October 19, 2009

Fond du Lac Band to Receive $3 Million Loan From Shakopee Mdewakanton

Prior Lake, Minnesota - The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community has extended a loan for $3 million to the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa of northeastern Minnesota for construction of a “green” resource management building. The $4.5 million building will house about 100 staff members and services for the Band’s land, environmental, and conservation programs in addition to its tribal court. A $600,000 Indian Housing block grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will also help with the project. The remaining funding will come from a longstanding lease with Minnesota Power through the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

"We have pretty significant regulatory authority over our reservation in terms of air and water quality, habitat management, and environmental services,” said Fond du Lac Chairwoman Karen Diver. More than half of the Band’s 4,200 members live on the reservation which covers 153 square miles in Carlton and St. Louis Counties.

"Adequately implementing our governmental services around environmental conservation, treaty rights, and forestry services is a critical function of tribal government and its self-determination,” she continued. She explained that the Band is responsible for air and water quality efforts, a timber and forestry division, habitat and wildlife management, the health of lakes and rivers, conservation enforcement, and resource management. “These are at the crux of our sovereignty and self-governance,” she said.

"We think this is a worthwhile project,” said SMSC Chairman Stanley R. Crooks. “Taking care of tribal land and resources is essential to asserting tribal sovereignty. As Indian tribes, we are responsible for taking care of our land, our people, and our resources so that our grandchildren and their grandchildren as well as future generations will have a place to call home.”

Old versus New Space
The departments which will relocate to the new building are currently spread out across the reservation in a series of garages and substandard office spaces. The 20,000 square feet “green” building will apply for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification and will feature south facing solar panels and other special features.

Demolition of the Knife Falls Township Hall, built in 1960, was completed, and then ground was broken for the new facility in September 2009 in the town of Cloquet, Minnesota. Footings and site preparation are now well underway. The building will be located at the intersection of southeast corner of Big Lake and University Roads in the immediate vicinity of the tribal government center, the local school, Head Start, a construction company, and Early Head Start buildings. It is expected to be completed by mid-2010.

"To the extent possible, the facility will be a green building,” Chairwoman Diver said. “We’ve been seeking funding for quite awhile because this is something we really need. We’re very grateful to the Shakopee Mdewakanton for allowing Fond du Lac to really stabilize this part of our tribal operations.”

The Fond du Lac Resource Management Division is committed to the management, conservation, and sustainability of the natural resources of the Fond du Lac Band in order to protect the environment on the reservation and within its treaty areas.

Some of the services and programs that will utilize the new space include the protection and monitoring of air and water quality and climate change; moose surveys including a moose telemetry project; the regulation and monitoring of fishing, conservation, and hunting activities; field data collection and analysis of fish populations; forest management, fire management, and public education; wild rice management and restoration activities; sturgeon restoration on the St. Louis River and Cloquet River systems; habitat improvement projects; research projects; and habitat and wildlife management for the common loon, wood turtle, amphibian, ruffed grouse, and other species.

The Fond du Lac Reservation, established by the LaPointe Treaty of 1854, is one of six Reservations inhabited by members of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe. The Chippewa (Anishinaabe) Nation is the second largest ethnic group of Indians in the United States. Archaeologists maintain that ancestors of the present day Chippewa have resided in the Great Lakes area since at least 800 A.D. 

For more information about the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa go to www.fdlrez.com. For media inquiries about the Fond du Lac Band, contact Tribal Chairwoman Karen Diver at 218-878-2612 or karendiver@fdlrez.com.

In recent years the SMSC has made loans to the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa ($3 million, 2006); the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe ($2.8 million, 1996; $3 million, 2009); Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe ($41.5 million, 2003); Oglala Sioux Tribe ($38 million, 2005); Omaha Tribe of Nebraska ($3 million, 2008); Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians ($31 million, 2008); Rosebud Sioux Tribe ($3 million, 2006); Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate ($32 million, 1998; $5 million, 2003; $17 million, 2005; $6 million, 2008; $8 million, 2009); Standing Rock Sioux Tribe ($30 million, 2009; Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians ($48 million, 2009); and the Upper Sioux Community ($23 million, 2001).