In posts like What will be MN's legacy? On White Earth Nation's control of Wild Rice River Watershed, Bluestem has been writing in support of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe's application for Legacy funding for a wildlife habitat project that the band put together.
It's faced undue resistance from those who don't wish Minnesota's tribal groups to receive Legacy funding despite the fact that Native Americans are citizens who pay sales taxes. The project was stripped from the Legacy bill last year, despite being approved by the Outdoor Heritage Council--and this year in a House committee, the project was yanked from native control and proposed to be place under the control of the DNR.
It was as if the land was going to be pilfered from the White Earth Nation twice.
Finally, the band is getting the fruits of all the work it put into this project via the conference report, which returned control of the project to White Earth nation. The conference report was approved by the Senate in a 45-10 and 100-29 in the House. Only Republicans voted against the final Legacy conference report.
Photo: A trumpeter swan on wetlands in the proposed legacy lands. Via the proposal.
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