It’s a really interesting picture. Thanks for making it.

I wish there were labels on the neighborhoods.

Anything you say to the press can and will be held against you. The pilot mentions that he can’t keep track of the patchwork of Red Nation land.

But I can tell you from being on the ground in that area, many people have patches of land and they are not shy about telling you to stay off it.

The point is, if you can avoid one place (for geographic reasons) you can avoid another place for sovereign nation reasons.

The pilot says it himself. He flew for convenience reasons. He doesn’t have the right nor the ability to safely fly anywhere he wants.

I was just up in the Beltrami Island State Forest. The Wildlife Management Area inside the forest has a huge swamp in the middle of it. There is no cell signal in this area or even roads. The Upper and Lower Red Lakes are huge.

There are plenty of places to avoid in the area.

Mr. Collins I much appreciate your civil discussion. Thank you.

What position would you expect them to take?

From my perspective, you seem like a very rational and reasonable person. And yet you take this position that all should be forgiven because the FAA didn’t recognize tribal sovereignty.

It gets worse after you. The Facebook posts were not good.

I can get behind this.

🤷

m.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...

That’s a good question. Per our discussion above, the US government has a history of ignoring Native sovereignty.

I’m sure one of the conversations went like this, “Yeah the law exists. But what are they gonna do? Shoot down the planes?”

And now we have the answer.

Ignorance of the law is no defense.

A quick scan of the internet shows that the aviation community is paying attention to this issue.

I definitely am arguing that this pilot didn’t know the law and flew over land he shouldn’t have been flying over. The information mechanism is this event.

www.ainonline.com/aviation-new...

So, ignore the laws of a sovereign nation as a trade for “common sense”. Is that your legal argument?

I find it really odd that you say we should respect the property of a Minnesota pilot but not the laws of the people of the Red Lake Nation.

Different question: why does this bother you so much?

Maybe it is a political statement.

It’s so fascinating that you’d hand-wave away a congressman using a large chunk of Red Lake Nation land as a bargaining chip, but get so upset about the plane.

I guess I’d ask you - what do you think the solution to this situation is?

The piece that you referenced clearly stated the altitude, when the policy was adopted by the tribe, and - most importantly - *why* it was adopted.

I guess it’s how you look at it. If the US government used your land to negotiate fishing laws, would you say that’s solid law? (See the history of the Northwest Angle.)

I got this book from my next door neighbor as a result of this conversation.

Here’s some bullshit that might make flexes like this understandable.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwe...

I don’t know if this is bullshit. Ignorance of the law is no defense. And the Red Lake Nation appears to exercise its independence when it can.

I understand why Mr. Smedsmo would be upset. But I also understand why it’s important to uphold the law.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Lak...