Mdewakanton Sioux Indians Of MN Sue DOI For Tribal Acknowledgement, Land
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The Mdewakanton Sioux Indians of Minnesota (MSIM) has announced it has filed a lawsuit against the United States Department of Interior (DOI), seeking acknowledgment as a tribe and land promised by the DOI.
On Wednesday, tribal members of the Prairie Island Indian Community, representing MSIM, filed an Administrative Procedures Act lawsuit against the DOI in the US District Court for the District of Columbia.
The first goal of the lawsuit is to get federal acknowledgement of the MSIM as a tribe separate and apart from the other three communities. Those communities include the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, Prairie Island Indian Community in the State of Minnesota and Lower Sioux Indian Community in the State of Minnesota.
"We want to be acknowledged and then we're eligible to be recognized if we decide to submit a constitution."the attorney for the plaintiffs, Erick Kaardal, said.
Kaardal says the second and very important part of the lawsuit seeks restoration of possession of the 12 square miles of land in Minnesota set aside in 1865 by the Secretary of Interior for the MSIM.
"The statute says 'once those lands are set apart, they're for those Indians forever.' That statute has never been repealed," Kaardal said. "Unfortunately, due to local white hostility, even though the Secretary of Interior signed the paperwork to set aside the reservation for this tribe, they decided it was too hard due to local white hostility."
Kaardal said the DOI then publicly sold the lands, but it did not have statutory authority to do so.
Thirdly, Kaardal says the lawsuit seeks to begin again the federal land assignment system for the Mdewakanton Sioux Indians of Minesota at Prairie Island and elsewhere, which the DOI suspended in 1980.
Watch the full press conference below.