American Indian Law

Sovereignty isn’t a slogan. It’s the law.

Big Dad The Chairman — Anishinaabe rights activist and candidate for Chairman of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, 2028 — breaks down the law that governs our land, our rights, and our future, in plain language.

The Short Version

  1. Tribes were sovereign before the United States existed — and U.S. law still says so. Sovereignty is inherent, not a gift from Congress. Leech Lake’s power to govern comes from that inherent sovereignty, from treaties, and from the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe Constitution.

  2. Treaties are not history — they are federal law today. The treaties of 1837, 1842, 1854, and 1855 still control who can hunt, fish, and gather where.

  3. Leech Lake kept its reservation — but lost most of the land inside it. Only about 7% — roughly 40,000 of the original ~550,000 acres — remains in trust today. Getting our land back is the central governing work of the next generation.

  4. We are citizens of three sovereigns at once: the Leech Lake Band, the State of Minnesota, and the United States. That’s why a Chairman deals with tribal, state, AND federal governments every single day.

  5. A Chairman doesn’t run a non-profit. He leads a government — courts, programs, a gaming enterprise, a natural resources department, and an enrollment system that decides who is a citizen.

Sovereignty — Where Our Power Comes From

The Supreme Court’s own words, from the Marshall Trilogy (1823–1832): tribes are “domestic dependent nations,” and in Worcester v. Georgia the Court held that state law “can have no force” in tribal territory — Indian affairs are federal and tribal, never state. A treaty is not a grant TO the tribes; it is a grant FROM them. We reserved everything we did not cede. That is the reserved-rights doctrine, and it is still the law.

Our Government — The MCT & Leech Lake

The Leech Lake Band is one of six Bands of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, organized under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. Our Revised Constitution (1964) sets up the Tribal Executive Committee and each Reservation Business Committee — at Leech Lake: Chairman, Secretary-Treasurer, and District I, II, and III Representatives. Elections run under the MCT Election Ordinance. The next Chairman election is 2028.

The live wire: enrollment. Our constitution still carries a ¼ blood-quantum rule written in 1963. In 2022, our own voters said — by roughly 64% — remove it, and let each Band decide its own citizenship. That change still hasn’t been completed, because it takes a federal Secretarial election; no Chairman can do it alone. Any candidate who promises otherwise isn’t telling you the truth.

Treaty Rights — Hunting, Fishing, Gathering

In Minnesota v. Mille Lacs Band (1999), the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed 5–4 that the 1837 treaty rights survive. Leech Lake’s own cornerstone is Leech Lake Band v. Herbst (1971): our people hunt, fish, and gather wild rice on the reservation’s public lands and waters free of state game and fish laws. And in Bryan v. Itasca County (1976) — a Leech Lake case that reached the Supreme Court — the Court ruled the state cannot use Public Law 280 to tax or regulate away our rights.

Jurisdiction — Minnesota Is Different

Minnesota is a Public Law 280 state: the state prosecutes most crimes at Leech Lake alongside our tribal court. But PL-280 gave the state criminal jurisdiction — NOT the power to tax or regulate us. That line, drawn by a Leech Lake case, is still being fought over today: in February 2026 a Minnesota court ruled the state lacked jurisdiction over a tribal member’s cannabis case on his own reservation.

The Land — 7% Is Not Enough

The 1855 Treaty of Washington established our reservation. The Nelson Act of 1889 and allotment shattered it — today only ~40,000 of ~550,000 acres remain in trust, and the Chippewa National Forest sits on top of much of our homeland. The tide is turning: the Leech Lake Reservation Restoration Act (2020) returned ~11,760 acres. Land back is not a metaphor. It is acre by acre, law by law — and it is the work.

Our Rights Today

  • ICWA stands. Haaland v. Brackeen (2023) kept the Indian Child Welfare Act in full force — our children stay with our families and our nation.

  • Self-governance works. Under the Indian Self-Determination Act, tribes run federal programs ourselves — and in Becerra (2024) the Supreme Court ruled the government must pay the full cost of doing it.

  • Consultation is the law in Minnesota. State statute (§ 10.65) requires government-to-government consultation with tribal nations.

  • Gaming compacts: Minnesota’s early compacts let tribes keep gaming revenue except regulatory costs — no state revenue grab.

What a Leader Must Know

A Chairman needs three hats at once: head of a government, steward of treaty rights older than the state itself, and a negotiator across the table from Washington and St. Paul. The law is not paperwork. The law is the ground our sovereignty stands on — and I’m doing the homework.

This is the Purple Peoples Party revolution — the people, the teachings, and the music, moving as one.

Want the Full Research?

Cases, treaties, timelines, and the fights still open — the complete deep dive.

Read the Deep Dive

Legal information and civic education — not legal advice. Based on the American Indian Law research compiled November 2026 from U.S. Supreme Court opinions, federal statutes, treaties, the MCT Constitution, and tribal sources (NARF, NCAI, GLIFWC, and the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe). Election and enrollment rules change by ordinance — verify current rules with the MCT and Leech Lake election boards.