In Minnesota, public land granted to the state by the federal government benefits the University of Minnesota and K-12 schools, along with several other state institutions. Minnesota Public Radio [MPR} News reports how revenue from state-trust lands in the state continues to generate revenue for the university.
Reporting from High Country News demonstrated how lands expropriated from Indigenous people under the Morrill Act of 1862 created what the outlet referred to as the public "land-grab" university. In response, Native American graduate students and faculty at the University of Minnesota created the TRUTH Project. The team set out to research the relationship between the university and tribes. In spring 2023, MPR News reported on the TRUTH Project's 500-plus document detailing the state’s expropriation of Indigenous lands and its mistreatment of Native people throughout the state and region.
Recently, media partner Grist advanced the "land-grab university" story demonstrating how expropriated tribal lands granted to state governments in the last part of the 19th century has continued to benefit over a dozen public universities across the Midwest and western U.S. Grist’s reporting demonstrates the University of Minnesota has continued to generate revenue from trust lands, generating $15.8 million in revenue from 2018 to 2022.
In Minnesota, the Department of Natural Resources manages state trust lands on behalf of the University of Minnesota. MPR News has additional data on the specific activities that occur on university state-trust lands from 2018 to 2022.
This reporting project asks: How does the University of Minnesota continue to benefit from expropriated tribal lands granted to the state? How are tribal nations impacted by the activities taking place on the university’s state-trust lands? What is the current relationship between the university and tribal nations a year after the release of the TRUTH report?
