A Minnesota appeals court just ruled the state had no jurisdiction to prosecute an Ojibwe man for cannabis on his own reservation. The decision draws on 40 years of sovereignty law. But the case’s most uncomfortable question isn’t about the state—it’s about the tribe.
On August 2, 2023—one day after recreational cannabis became legal in Minnesota—Mahnomen County sheriff’s deputies and White Earth tribal police raided the Asema Pipe & Tobacco Shop on the White Earth Reservation.
They seized 3,405 grams of cannabis flower, four ounces of dabs, over $3,000 in cash, a cell phone, and a surveillance system. They also entered the owner’s home, breaking a gun safe and door locks. The shop’s owner, Todd Jeremy Thompson, 56, an enrolled member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, was charged with first-degree cannabis possession—a felony carrying up to five years and a $10,000 fine.
Thompson owned Asema. It was licensed as a tobacco distributor under the White Earth Reservation Tax Code. He did not have a state cannabis license, and he did not have authorization from the tribal council to sell weed.
What he had was an understanding of the law: that as a tribal member on tribal land, in a state that had just legalized the substance in question, the state had no business charging him with anything.
It took two and a half years to prove him right. He lost at the district court level, then sought discretionary review from the Court of Appeals—which granted it and, on February 2, 2026, reversed the lower court and dismissed the charge. The state of Minnesota, the three-judge panel held, lacked jurisdiction.
Thompson is the first case to apply an entire doctrinal chain to cannabis that goes back almost 40 years.
What the Court Actually Said
The Court of Appeals …
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Author: Rolando García / High Times
