# TRUTH Project *University of Minnesota and Minnesota Indian Affairs Council project whose final report is dated April 11, 2023* The TRUTH Project is a joint undertaking of the [[University of Minnesota]] and the [[Minnesota Indian Affairs Council]]. Its final report is dated April 11, 2023.[^1] The Council keeps a page for the project on its state agency website, where the full report is also posted.[^2] The report gives an account of how the University was founded. It states that the founding Board of Regents used a "shell corporation through which to launder lands and resources."[^3] The project's claim catalogue also quotes the report as stating that the founding Board of Regents "committed genocide and ethnic cleansing of Indigenous peoples for financial gain."[^4] Nineteen months after the report's date, on November 14, 2024, a complaint was filed with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights. The complaint challenges a University program keyed to race under Title VI.[^5] The Office opened an investigation on March 13, 2025.[^6] ## Federal action involving the University [[Equal Protection Project v. University of Minnesota (BIPOC Design Justice Initiative)]] is docketed as OCR 05-25-2077 before the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights. The complaint was filed on November 14, 2024. It concerns eligibility for the University's BIPOC Design Justice Initiative, and the instrument it cites is Title VI program eligibility.[^5] The Office's letter of March 13, 2025 opened an investigation of the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities.[^6] As of the record, the matter remains at the investigation stage, and no finding is recorded.[^7] The record does not establish a connection between the complaint and the TRUTH Project itself. ## Omissions in official accounts The 1830 Treaty of [[Treaty of Prairie du Chien|Prairie du Chien]] set aside a reservation at [[Lake Pepin]] for the mixed-descent Mdewakanton, called the "Sioux half-breed" reservation in the record.[^8] The project's merged master records that the TRUTH Project Report uses the "Dakota" vocabulary throughout. The merged master also records that the report does not name the lineal descendants of the Lake Pepin Reservation, who identify as Sioux.[^9] The record shows that the report describes the harm in general terms. It does not establish why these claimants are absent from it. ## In the Minnesota record ### Who - The University of Minnesota and the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council are named as the producers of the TRUTH Project Report.[^1] ### What - The TRUTH Project produced a final report dated April 11, 2023.[^1] - The report attributes to the founding Board of Regents a "shell corporation through which to launder lands and resources." The project verified that phrase verbatim on the state agency's site.[^3] - The project's merged master records that the report's acreage and dollar figures do not reconcile across the project's corpus. The figures it checked in the report's executive summary on June 12 differ from those in a companion essay and a verification memo. The merged master directs that the figures be standardized before either set is used, so neither is stated here.[^10] ### When - The TRUTH Project Report is dated April 11, 2023.[^1] ## Notes [^1]: University of Minnesota / Minnesota Indian Affairs Council, *TRUTH Project Final Report* (April 11, 2023) — the report's date and its producing bodies. https://mn.gov/indian-affairs/assets/full-report_tcm1193-572488.pdf [^2]: Minnesota Indian Affairs Council, *TRUTH Project* (agency web page) — the Council's page for the project. https://mn.gov/indian-affairs/truth-project/ [^3]: University of Minnesota / Minnesota Indian Affairs Council, *TRUTH Project Final Report* (April 11, 2023) — the phrase "shell corporation through which to launder lands and resources," confirmed verbatim against the posted report. https://mn.gov/indian-affairs/assets/full-report_tcm1193-572488.pdf [^4]: University of Minnesota / Minnesota Indian Affairs Council, *TRUTH Project Final Report* (April 11, 2023) — the statement on the founding Board of Regents as quoted in the project's claim:link rows. https://mn.gov/indian-affairs/assets/full-report_tcm1193-572488.pdf [^5]: Equal Protection Project, *OCR Complaint — University of Minnesota, BIPOC Design Justice Initiative* (November 14, 2024) — the complaint, its filing date and its Title VI program-eligibility basis. https://equalprotect.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/OCR-Complaint-University-of-Minnesota-BIPOC-Design-Justice-Initiative-1.pdf [^6]: U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, *Letter to University of Minnesota–Twin Cities opening investigation* (March 13, 2025) — the opening of the investigation. https://equalprotect.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/OCR-Letter-March-13-2025-U.-Minnesota-Twin-Cities-Opening-Investigation.pdf [^7]: Equal Protection Project, *Equal Protection Project v. University of Minnesota* (case page) — the docket's status as tracked. https://equalprotect.org/case/equal-protection-project-v-university-of-minnesota/ [^8]: Avalon Project (Yale Law School), *Treaty of Prairie du Chien* (1830) — the treaty text, including the Lake Pepin reservation. https://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/prairie_du_chien_1830.asp [^9]: University of Minnesota / Minnesota Indian Affairs Council, *TRUTH Project Final Report* (April 11, 2023) — the report's text, against which the project's merged master records the vocabulary used and the claimants absent. https://mn.gov/indian-affairs/assets/full-report_tcm1193-572488.pdf [^10]: University of Minnesota / Minnesota Indian Affairs Council, *TRUTH Project Final Report* (April 11, 2023) — the executive summary whose figures the project checked on June 12 and flagged as unreconciled. https://mn.gov/indian-affairs/assets/full-report_tcm1193-572488.pdf