I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 411
To provide compensation to the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community for the
taking without just compensation of land by the United States inside
the exterior boundaries of the L’Anse Indian Reservation that were
guaranteed to the Community under a treaty signed in 1854.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY15, 2025
Mr. B
ERGMANintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Natural Resources
A BILL
To provide compensation to the Keweenaw Bay Indian Com-
munity for the taking without just compensation of land
by the United States inside the exterior boundaries of
the L’Anse Indian Reservation that were guaranteed to
the Community under a treaty signed in 1854.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Keweenaw Bay Indian 4
Community Land Claim Settlement Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6
Congress finds that— 7
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(1) the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community is a 1
federally recognized Indian Tribe residing on the 2
L’Anse Indian Reservation in Baraga County in the 3
Upper Peninsula of the State of Michigan; 4
(2) the Community is a successor in interest to 5
the Treaty with the Chippewa Indians of the Mis-6
sissippi and Lake Superior, made and concluded at 7
La Pointe of Lake Superior October 4, 1842 (7 8
Stat. 591) (referred to in this section as the ‘‘1842 9
Treaty’’), which, among other things, guaranteed the 10
usufructuary rights of the Community over a large 11
area of land that was ceded to the United States, 12
until such time that those usufructuary rights were 13
properly and legally extinguished; 14
(3) the Community is also a successor in inter-15
est to the Treaty with the Chippewa Indians of Lake 16
Superior and the Mississippi, made and concluded at 17
La Pointe September 30, 1854 (10 Stat. 1109) (re-18
ferred to in this section as the ‘‘1854 Treaty’’); 19
(4) article 2, paragraph 1 of the 1854 Treaty 20
created the L’Anse Indian Reservation as a perma-21
nent reservation; 22
(5) pursuant to article 13 of the 1854 Treaty, 23
the 1854 Treaty became ‘‘obligatory on the con-24
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tracting parties’’ when ratified by the President and 1
the Senate on January 10, 1855; 2
(6) in 1850, Congress enacted the Act of Sep-3
tember 28, 1850 (commonly known and referred to 4
in this section as the ‘‘Swamp Land Act’’) (9 Stat. 5
519, chapter 84), which authorized the State of Ar-6
kansas and other States, including the State of 7
Michigan, to ‘‘construct the necessary levees and 8
drains to reclaim’’ certain unsold ‘‘swamp and over-9
flowed lands, made unfit thereby for cultivation’’ 10
and stating that those lands ‘‘shall remain unsold at 11
the passage of this act. . . .’’; 12
(7) following enactment of the Swamp Land 13
Act, the State claimed thousands of acres of swamp 14
land in the State pursuant to that Act; 15
(8) between 1893 and 1937, the General Land 16
Office patented 2,743 acres of land to the State that 17
were located within the exterior boundaries of the 18
Reservation (referred to in this section as ‘‘Reserva-19
tion Swamp Lands’’); 20
(9) the right of the Community to use and oc-21
cupy the unsold land within the Reservation had not 22
been extinguished when the United States patented 23
the Reservation Swamp Lands to the State; 24
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(10) in 1852, Congress enacted the Act of Au-1
gust 26, 1852 (10 Stat. 35, chapter 92) (referred to 2
in this section as the ‘‘Canal Land Act’’), to facili-3
tate the building of the Sault Ste. Marie Canal at 4
the Falls of the St. Mary’s River, to connect Lake 5
Superior to Lake Huron; 6
(11) pursuant to the Canal Land Act, the 7
United States granted the State the right to select 8
750,000 acres of unsold public land within the State 9
to defray the cost of construction of the Sault Ste. 10
Marie Canal; 11
(12) the State identified and selected, among 12
other land, a minimum of 1,333.25 and up to 2,720 13
acres within the exterior boundaries of the Reserva-14
tion (referred to in this section as the ‘‘Reservation 15
Canal Lands’’); 16
(13) the Department of the Interior approved 17
the land selections of the State, including the Res-18
ervation Canal Lands, after ratification of the 1854 19
Treaty; 20
(14) the Secretary noted that the approval de-21
scribed in paragraph (13) was ‘‘subject to any valid 22
interfering rights’’; 23
(15) the 1854 Treaty set apart from the public 24
domain all unsold land within the Reservation to the 25
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Community as of September 30, 1854, which pre-1
ceded the date on which the State established legally 2
effective title to the Reservation Canal Lands; 3
(16) the Community made claims to the De-4
partment of the Interior with respect to the Reserva-5
tion Swamp Lands and the Reservation Canal 6
Lands, providing legal analysis and ethnohistorical 7
support for those claims; 8
(17) in December 2021, the Department of the 9
Interior stated that ‘‘We have carefully reviewed per-10
tinent documents, including the Tribe’s expert re-11
ports, and have determined that the Tribe’s claims 12
to the Swamp Lands and Canal Lands have merit’’; 13
(18) the United States, through the actions of 14
the General Land Office, deprived the Community of 15
the exclusive use and occupancy of the Reservation 16
Swamp Lands and the Reservation Canal Lands 17
within the Reservation, without just compensation as 18
required under the Takings Clause of the Fifth 19
Amendment to the Constitution of the United 20
States; 21
(19) the loss of the Reservation Swamp Lands 22
and the Reservation Canal Lands without just com-23
pensation has— 24
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(A) impacted the exercise by the Commu-1
nity of cultural, religious, and subsistence 2
rights on the land; 3
(B) caused a harmful disconnect between 4
the Community and its land; 5
(C) impacted the ability of the Community 6
to fully exercise its economy within the Reserva-7
tion; and 8
(D) had a negative economic impact on the 9
development of the economy of the Community; 10
(20) certain non-Indian individuals, entities, 11
and local governments occupy land within the 12
boundaries of the Reservation— 13
(A) acquired ownership interests in the 14
Reservation Swamp Lands and the Reservation 15
Canal Lands in good faith; and 16
(B) have an interest in possessing clear 17
title to that land; 18
(21) this Act allows the United States— 19
(A) to secure a fair and equitable settle-20
ment of past inequities suffered by the Commu-21
nity as a result of the actions of the United 22
States that caused the taking of the Reserva-23
tion Swamp Lands and the Reservation Canal 24
Lands without just compensation; and 25
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(B) to ensure protection of the ownership 1
of the Reservation Swamp Lands and the Res-2
ervation Canal Lands by non-Indian occupants 3
of the Reservation, through the settlement of 4
the claims of the Community to that land, and 5
through that action, the relief of any clouds on 6
title; 7
(22) a settlement will allow the Community to 8
receive just compensation and the local landowners 9
to obtain clear title to land, without long and pro-10
tracted litigation that would be both costly and det-11
rimental to all involved; and 12
(23) this Act achieves both justice for the Com-13
munity and security for current landowners through 14
a restorative and non-confrontational process. 15
SEC. 3. PURPOSES. 16
The purposes of this Act are— 17
(1) to acknowledge the uncompensated taking 18
by the Federal Government of the Reservation 19
Swamp Lands and the Reservation Canal Lands; 20
(2) to provide compensation to the Community 21
for the uncompensated taking of the Reservation 22
Swamp Lands and the Reservation Canal Lands by 23
the Federal Government; 24
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(3) to extinguish all claims by the Community 1
to the Reservation Swamp Lands and the Reserva-2
tion Canal Lands and to confirm the ownership by 3
the current landowners of the Reservation Swamp 4
Lands and the Reservation Canal Lands, who ob-5
tained that land in good faith; 6
(4) to extinguish all potential claims by the 7
Community against the United States, the State, 8
and current landowners concerning title to, use of, 9
or occupancy of the Reservation Swamp Lands and 10
the Reservation Canal Lands; and 11
(5) to authorize the Secretary— 12
(A) to compensate the Community; and 13
(B) to take any other action necessary to 14
carry out this Act. 15
SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS. 16
In this Act: 17
(1) C
OMMUNITY.—The term ‘‘Community’’ 18
means the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community. 19
(2) C
OUNTY.—The term ‘‘County’’ means 20
Baraga County, Michigan. 21
(3) R
ESERVATION.—The term ‘‘Reservation’’ 22
means the L’Anse Indian Reservation, located in— 23
(A) T. 51 N., R. 33 W.; 24
(B) T. 51 N., R. 32 W.; 25
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(C) T. 50 N., R. 33 W., E
1
⁄2; 1
(D) T. 50 N., R. 32 W., W
1
⁄2; and 2
(E) that portion of T. 51 N., R. 31 W. 3
lying west of Huron Bay. 4
(4) R
ESERVATION CANAL LANDS .—The term 5
‘‘Reservation Canal Lands’’ means the 1,333.25 to 6
2,720 acres of Community land located within the 7
exterior boundaries of the Reservation that the Fed-8
eral Government conveyed to the State pursuant to 9
the Act of August 26, 1852 (10 Stat. 35, chapter 10
92). 11
(5) R
ESERVATION SWAMP LANDS .—The term 12
‘‘Reservation Swamp Lands’’ means the 2,743 acres 13
of land located within the exterior boundaries of the 14
Reservation that the Federal Government conveyed 15
to the State between 1893 and 1937 pursuant to the 16
Act of September 28, 1850 (commonly known as the 17
‘‘Swamp Land Act’’) (sections 2479 through 2481 of 18
the Revised Statutes (43 U.S.C. 982 through 984)). 19
(6) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 20
the Secretary of the Interior. 21
(7) S
TATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means the State 22
of Michigan. 23
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SEC. 5. PAYMENTS. 1
(a) T
RANSFER OFFUNDS.—As soon as practicable 2
after the date on which the amount authorized to be ap-3
propriated under subsection (c) is made available to the 4
Secretary, the Secretary shall transfer $33,900,000 to the 5
Community. 6
(b) U
SE OFFUNDS.— 7
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Subject to paragraph (2), 8
the Community may use the amount received under 9
subsection (a) for any lawful purpose, including— 10
(A) governmental services; 11
(B) economic development; 12
(C) natural resources protection; and 13
(D) land acquisition. 14
(2) R
ESTRICTION ON USE OF FUNDS .—The 15
community may not use the amount received under 16
subsection (a) to acquire land for gaming purposes. 17
(c) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 18
authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary to carry 19
out subsection (a), $33,900,000 for fiscal year 2026, to 20
remain available until expended. 21
SEC. 6. EXTINGUISHMENT OF CLAIMS. 22
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Effective on the date on which the 23
Community receives the payment under section 5(a), all 24
claims of the Community to the Reservation Swamp 25
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Lands and the Reservation Canal Lands owned by persons 1
or entities other than the Community are extinguished. 2
(b) C
LEARTITLE.—Effective on the date on which 3
the Community receives the payment under section 5(a), 4
the title of all current owners to the Reservation Swamp 5
Lands and the Reservation Canal Lands is cleared of all 6
preexisting rights held by the Community and any of the 7
members of the Community. 8
SEC. 7. EFFECT. 9
Nothing in this Act authorizes— 10
(1) the Secretary to take land into trust for the 11
benefit of the Community for gaming purposes; or 12
(2) the Community to use land acquired using 13
amounts received under this Act for gaming pur-14
poses. 15
Æ
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