The legal foundation for Indian gaming traces back to a Leech Lake mobile home property tax dispute

Indian gaming hit $39 billion in 2021, according to news reports. It all began in 1972, with a dispute over a $147 property tax bill on a mobile home on the Leech Lake Reservation.

A Win for North Dakota’s Three Affiliated Tribes, A Loss for Leadership in North Dakota

Imagine your family had owned a pristine fishing lake in northern Minnesota for generations. Then in the 1940s, the township — using dubious legal maneuvers — claimed the property for needed economic development.

Your grandfather tried for years to get the lake back but no one would listen. Succeeding mayors and their friends used the lake for their enjoyment; after enough years passed, no one really questioned the arrangement. No one even remembered your family had once owned the lake.

It became a painful part of your family story. Yet, after many years, a court unexpectedly ruled in your family’s favor. You were on the verge of reclaiming this beautiful lake, but the powers-that-be still pushed back with a startling demand:

“For years, this area has been used by many of us for hunting, fishing and other recreational activities,” they said. “Is there a plan to ensure that we maintain the access we have enjoyed in the past, free of charge?”

You are speechless. You think to yourself: “How can someone who cheated my family out of our property think they still have a right to use it?”

It sounds kind of silly. But this is pretty much the story of what has happened to the Three Affiliated Tribes in North Dakota. In the 1940s, the federal government seized parts of their reservation for a flood control project. The result was the Garrison Dam project. It created a large reservoir, flooding reservation lands to protect other, predominantly white, cities downstream. A law said the federal government would return whatever land it did not need for flood control to the tribes.

Now in 2016, the federal government is getting around to returning the unused land.

It seems like a no-brainer, but some North Dakota leaders are pushing back. They seem to have no empathy for what the Three Affiliated Tribes have suffered — or an understanding of the law.

Should Obama Intervene in DAPL? A Word of Caution

The pressure is ramping up on President Obama to intervene in the Dakota Access Pipeline. For example, I recently received an email from MoveOn.org urging me to call the President: “President Obama has the power to stop the pipeline and deny the Army Corps of Engineers’ easement on our land. He must take action immediately. Will you call President Obama now?” the email asked.

But at this point in the process, does the President have that power? What is the President’s appropriate role? It’s more complicated than it seems on the surface.

500,000+ Acres Returned to Native Control Under the Obama Administration

The Obama is taking heat to intervene in the Dakota Access Pipeline (the latest email to hit our inbox was an effort to have the President declare Standing Rock a National Monument.) While Standing Rock is an absolutely critical issue, let’s not overlook a major accomplishment of this administration: it put 542,000 acres back into Native hands (yes, still technically land held in federal trust for Native nations). The largest chunks of returned lands were in western states. To put it in some perspective, if combined, it would be a chunk of land roughly 29 miles by 29 miles, or nearly 850 square miles — an area larger than Hennepin and Ramsey counties combined.