Towards Recognition and University-Tribal Healing (TRUTH)

On July 2, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Land-Grant Agricultural and Mechanical College Act - better known as the Morrill Act - into law. The Act awarded states 30,000 acres of public land for each congressional representative as of 1860. Western states were awarded parcels within their borders, while eastern states that no longer had sufficient land in the public domain received "scrip" in western states and territories. The sale of these lands would provide the endowment for new colleges that would teach modern agricultural science and mechanical arts with the goal of modernizing the nation's industrializing economy.

A 2020 High Country News  report  catalogued more than 99 percent of all Morrill Act acres, identifying their original tribal inhabitants and the principal raised for university endowments through the sale of those lands. Their study revealed that in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the United States awarded 10.7 million acres - acquired from 245 tribal communities through 162 violence-backed land cessions - to 52 land-grant colleges, which in turn raised over $17 million for their endowments. In exchange, the U.S. paid tribal nations less than $400,000.

Using the  data  provided by High Country News, this project aimed to answer the following questions:

1. What does the University of Minnesota's land grab equate to in today’s dollars for the Dakota and the Ojibwe tribes? Can a dollar amount be determined for each tribal nation?
2. The sale of tribal lands in Minnesota created an initial endowment for 32 other universities through scrip. How much was taken, by what universities, and how much is this land worth in today’s dollars?

Creator: Kyle Malone, Community GIS Program, Center for Urban and Regional Affairs

Project Lead: Tadd Johnson, Esq., Senior Director of American Indian and Tribal Nations Relations, University of Minnesota

RCP Fellows: Madison Bozich, PhD Candidate, Economics; Shuping Wang, Master of Public Policy, Humphrey School of Public Affairs