57.01.020 Findings

The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa ("Tribe") finds and declares that:

(a) Sovereignty requires the Tribe to advance and protect economic opportunities for the Tribe and its members through the regulation of agricultural products, food & medicines produced for the market and consumed by the public, including; extending legal protections to the many natural and human resources utilized to gather, produce, and market agricultural products.

(b) A Department of Agriculture is necessary to govern agriculture systematically and comprehensively in order to safeguard the health and general welfare of the Turtle Mountain Tribe, its culture, its economy, its natural resources, and all persons would use such products.

(c) Sovereignty requires the Tribe to grow the Tribal food and medicine economy for local Native producers and business ventures at every stage of this Agriculture enterprise including but not limited to: production, gathering, processing, packaging, marketing, storing, transporting, retailing, and reclaiming.

(d) A private sector of the agriculture system is necessary to facilitate innovation and fair competition in every aspect of the agriculture enterprise, including production, gathering, processing, packaging, marketing, storing, transporting, retailing, and reclaiming.

(e) The Tribal Council understands that the substantive part of this title authorizing food regulation is still in the development stage and will be added to this title upon being duly enacted by the Council.