Lawmaker seeks to repeal American Indian banishment law

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- A Minnesota lawmaker plans to ask Congress to repeal an 1863 federal law that banished Dakota and Winnebago Indians from Minnesota.

State Rep. Dean Urdahl, a Republican from Grove City, has scheduled a news conference Thursday in St. Paul.

Urdahl has sponsored the resolution that he plans to send to Washington, asking Congress to repeal the tribal banishment.

Urdahl is Minnesota's official representative to the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. Lincoln signed the law in 1863.