108
Opinion of the Court
For the Leech Lake Band and other Chippewa Tribes in Minnesota, the allotment policy was implemented through the Nelson Act of 1889. 25 Stat. 642. The Nelson Act provided for the "complete cession and relinquishment" of tribal title to all reservation land in the State of Minnesota, except for parts of two reservations, to the United States. After such "complete cession and relinquishment," which "operate[d] as a complete extinguishment of Indian title," the lands were to be disposed of in one of three ways: under § 3, the United States would allot parcels to individual tribe members as provided in the GAA; under §§ 4 and 5, so-called "pine lands" (surveyed 40-acre lots with standing or growing pine timber) were to be sold by the United States at public auction to the highest bidder; and under § 6, the remainder of the reservation land (called "agricultural lands") was to be sold by the United States to non-Indian settlers under the provisions of the Homestead Act of 1862, 12 Stat. 392.
In 1934, federal Indian policy shifted dramatically when Congress enacted the Indian Reorganization Act, 48 Stat. 984, 25 U. S. C. § 461 et seq., which ended the practice of making federal allotments to individual Indians. Although the Reorganization Act did not repeal allotment statutes such as the Nelson Act, it extended the trust period for lands already allotted but not yet fee patented, provided that unallotted surplus lands would be restored to tribal ownership, and allowed additional lands "within or without existing reservations" to be acquired by the Federal Government for the tribes. See §§ 461, 462, 463, 465.
In 1977, the Leech Lake Band and individual Band members owned only about 27,000 acres—less than five percent— of Leech Lake Reservation land. See State v. Forge, 262 N. W. 2d 341, 343, and n. 1 (Minn. 1977). Since then, the Leech Lake Band has sought to reestablish its land base by purchasing back parcels of reservation land that were allotted to individual Indians or sold to non-Indians during the allotment period.
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