cultural resources

Ninth Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Native Village of Kivalina Claims against Oil Companies

September 21, 2012September 21, 2012Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

The opinion is here.

Briefs and oral argument materials are here.

Lower court materials here.

Shame on Eastern Michigan “Eagles”

September 7, 2012September 7, 2012Matthew L.M. Fletcher5 Comments

Eastern Michigan University has become the first university, as far as we know, to regress on the question of the use of American Indian names and mascots for sports purposes.

What value is upheld in bringing back an Indian mascot that the University long, long ago walked away from? The desire of some alumni to recall a past that never really existed?

It must be remembered that the Hurons, or Wyandotte nation, were forcibly removed by the United States to lands in the west at great personal and cultural cost to that community. Now their suffering will be embraced for fun and games by the EMU marching band, all at the request of alums who apparently have no knowledge of this history.

From the article:

It also comes as EMU continues to reach out to alumni who still refer to the teams as Hurons.

“It’s no secret there are still those disenfranchised people from the logo change,” said Daniel Mathis, interim executive director of EMU Alumni Relations. “It still comes up at pretty much anywhere we travel the country. … There are still people who say, ‘I will never give a dollar until they change it back.'”

The Oklahoma Wyandotte Nation’s chief (Billy Friend) also embraces the restoration of the logo. This highlights the complication. The emotional and political pain arising from EMU’s change more than 20 years ago is forgotten, just as the tribe’s history is neglected.

What’s going on here?

Update in Diné CARE v. Salazar

August 27, 2012Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Here is Navajo’s latest pleading (limited motion to intervene and motion to dismiss):

FINAL COMBINED NAVAJO NATION AREA IV PLEADINGS

The complaint is here.

LSJ: Anishinaabek Oppose Wisconsin Wolf Hunt

August 18, 2012Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Here.

Primary materials:

Tribal Wolf Hunt Opposition Letter

DNR Response

Seattle Weekly: Fish vs. Farms on the Skagit Delta

August 17, 2012Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Here.

An excerpt:

The Skagit delta farming system’s intricate rotation of some 80 vegetable and seed crops has been 150 years in the making. Dikes to keep the low-lying farmland dry and tide gates to prevent saltwater incursion into croplands are valuable to farmers, but not so much to Natives trying to revive salmon runs on the third largest American river on the contiguous West Coast.

The Swinomish Tribe’s priority is fish, not farms. And a century and a half of treaty law has put in their hands considerable power to press their case. In 1855, territorial Governor Isaac Stevens negotiated with western Washington tribes, trying to coax them into giving up millions of acres of land and retreat to reservations with prescribed boundaries. The Treaty of Point Elliott, signed by tribal leaders at a place later known as Mukilteo, included a guarantee of perpetual fishing rights. The treaty included this language: “The right of taking fish, at all usual and accustomed grounds and stations, is further secured to said Indians in common with all other citizens of the Territory, and of erecting temporary houses for the purpose of curing them, together with the privileges of hunting, gathering roots and berries, and pasturing their horses on open and unclaimed lands.”