Minnesota returns forest land to Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe
S. 622 — Leech Lake Reservation Restoration Amendments Act of 2025 · Filed by Tina Smith (D-MN) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Feb 18, 2025 · Passed chamber
Your members of Congress
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What it does
This bill lets the government and the Tribe trade land. The government will give forest land from the Chippewa National Forest to the Tribe. They pick which pieces to trade, one acre at a time. The bill keeps hunting and fishing rights for non-Tribal people.
Who it affects
The Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe gets back forest land. People who hunt and fish in the forest can still do those things. The government must talk to the public about the trades.
One thing to notice
The bill does not set a deadline for the land trades. The Tribe and government can swap land over many years.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Democrats.
- Feb 18, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Feb 18, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Indian Affairs · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs”
- Mar 5, 2025 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Committee on Indian Affairs. Ordered to be reported without amendment favorably”
- Dec 11, 2025 — Passed the Senate · Congress.gov: “Passed Senate without amendment by Unanimous Consent. (consideration: CR S8687-8688; text: CR S8688)”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- Chippewa National Forest — A large forest in Minnesota owned by the federal government.
- Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe — A Native American nation with a reservation in Minnesota.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (3,318 characters) on Aug 20, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,342 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-18.
“Minnesota returns forest land to Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s622/simple Report an error