Kelly ApplegateNobel Conference 62

Kelly Applegate

Commissioner of Natural Resources for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe

Indigenous Stewardship, Water, and the Future of Resource Decisions

For Indigenous communities, water is more than a natural resource—it is a living relative that sustains culture, food systems, and ways of life. In Minnesota, the Mississippi River watershed and its surrounding lakes have supported the lifeways of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe for generations. Today, these waters sit at the center of a growing debate about how society balances the demand for materials used in modern technologies with the responsibility to protect fragile ecosystems and communities.

Kelly will explore how Indigenous knowledge and stewardship principles can inform today’s most urgent environmental challenges from mining and energy transitions to emerging water contaminants like PFAS and pharmaceuticals.

Drawing on the Band’s experiences interfacing with state and federal government entities, corporations and environmental groups, Applegate will illustrate how decisions about resource extraction reverberate across interconnected systems—groundwater, wild rice ecosystems, cultural practices, and community health.

Applegate's presentation also poses an essential ethical question: How should societies weigh short-term technological needs against long-term environmental responsibility?

Blending personal perspective, ecological science, and lived experience, Applegate’s talk demonstrates how Indigenous teachings on interconnectedness and responsibility to future generations can guide more just and sustainable environmental decisions. Ultimately, it challenges audiences to reconsider what progress means when the health of water, land, and community are inseparable.

Biography

Kelly leads a department of 40 staff responsible for environmental and resource protection, cultural preservation, tribal enrollment, and programs that support tribal harvesting under treaty rights. A tribal member who has served the Mille Lacs Band for more than two decades, he is currently serving his second four-year term as Commissioner.

Throughout his career, Applegate has worked to protect the sacred gifts entrusted to his people by the Creator, including clean water, healthy ecosystems, and culturally significant resources such as manoomin (wild rice). His work has included wetland restoration, wildlife conservation for rare species, protection of sacred sites, invasive species management, and safeguarding treaty rights.

Applegate also serves on several regional and state boards focused on environmental stewardship and natural resources, including the Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission, Governor Walz’s Advisory Council on Climate Change, Attorney General Keith Ellison’s Future of Minnesota Water Task Force, and the Critical Materials Recovery Task Force.

In addition to his public service, Applegate is an Emmy Award–winning film producer for the short film Water Over Nickel — Protecting Our Water, Community, and Manoomin, which highlights the cultural and environmental importance of protecting water and wild rice.