St. Paul Officials with the Minnesota DNR and the White Earth Band of Chippewa will meet in St. Paul on Thursday, May 10, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. to discuss the possibility of negotiating a cooperative natural resource management agreement.

It will the third such public meeting. The intent of the
meetings is to explore possibly negotiating a cooperative agreement
similar to what the state negotiated with the Leech Lake Band in
1973, and the Grand Portage and Bois Forte bands in 1988.

As part of the natural resources agreement with the Leech Lake
Band, the Leech Lake Reservation receives a general fund payment
from the state equal to 5 percent of statewide license sales of
hunting, fishing, and trapping licenses. State legislation from
1980 authorizes payments equal to 2.5 percent of license sales to
the White Earth Band in exchange for a formal agreement.