Forest service has new tribal representative

For the first time, the Superior National Forest has a full-time tribal liaison.

Juan Martinez coordinates communication between the national forest and the three Ojibwe bands in northeastern Minnesota - the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa, the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, and the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.

The bands occupied the nearly 4 million acres that now make up the Superior National Forest long before the federal government acquired it, and they maintain rights to hunt, fish, gather and practice their spiritual traditions on the land under an 1854 treaty s...