then should Congress get involved."

Erma Vizenor, chairwoman of the White Earth Band of Chippewa Indians, testified in support of Peterson's legislation, which she said accurately distributes the money to the people who suffered most from the Nelson Act because of their forced removal from land across the state.

The four smallest bands strongly disagree with the Peterson proposal, saying that their lawsuit was a group effort by one entity -- the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe -- and that each band paid the same amount to prosecute the claims.

But critics of Peterson's legislation say their biggest objection is that it would result in Congress overruling the decision of the tribe's own governing body.

"The Tribal Executive Committee believes that if Congress were to disregard its views on how to spend its money, that would set bad precedent," said Mark Anderson, the tribe's general counsel.

On the executive committee, each band has equal representation, regardless of its population.

The Leech Lake plan

In addition to the two distribution plans in the legislation, George Goggleye, Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe chairman, testified for a third method that would divide the settlement on the basis of actual damage suffered by each band.

"Neither bill will result in equitable distribution of the judgment fund that adequately reflects the aims of contemporary federal Indian policy," he said.

In the Leech Lake formula, Leech Lake would receive 69 percent of the settlement based on the band's loss of valuable timber resources under the Nelson Act. White Earth, the most populous band, would receive just 9 percent.

"I think everything is on the table," Deschampe said. "I am hoping in the near term that we can get something worked out."