Communities Near Upper Red Lake Concerned Over Land Transfer Bill

People in communities like Kelliher and Waskish near Upper Red Lake say they’re alarmed about proposed state legislation that would transfer land around the lake back to Red Lake Nation.

The bills in both the Minnesota House and Senate would transfer all state-owned land and real property within one mile from the lakeshore of Upper Red Lake, as well as in Red Lake State Forest, from the state to the tribe. Currently, about 30% of the lake is excluded from the boundaries of the reservation. The one-mile buffer zone around the lake includes the town of Waskish, as well as recreation areas and public access points to the lake.

The introduction of the bill earlier this month has left area residents stunned.

“We had no idea that this was gonna be brought forward. When we looked at the language, we couldn’t even understand it, let alone begin to deal with it,” said Upper Red Lake Area Association President Robyn Dwight. “So we immediately put a coalition together to consider how we would oppose what we thought would be something that would be very divisive, very destructive, probably unconstitutional, and most definitely illegal.”

Red Lake has said that in an 1889 treaty, band leaders had always intended to retain all of Upper and Lower Red Lake, and that returning the land to the tribe would right an historical wrong.

For resort and business owners along Upper Red Lake, if the land was transferred to the band, they say it would have a sizable economic impact on the area.

“There is a financial loss involved in making such a huge change to the way business is done. This isn’t just an impact in those areas, but the tourism dollars,” Dwight emphasized. “We had over 80,000 visits to Upper Red Lake in just three months … and they bring a lot of dollars into our county. It would also hurt the entire fishing industry because, you know, there’s wheelhouses is involved, there’s fishing gear involved, there’s boats involved, wheelhouse, you know, all of that. So this is a sort of wide-ranging impact that I don’t think was thought out when this bill was drafted.”

On Wednesday, the Kelliher City Council adopted a resolution opposing both the House and Senate versions of the bill. The city plans to meet on April 20 to further discuss the legislation.

We reached out for comment with bill authors but have not yet received response. We also attempted to contact tribal leaders but have not yet heard from them.