Office of Tribal Affairs
The purpose of the MnDOT Office of Tribal Affairs is to seek to build a positive diplomatic government-to-government relationship between MnDOT and all Minnesota Tribal Nations to develop a safe, efficient transportation system statewide. The goals are to work in partnership with Tribes to provide:
- Safe highway and streets
- Adequate mobility and structural capacity on highways and streets
- An integrated transportation network
- Promote a multi-tiered collaboration between Tribal governments and the State of Minnesota
The office also works on the Tribal-State Relations Training program to provide an enterprise wide training program for all state employees to learn about American Indian tribal governments, histories, cultures and traditions, in order to empower employees to work more effectively and efficiently with American Indian tribal governments. To learn more: https://www.dot.state.mn.us/tribaltraining/
MnDOT's commitment
MnDOT is committed to working with the Tribal Nations in Minnesota through consultation, coordination, and cooperation. For more information on MnDOT's commitment for developing, improving, and maintaining collaborative relationships between MnDOT and the eleven (11) Tribal Nations in Minnesota view the MnDOT's Tribal Nations Government-to-Government policy. The policy and this website were developed to support these efforts and to improve Tribal-State governmental relations through resource sharing.
The State of Minnesota's commitment
For information about Government-to-Government relations between the Tribal Nations in MN and the State, view the recently codified Laws of Minnesota 2021, 1st Spec. Sess. chapter 14, article 11, section 5.