5 ways Jimmy Carter’s presidency touched Minnesota
Go Deeper.
Create an account or log in to save stories.
Like this?
Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.
From his vice presidential pick, to protecting the Boundary Waters and more, much of former President Jimmy Carter’s legacy passes through Minnesota.
1) He picked a Minnesotan for his vice president
Former President Jimmy Carter looked to Minnesota for his vice president, choosing then-U.S. Sen. Walter “Fritz” Mondale to be his running mate.
It was a pick Carter would credit in part to second lady Joan Mondale during a 2014 interview on MPR News about her death.
“We were so impressed with her and Fritz’s relationship,” Carter said. “It was obvious to us that what she and Fritz had as a personal love affair and as a commitment to their family was very similar to what Rosie and I wanted to maintain while we were in Washington. So we knew that not only would we have the benefit of their political support, but also would be a great role model for us as we brought some of our family members to Washington and lived there for four years.”
Turn Up Your Support
MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all.
The Mondales’ eldest son, Ted, said that his dad and the late president also had a lot in common.
“They both grew up in rural areas — my dad on the Iowa border — and came from religious families and, you know, held a set of common beliefs and values that I think was the reason Carter selected him,” Ted Mondale told MPR News Monday. “And I think it's why they maintained a friendship and strong working relationship through all those years.”
Ted Mondale said he believes that shared outlook also led Carter to elevate his fathers’ role. As they took office, Carter had been surprised to learn that past vice presidents had been kept largely out of the loop on big issues. He changed that.
“He was his partner,” Ted Mondale said of his father and the president. “When there were disagreements or, you know, policy arguments, they were done in private. He always supported and was always there for the president as a kind of confidant. And it really did create a new relationship for the vice president and president, and it worked out very, very well.”
“One of the Carter accomplishments was to formalize the relationship with China, and it was Walter Mondale who traveled to Beijing and China to work out the terms of that remarkable relationship,” said University of Minnesota political scientist Larry Jacobs of the arrangement.
“Here in Minnesota, we see the impact of the Carter-Mondale relationship with the generations of Hmong people here,” he continued. “The U.S. Navy was deployed by Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale to rescue the Hmong, who were left to drift in the ocean, many dying. And then Walter Mondale helped to create opportunities in Minnesota for the resettlement of Hmong people.”
Though Mondale died in 2021, he left behind a eulogy that will be read at Carter’s funeral Jan. 9. In it, he shares how he and the president summed up their time in the White House: “We told the truth, we obeyed the law, and we kept the peace.”
Mondale then continues, “I will always be proud and grateful to have had the chance to work with you toward these noble ends. It was then and always will be the most rewarding experience of my public career.”
2) He signed the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Act
In 1978, Carter signed the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Act into law. It closed loopholes in a previous protection act by prohibiting logging and mining in the area.
That push to tighten protections helped further mobilize Minnesota environmentalists and is what led to the creation of Friends of the Boundary Waters.
“In 1976, our organization was founded to create what became that 1978 act,” said the group’s current executive director, Chris Knopf. “And so it was ordinary citizens coming together with Minnesota civic and political leaders that worked with President Carter and his administration to pass that 1978 act.”
But Knopf said Carter’s work to pass the bill came with political risk.
“This was not an easy thing to do,” Knopf said. “For many in his own party, this was not a popular bill. Timber and extractive industries exerted a huge amount of influence, but in the end, Carter championed a bill that has had a profound impact on the lives of hundreds of thousands of people who love wild places and who have been touched by the splendor of the Boundary Waters.”
The tension Carter faced has not gone away entirely. Sustaining mining jobs on the Iron Range remains a concern for many elected officials and residents in the region. While mining within the protected area is not on the table, President-elect Donald Trump could reopen a debate about mining federal lands near the Boundary Waters.
3) His Habitat for Humanity work projects will have built or rehabbed 173 homes in the Twin Cities
Contrary to what many believe, Carter did not start Habitat for Humanity. But he did have an outsized role in promoting the home-building nonprofit.
He and his wife, Rosalynn Carter, first began volunteering for the organization in Georgia. When they left the White House, they led a major Habitat build in New York. And every year since, the organization’s annual Carter Work Project has rallied volunteers across the globe.
In 2010 and 2024, the project came to the Twin Cities.
“What an honor to be able to build a house with President Carter,” said Chris Coleman, who was mayor of St. Paul when Carter visited in 2010 and is now president and CEO of Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity.
“He was all business and he had skills. When he put that tool belt on, it wasn't a photo op. It was because he was going to work,” Coleman continued. “He really believed that everybody should have a decent, safe, affordable place to live — and not just in the United States, but across the country. His impact was global, just from the Habitat for Humanity perspective. It’s amazing to think of the millions of lives that he impacted.”
In total, the two projects will have built or rehabbed 173 homes in St. Paul and Minneapolis. In 2010, volunteers rehabbed 26 homes on St. Paul’s East Side and in northeast Minneapolis. This year’s project built 30 new homes on the former Hillcrest Golf Course in St. Paul; the development will eventually include 147 new homes.
4) He signed the American Indian Religious Freedom Act and the Indian Child Welfare Act
In the spring and summer of 1978, hundreds of Native Americans journeyed from California, through Fort Snelling State Park, to Washington, D.C., to protest pending legislation that would have violated treaty rights. It was called “The Longest Walk” and was part of a larger movement calling for sovereignty.
Later that year, Carter would sign two pieces of legislation that remain some of the most significant for tribal nations, including 11 in Minnesota. They were the American Indian Religious Freedom Act and the Indian Child Welfare Act.
The former protects the religious freedom of Native communities by ensuring access to sacred sites and objects, and supporting the preservation of ceremonial and traditional rites.
The latter law sets minimum standards for child custody cases and requires child welfare agencies to work with tribal governments. The law was meant to address a high number of Native children being placed in foster homes outside of their tribes.
In addition to those laws, Carter protected huge swaths of land by designating 39 national parks and 13 national monuments during his presidency.
“President Jimmy Carter exemplified what it means to live a life of faith and service to others,” said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in a press release.
“His love for and conservation of our shared public lands leaves a tremendous legacy, and I am grateful that the department will continue to honor his work at the Jimmy Carter National Historical Park for generations to come. My heartfelt condolences go out to his family and the global community as we all mourn this selfless public servant."
5) Under his watch, a Minnesotan was held hostage in Iran
In 1979, Iranian students seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran and detained more than 50 Americans, including Minnesotan L. Bruce Laingen. What he was told would be resolved by morning turned into a 444-day ordeal marked by multiple failed rescue attempts.
As Chargé d’Affaires, Laingen was the highest-ranking member detained. He was born in Butterfield, Minn., and studied at St. Olaf College and the University of Minnesota after joining the Navy.
Laingen and the other hostages wouldn’t be released until 1981, just after President Ronald Reagan took the oath of office.
“Unless someone has lost freedom, you have no idea what it means suddenly to regain freedom,” Laingen said upon release. “It was a magnificent night when Warren Christopher met us at the bottom of that ramp in Algiers. It has been magnificent ever since.”
The whole ordeal is what started the idea of using yellow ribbons to show support for the U.S. troops. Laingen’s son Chip told MPR News his mother Penne tied the first one around an oak tree in their front yard. It’s now part of the American Folklife Center’s collection at the Library of Congress.
Laingen died at age 96 in 2019.