Land seizures, 'unethical' research: University of Minnesota confronts troubled history with tribal nations

Every time Kevin DuPuis steps foot in the rugged red pine forest just west of Cloquet, Minn., he's reminded of the painful truth that this slice of land within the borders of the Fond du Lac Reservation does not belong to his tribe.

For more than a century, the 3,400-acre stretch has been home to the University of Minnesota Cloquet Forestry Center, a research outpost on land the federal government deeded to the university without the tribe's consent. Members of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa have long taken issue with the U's presence there, demanding transparency about its research and defying a hunting ban around the forestry center. To this day, the tribe is fighting to reclaim the land.

"We want to be able to use the land how we feel that we should be able to use the land," said DuPuis, Fond du Lac's chairman. "It's rightfully ours."

https://www.startribune.com/land-seizures-unethical-research-university-of-minnesota-confronts-troubled-history-with-tribal-nati/600041972/