Messages from the Council Chair

We are seeing the sun rise on a new day between the Metropolitan Council and American Indian communities in the seven-county metro region and beyond. We have much to learn from the original inhabitants of this region and their descendants, and we are listening. 

In September, Met Council members had the great privilege of hearing from a Met Council-supported American Indian Advisory Council made up of American Indian cultural carriers and systems changers. These highly respected members of the American Indian communities in the region spent many months together working in partnership with our staff. It started with a request to advise us through a land acknowledgment process for Imagine 2050, the next regional development guide.  

It quickly became clear that a land acknowledgment would have little meaning if it were not backed up with actions, the first of which is acknowledging the history of this region: how our region was built on land stolen through dishonest treaties; through enforced dislocation, genocide, and assimilation; and how settlers benefitted, and their descendants continue to benefit, from these actions.  

Critical for American Indian communities are the actions we take today to repair harm that the Met Council has caused, honor the sovereignty of American Indian Tribes, visibly support the communities in the seven-county region through our areas of responsibility and influence, and commit to appropriately staffing and resourcing partnerships with Tribes and American Indian communities moving forward.  

As the American Indian Advisory Council learned more about the breadth of responsibilities the Met Council has around housing, transportation, water, land use, and regional parks, many areas of potential action emerged. These recommendations call for our careful consideration, as we refine the regional development guide in preparation for formal adoption in February 2025.  

We took an important step in December 2023 when we hired our first full-time Tribal Liaison and Native Relations Coordinator. Allison Waukau, Menominee/Navajo, is doing a wonderful job and was key, along with Met Council Member Robert Lilligren, White Earth Ojibwe, in recruiting people to serve on the American Indian Advisory Council. 

We have made mistakes in our day-to-day work here at Met Council – some of them significant. We are honored that members of our American Indian Advisory Council want to continue to work with us as meaningful partners. In October we will hear their proposed Land, Water, and People Acknowledgment for the Met Council to include in Imagine 2050. 

Slowly but surely we are rebuilding broken relationships and trust with Tribes and American Indian communities in the region so we can walk forward together to ensure an equitable, sustainable region for all people who now call Dakota land home.  

Charlie Zelle, Met Council Chair