A Minnesota pilot has rejected a settlement offer from the Red Lake Nation after it seized his airplane following an emergency landing on tribal lands on Oct. 25, 2025.
In a Feb. 25, 2026, interview with a local PBS station, Darrin Smedsmo said the tribe wants him to pay $7,250 to get his Stinson 108 back, which includes a $5,000 donation to the Red Lake Boys and Girls Club and $2,750 for the towing bill to haul the plane from the highway where it landed after an engine failure to a storage yard, where it has remained outside through the winter.
He said that the settlement “wasn’t acceptable — it wasn’t even a place to start with.”
He added that while Minnesota law requires action within 45 days, it’s been more than four months since the tribe seized his airplane. The tribe says that Smedsmo landed “without prior authorization,” which created “safety concerns.”
Smedsmo notes that he has yet to have his day in court.
Read our story here about the seizure and the fight for not only Darrin’s Stinson, but the fight to protect the National Airspace System for all pilots.
The real issue here is who controls the airspace? Many of these reservations were established long before there were airplanes, but does that give them the right to control the airspace? How about if they sue Starlink and NASA for overflights? All they have to do is amend their law to say “2,000 miles” instead of “20,000 feet”.
Our guy is (unfortunately) collateral damage. How would the USAF react if they had to land an F-22 in exactly the same kind of scenario and the Red Lake Nation seized it, towed it off and claimed the airplane? (I think that would work out somewhat differently.)
What else crosses their land (and remember, it IS their land, by treaty) without “permission”? Wi-Fi? Cell phone signals? Radar?
The legislation needs to catch up with the reality, and this is by far not the only instance of that happening.
If the FAA rules that THEY own the airspace, the Red Lake Nation’s claim (and law about “nothing below 20,000 feet”) is null and void, Darrin gets his airplane back plus whatever it takes to repair it and something to make him feel (a little) better about this whole mess.
It the FAA doesn’t rule that they own the airspace, that allows just about anyone to file lawsuits against airplanes, satellites, radio signals, whatever, crossing THEIR private airspace which extends to the outer reaches of the galaxy.
Probably the smartest thing for the Red Lake Nation to do is simply return the airplane at which time the FAA would probably lose interest in pursuing it further – because if the FAA does pursue it, the Red Lake Nation is going to be in a world of hurt.
There are very likely other entities watching this as well. They are thinking if they (RLN) can do this, well hey, we can too! Suddenly you have towns and cities and a bazillion homeowner’s associations run by rabid Karens and nimbys passing “rules” (all of which would be different) about who can transit “their” airspace, when, how high, for how long, etc.
The result would be the complete fragmentation of the national airspace and a supernova explosion of absurd lawsuits. If this happens, buy stock in Greyhound . . .
I am no lawyer, A Indian reservation is no different than a foreign country. If a foreign country doesn’t want you in their airspace or landing on their land can this happen? It would be interesting proceedings for a Pro Bono client. Is this owner a AOPA member?
This whole thing leaves a sour taste in my mouth. It may cost him his airplane, but the treatment of him by the Tribe is not acceptable, at least in my view. An emergency isn’t something that he can ignore. He did the right thing and landed safely without hurting any people or property, including his plane. Claiming ownership of the airspace is out of line, and the roadway he landed on is used by the driving public. Stick it out and continue the court case. If they lose, they are responsible for all of your court costs.
Sue them do damage to the plane for being stored outside and lost use of it.
Calling this situation “extortion” might be emotionally satisfying in the moment, but it’s worth remembering that the Red Lake Nation and other Ojibwe communities experienced something far closer to actual extortion for generations. U.S. policies and treaties repeatedly forced them to surrender millions of acres of land to white settlement and logging interests, sometimes in violation of earlier agreements, while assimilation policies like boarding schools separated children from their families to erase their culture. Against that backdrop, accusations of “extortion” toward a tribe exercising authority on its own land sit in an uncomfortable historical context that many critics tend to overlook. It’s unfortunate for this pilot, since it seems like he executed a great forced landing, but maybe the pilot community should step up and help honor this tribe with exactly what they want. It’s the least white people can offer.
Tell ya what, Jason. Why don’t you belly up to the bar and show how you honor the tribes, okay?
I’m not sure what you mean by that, Dasvid.
That the tribe is able to enact their own
“airspace ownership” without regard to federal law is, in itself, lunacy.
By the time he gets his day in court the airplane will be ruined from neglect. Sometimes it is better to pay the extortion and be done with it.
Don’t settle…go to court. It’s extortion.