The Morrill Act of 1862 created 52 land-grant universities across the United States, funded by the sale and development of federally owned public land. Over ten million acres of that land were taken from Indigenous nations in forced treaty surrenders.
Foremost among the beneficiaries of this law was Cornell University, which received nearly 1,000,000 acres of public land, approximately half of which its founder, Ezra Cornell, converted into real estate in the states of Wisconsin, Minnesota and Kansas. The University managed these lands as a speculative investment for the better part of seventy years. But the seemingly distant nature of this history has significant implications in the present day.
One quarter-section (160 acres) of the land obtained by Cornell in 1867, in present-day Barron County, Wisconsin is home to Ozhaawashkonaagwad: also known as the “Blue Hills” Quarry, a sacred site for the region’s Indigenous peoples.
Today, Cornell retains an interest in the mineral rights associated with the Quarry parcel but has an opportunity to restore those rights to their original Indigenous caretakers – going beyond mere verbal acknowledgments of a painful past of Indigenous dispossession and setting an example for other institutions whose financial histories are structured by foundational injustices.
In 1938, after failing to devise a means of mining the site’s unique stone in commercial quantities, Cornell sold the land containing the quarry to a private buyer. The deed of sale retained for the University “an undivided one-half interest in all minerals which have been or may be discovered on or under the above-described land.” The property is currently owned by Barron County and has since 2003 resided on the National Register of Historic Places as a component of the Wajiwan ji Mashkode Archaeological District.
Cornell’s acquisition, ownership, and sale of Ozhaawashkonaagwad led to disruptions of longstanding patterns of Indigenous access to the site that persist today. Yet by transferring its mineral rights in Ozhaawashkonaagwad to the site’s Indigenous proprietors, the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe, Cornell could take a step toward repairing the damage caused by an opportunistic nineteenth century grab of a sacred place used for millennia by the region’s Indigenous peoples.
For much of the past year, we have sought to persuade Cornell University officials to convey the institution’s severed mineral interest in Ozhaawashkonaagwad to the Lac Courte Oreilles Tribe. The quarter-section containing Ozhaawashkonaagwad represents less than one-tenth of one percent of the University’s current portfolio of over 150,000 acres of reserved mineral rights in Wisconsin derived from the Morrill Act.
Wisconsin state law requires the owners of severed mineral interests to maintain their rights by “using” them at least once every twenty years — “use” may be accomplished by exploitation of the minerals, conveyance of the interest, or recording a statement of claim in public records. Cornell University has adopted the latter approach since 1987, which requires fees paid to attorneys for up-to-date title searches and associated filing costs.
Transfer of the mineral rights to the Barron County Quarrel parcel to the Lac Courte Oreilles Tribe would not only represent a modest cost savings over time to Cornell, it would also greatly enhance the prospect of an enduring set of equitable, negotiated arrangements between the Tribe and the surface owner (Barron County) that uphold the values of preservation while also providing secure opportunities for Ojibwe harvesting of the culturally significant pipestone.
Recent precedent exists at Cornell for the repatriation of items of cultural patrimony to Indigenous nations: in November 2020, the Cornell Library returned the papers of Fidelia Fielding to the Mohegan Tribe to facilitate a language revitalization initiative, and in February 2023 the University (acting in compliance with federal NAGPRA regulations) returned ancestral human remains found in its possession to the Oneida Indian Nation.
There is no more time to be lost. Pipes formed from the Quarry’s special stone play an essential role in Midewiwin ceremonial practice which members of the Lac Courte Oreilles community are endeavoring to revive. As a result of the lapse in community access to Ozhaawashkonaagwad over the past three generations, there are fewer people knowledgeable about the sacred uses of the site who can pass on those traditions to younger generations.
In addition to the obvious benefit to the Lac Courte Oreilles community, transfer of the University’s mineral interest in Ozhaawashkonaagwad could initiate the rethinking of Cornell’s long standing extractive orientation toward the natural resources of northern Wisconsin. It could also, in a small but highly symbolic way, foreground instead the values and perspectives of Indigenous peoples concerning their relationships to ancestral homelands and the sacred sites therein. Finally it could help change perceptions about Cornell University’s commitment to Indigenous peoples.
Today, land-grant colleges and universities in the United States pride themselves on a mission that includes “building a better future for everyone” and “working to appropriately and respectfully serve as ready and willing partners to help address community challenges and needs.” We believe that Cornell University’s transfer of its mineral interest in Ozhaawashkonaagwad is fully in keeping with those principles and we urge the institution’s senior leadership to make this happen.
There is no more time to be lost.
Jon Parmenter is an Associate Professor of History at Cornell University whose research focuses on the post-contact history of northeastern Indigenous peoples. He can be reached at [email protected].
Rick St. Germaine is a Professor Emeritus of History at University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and former Tribal Chairman of the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe Tribe.
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