In 2018 I retired as the forest manager for the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa after a 37-year career. I'm also an alumnus of the University of Minnesota, College of Forestry. I'm writing to weigh in on the proposed return of the Cloquet Forestry Center lands to the Fond du Lac Band.

I'll start out with a brief history of the land tenure on Fond du Lac so the reader can better understand the issues. The Fond du Lac Reservation was established with the signing of the 1854 Treaty, four years before Minnesota became the 32nd state in the United States. As part of the treaty, the t...