Nebraska, Iowa Delegations Support Land Return to Winnebago Tribe

Legislation to Correct Decades-Old Government Overreach Gains Momentum

The congressional delegations from Nebraska and Iowa support legislation to return land to the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska that the federal government took decades ago but never developed.
The Army Corps of Engineers took the roughly 2.5-square-mile tract of land along the Missouri River in Iowa in 1970 through eminent domain for a recreation project, but it was never built.
The land that would be returned to the Winnebago Tribe if the legislation passes was originally part of the reservation created for the tribe in northeastern Nebraska by a treaty in 1865.
Another parcel of land on the Nebraska side of the river that was taken at the same time has already been returned to the tribe, but the Iowa land remains in the federal government's hands.
Neither the Corps nor the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, which has been managing the land, objects to returning the land to the tribe, which should help clear the path for the proposal to pass.