Tuesday, November 11, 2025

A pilot is fighting to recover his 1946 Stinson following an emergency landing over Red Lake Nation tribal territory in northern Minnesota, on Minnesota Highway 1, because the Red Lake Tribal Police impounded the aircraft, citing a violation of the tribe’s 1978 Resolution No. 59-78.





 
What's that all about? 

in the late 70s, amid opposition to proposed low-altitude military training routes, the tribe passed a resolution to prohibit “the flying of any airplanes over lands of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians at an altitude of less than 20,000 feet.” of high speed aircraft. 


A 1948 Stinson is neither military, nor high speed. And I doubt the treaty ever mentioned aircraft, or airspace.

So, since they could seize the airplane because it landed where they could seize it, they did, and possibly only to serve notice that their laws will not be ignored... 


in the once a century unique opportunity to stand their ground, and make the news. Maybe even get the jurisdiction law of airspace vis a vis tribal sovereignty examined in a new light... it sure as hell has seen a lot of changes since the 70s, just see Oklahoma. 

Well... now the issue of who sets the laws above a reservation will hit a court, or maybe a couple, as tribal jurisdiction over airspace has possibly never come up before. The FAA is the only authority on airspace over the USA, unless, maybe, over military airspace. I dunno about that. 

Federal law, under Title 49 U.S. Code §40103, grants the U.S. government “exclusive sovereignty of airspace of the United States” and recognizes a public right of transit through navigable airspace. 

Current VFR sectional charts show a published T-route above the reservation, but no other special use airspace or advisories are depicted. T-routes are typically confined between 1,200 feet above ground and 18,000 feet mean sea level.


The Red Lake Nation is the only closed reservation in Minnesota and exercises full jurisdiction over its lands and maintains its own courts and law enforcement, a status derived from treaties the tribe signed with the U.S. government. The tribe is the only reservation in the state that holds all of its lands in common. The tribe limits who can visit or live on the reservation, and its members are not subject to state criminal and civil jurisdiction on its lands.

Red Lake Nation said it welcomes "engagement with the FAA and governmental peers to clarify Tribal protocols for emergency landings and Tribal laws and resolutions governing overflight, so that future incidents may be handled with greater transparency, cooperation, and mutual respect."


This oughta be interesting to see how it turns out... I doubt airspace jurisdiction has been brought up in courts more than once or twice since WW2
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1 comment:

  1. Marc B10:18 AM

    Back in the early 2000s, when I worked for Champion Spark Plug, we would drive from Toledo to Roseau, MN to do radio interference testing at Polaris. It was about 1000 miles in a one-ton Dodge cargo van with a computer desk and storage for the test equipment. The route through the Red Lake Reservation was the most direct route in that part of the drive. I was driving that stretch in the dark, and we came up behind a pickup truck with a few guys in the back with spot lights and guns, "hunting" for deer. I passed the truck, floored the gas and kept going.

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