Explainer: How the U of M system endowment, mining industry benefit from seized Indigenous land
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This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center.
There’s been increased attention in recent years to the parcels of land used to create and fund the University of Minnesota. The U.S. government gave the land to the state in the mid-1800s after taking it from tribal nations through treaties often signed under the threat of violence.
The United States paid just pennies an acre for the land, but over the last 175 years it has generated more than $900 million for the university’s endowment.
“It’s hard to see the university thrive like that off of land that was actually stolen,” said Robert Larsen, president of the Lower Sioux Indian Community and chair of the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council, a legislative body representing ten of the eleven tribal nations in Minnesota.
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A lengthy report released in 2022 by a group of Indigenous researchers proposed that the university spend more of that money to benefit Indigenous people. But that would require legislative action.
Using publicly available data received from Grist, MPR News and APM Research Lab mapped public lands the state of Minnesota holds in trust for the university.
MPR News and the APM Research Lab have also gathered additional data from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to better understand how the university generates revenue from the leasing of those lands and who benefits from the Permanent University Fund. MPR News gathered additional data from the university on how the money is spent.
Where are the Permanent University Fund trust lands located?
The university’s trust lands currently consist of about 22,000 acres of state-owned land, plus another 26,000 acres where the state owns mineral rights. The parcels are scattered across rural parts of northcentral and northeastern Minnesota.
Prior to the 1850s, the whole swath of land that is now Minnesota belonged to Ojibwe and Dakota people. The federal government took that territory through a series of treaties, paying just 2 cents an acre.
Congress granted more than 90,000 acres to create the University of Minnesota in two installments, prior to and after Minnesota became a state in 1858. The state has sold much of that land over the years.
How much money does this land generate?
While a large part of the land is undeveloped, some of the land remains commercially valuable because of its rich minerals. Companies have mined iron ore and taconite, a low-grade iron ore found on the Iron Range, which includes the largest deposit of ore in the United States.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources negotiated the leases to extract those minerals with companies that include Mesabi Metallics, PolyMet, Cliffs Erie and U.S. Steel. The state’s executive council, consisting of the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state and state auditor, has final say when it comes to approving mineral leases.
Timber companies also lease some of the land through the DNR, which generated roughly $4 million annually over recent years.
What does the U of M do with the money?
Proceeds from the leases and land sales go into the Permanent University Fund (PUF), a portfolio of investments that has grown to about $900 million since the U.S. government first granted the parcels to Minnesota.
The fund makes up roughly a third of the U of M’s $2.5 billion endowment. The U of M spends its investment income, but the state constitution forbids the U of M from touching its principal “into perpetuity.”
The U of M spends the money on mineral research and scholarships to undergraduate students, especially those from the Iron Range.
Sixty students identify as American Indian or approximately 2 percent of all recipients, according to data shared by university relations spokesperson Jake Ricker. That is roughly the same percentage as the number of students who identify as American Indian across the entire student body, according to Ricker.
The American Indian Studies department received between $35,000 and $40,000 annually from the Permanent University Fund, university data shows.
In the early 1990s, the state legislature also directed PUF dollars to the Natural Resources Research Institute (NRRI), an applied research institute at the university, for mineral research.
The NRRI was created in the early 1980s to conduct research into the uses of the state’s natural resources as a means of bolstering the state’s economy.
What’s the controversy?
A group of graduate student researchers selected by tribal nations around Minnesota published a 500-page report in 2022 that documented the university’s mistreatment of Native people over the course of its history.
The TRUTH Project, short for Towards Recognition and University-Tribal Healing, included a recommendation that the university divert Permanent University Fund money “in a way that gives back to Native Americans, in perpetuity,” as a form of reparations.
Journalists from High Country News and Grist have also published articles raising questions about whether so-called land grant universities were doing enough for Native American students given that the institutions were created and funded by land taken from tribal nations.
How has the U of M responded?
In 2024, the university took a series of steps to address some of the recommendations outlined in the TRUTH Project’s report. In addition to updating its Indigenous research policy, the university moved the department of American Indian Studies from its longtime home at Scott Hall to Pattee Hall and added the department’s first Ph.D. degree granting program.
In January of 2024, Karen Diver, senior adviser to the President on Native American Affairs responded formally on behalf of the university to the recommendations made in the TRUTH Project report at a gathering of students and faculty held on the Duluth campus.
As for reallocating proceeds from the university trust lands, “those decisions are governed by the state legislature,” University of Minnesota spokesperson Jake Ricker wrote in an email to MPR News. He noted that the university has “prioritized acknowledging the painful realities of the University’s past.”
Leaders from Minnesota’s tribal governments say they look forward to improving relations with the university.
“We can’t change the past,” said Cathy Chavers, the former chair of the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa.
“We can’t hold people accountable today for what happened in the past, but how do we mend those bridges? And how do we mend those in ways to where everybody can be feeling like there's progress being made?”
APM Research Lab senior research analyst Alyson Clary contributed to this report. This story was produced using data obtained through Grist's Misplaced Trust investigation.