The Three Affiliated Tribes might support changing the method of a Lake Sakakawea shoreline land transfer but only if it does not slow the process, Chairman Marcus Wells Jr. says.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is proposing to transfer 24,000 acres of land no longer needed for the Garrison Dam project, which created Lake Sakakawea more than half a century ago. In the process, it flooded tribal land and split the Fort Berthold Reservation in two.

The transfer would give the U.S. Interior Department ownership of the land, which it would hold in trust for the tribe. Wildlife management areas and boat ramps would not be included.

Gov. John Hoeven, who met with Wells and other Tribal Council members on Tuesday, restated his opposition to the plan. He said he would prefer legislation in Congress that would address such issues as land access and weed control.

"They haven't answered any of those questions," Hoeven said. "This transfer, as they're proposing it, doesn't serve the people of North Dakota."

State officials have questioned whether the corps has the authority to transfer surface land rights under the 1984 Fort Berthold Mineral Restoration Act, as it intends. Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem has said the state might consider a lawsuit to stop the plan.

Hoeven on Tuesday noted that legislation was used seven years ago when the corps transferred Missouri River land to the state of South Dakota and two American Indian tribes.

Corps officials did not immediately comment on Tuesday's meeting between Hoeven and the tribal officials.

Wells, who presented Hoeven with a quilt before the meeting, told the governor his intent Tuesday was to listen to the state's view. The meeting was cordial, and Wells said in an interview later that the tribe is not averse to any land transfer idea that works.

"The best solution is where there are no unanswered questions," he said.

Tribal officials say the land transfer would help rectify the taking of property from tribal members for the Missouri River dam project in the 1950s.

"It's never going to make us 100 percent," Wells told Hoeven. "But the more of these things that can be done, the easier it is to … heal."

Hoeven said the land transfer proposal in its current form has too many flaws.

"I don't believe it serves the native people or the non-native people" of North Dakota, he said.

Hoeven also told Wells that the corps proposal, because it does not address such things as money for weed control, might "create greater problems and greater cost" for the tribe.

Wells and Councilman Frank Whitecalf said in an interview that the tribe already seeks federal grant money for weed control on the reservation, and that it is working to create even more access points to the lake.

However, Whitecalf agreed with Hoeven that a land transfer plan should include federal money for such matters as weed control, and said the tribe should not be fighting the state on that.

"We have to work together with the state to get federal money," he said.