Turtle Talk

One thought on “Michigan State Bar American Indian Law Section 2010 Newsletter”

1. Bill Rastetter August 10, 2010 / 3:01 pm

   as if there need be an “Indian country” connection given Jim Olson’s mission to preserve and protect Michigan’s water resources (the lifeblood of tribal treaty-reserved resources) as part of our public trust, but in the fall of 1974 Jim was retained by Art Duhamel for what Art thought would be a simple “test case” to establish “treaty-fishing” rights in Grand Traverse Bay (after all, the “U.S. v. Michigan” litigation had been filed the previous year, and “Big Abe” LeBlanc’s conviction had just been reversed by the Michigan Court of Appeals);

   but Art endured five more years of arrests, boats & gear confiscated, being vilified, etc., before being vindicated by Judge Fox who allowed Art’s Tribe (the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians) to intervene in the federal litigation and enjoined the DNR from prosecuting Art after his last arrest on September 30, 1979; in the meantime, Jim and his then partner, Mike Dettmer, battled for several years (1975-76) with the state district court judge who refused (in the consolidated trial for the first several arrests) to let Helen Tanner testify in Art’s defense;

   somehow it’s all connected, eh?

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