Frank Bibeau

Director, Tribal Rights of Nature Program
United States

Frank Bibeau is an enrolled member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe and has spent most of his life on Leech Lake Reservation in Ball Club, Minnesota.  Frank is a Tribal Attorney working extensively with Chippewa treaty rights, civil rights and sovereignty, on and off reservation.  Frank also processes wild rice and smokes whitefish in Ball Club.  Frank serves as Executive Director for the 1855 Treaty Authority.

Frank has developed several legal defense strategies based on the Rights of Manoomin and represented Manoomin (wild rice) and the White Earth Band of Ojibwe in Manoomin v DNR in White Earth Tribal Court and DNR v White Earth Band of Ojibwe and Chief Judge DeGroat in Minnesota District Court and the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals (2021-2022).  Frank’s legal work focuses on the Treaty rights of tribes and members to help protect the natural resources for future generations. 

“We have perpetual rights to enjoy and spiritual duty and responsibility to protect the gifts from the Creator,” says Frank Bibeau, citizen of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe and the attorney representing White Earth Band’s case. “Our quality of life is directly dependent on and connected to the quality of lives of our relations—the water (“nibi”), wild rice (“manoomin”), fish, birds, four legged animals and plants. We cannot live without them.”