Environmental

Chicago Public Radio: “Who Owns the Fish? How Tribal Rights Could Save the Great Lakes”

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here. The transcript:

In Leelanau County in Northern Michigan, a small Native American tribe has struggled for generations to survive economic and social hardships. The tribe has always been deeply connected to the lakes economically and culturally. The latest threat to that connection is environmental degradation, particularly invasive species. But the tribes are forming unexpected alliances with old enemies to fight the threat.

When you first arrive in the Leelanau Peninsula, you think: This is heaven in the Midwest. Lake Michigan stretches out everywhere you look, blue as the Caribbean. It is a place full of second homes and tourists. But there is one spot that is different from the rest.

Arthur Duhamel Marina sound fade up

Peshawbestown is the reservation for the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, a group that has lived in this area longer than anyone. It doesn’t have any t-shirt shops or beach-front mansions. Instead, there are government offices, a casino, and a tribal marina. Ed John is a tribal fisherman who docks his fishing boat here.

JOHN: I can weld, and other things. But I enjoy fishing ’cause I am my own boss. I am not rich, but I don’t want to be rich, it’s working for me.

Tribes have always been dependent on the lakes. We asked Ed how invasive species have been threatening the tribes’ livelihood.

JOHN: I was just telling my buddy, we got these reporters down here, asking about invasive species. We know a thing or two about invasive species. First we had the Vikings and all these other countries taking, actually invading our space.

Ed’s wife fishes, and so does her cousin, Bill.

FOWLER: My name is Bill Fowler, I am a tribal commercial fisherman.

His nickname is Bear.

FOWLER: Because I’m as big as a bear and I work like a bear.

Fade up engine

Bill fishes with Jason Sams who helps haul in the nets. Also along for the ride is  Bill’s dauschund puppy, Beauford.

SAMS: He eats the face of the fishes. Faces ain’t worth any money anyway. He’s excited ‘cause he knows there will be fish soon.

It takes about an hour to reach the first fishing net.

FOWLER: Here fishy, fishy. Come here fishies.

Lake trout flop around on the dock, bleeding from the gills.

Fish flopping

Ice keeps them fresh till they get to shore, where Bill sells his catch under the name 1836 Fishing Company, in honor of the Treaty of 1836.

FOWLER: I named it that because the treaty is important to us to reserve our rights.

You see, back in 1836 the tribes gave away a huge chunk of land – one-third of the state of Michigan. In return they kept the right to hunt and fish. But much later, in the 1960s, the state of Michigan started heavily regulating commercial fishermen, including tribes, limiting where and how they fished.

John Bailey was a tribal leader at the time and says the regulations hurt the tribes.

BAILEY: Economically it would destroy us. And it would destroy us as Indian people because it’s something that has been passed down generation to generation.

Inspired by the Civil Rights movement in the south, tribes began using non-violent civil disobedience to protest the regulations. They ignored state fishing restrictions and said to the authorities, come arrest me.

According to John Bailey, a lot of whites didn’t react well.

BAILEY: One of the groups actually took pictures of Indian fisherman and flooded the state with wanted posters: Spear an Indian, Save a Trout. We had guns pulled on us. We had women verbally and physically assaulted.

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Leave To Intervene Granted In Kwicksutaineuk/Ah-Kwa-Mish First Nation v. British Columbia

Peter Scott Vicaire1 Comment

The British Columbia Salmon Farmers Association was granted leave to intervene in an appeal from an order certifying a class action involving the Kwicksutaineuk/Ah-Kwa-Mish First Nation.  Here’s the decision.   Below is an excerpt.

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Sault Tribe Kids at Camp KinaMaage (UM Biological Station)

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is the article.

From left, Sturgeon Bay Singers Gary Gibson, Joe Medicine, and Duane Gross participate in a feast and celebration at Camp KinoMaage. (Photo by Dana Sitzler)
Click here for more photos of the students during their week at Camp KinoMaage.

Oregon approves protective new water quality standards

Ann Tweedy

The standards will become effective once they receive EPA approval. The State’s press release reports that they were developed in collaboration with tribes and others and that they are designed to be protective of those, including tribal members, who consume large amounts of fish. The press release is here.

Karuk Tribe Wins Injunction against USFS Preemptive Forest Burn

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is the order:

DCT Order Enjoining Orleans Project

From the order:

In light of the finding that defendants violated the National Historic Preservation Act, defendants are hereby ENJOINED from conducting further implementation of the Orleans Community Fuels Reduction and Forest Health Project until appropriate remedial measures are established to bring the project into compliance. Defendants shall submit a proposed remedial plan by NOON ON AUGUST 1, 2011. Plaintiffs may file a response to the proposal within TWO WEEKS of its submission. The plan then will be evaluated based on those submissions unless oral argument is found to be necessary, and if the plan is satisfactory the injunction will be lifted. In the meantime, the parties are strongly encouraged to work toward a solution at a June meeting before the July meeting they have planned.

Navajo Nation Moves to Intervene in Environmental Suit to Protect Navajo Mine Interests

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Here are the materials in Center for Biological Diversity v. Pizarchik (D. Colo.):

Amended_Motion_to_Intervene_CBDv.U.S.&BHP

Ex.A_Dismiss

Ex.B_Shelly

Ex.C_Cicchetti

State Bar of Wisconsin Mining Law Symposium, Thursday, August 25, 2011

Andrew Adams III1 Comment

The State Bar of Wisconsin will host a Mining Law Symposium CLE on Thursday, August 25, 2011 which in many ways is in response to the proposed mine to be situated in the Penokee-Gogebic Iron Range in northwest Wisconsin, very near the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Tribe Reservation, by Gogebic Taconite.

Here is information on the CLE:

http://www.wisbar.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=View_calendar1&template=/Conference/ConferenceDescription.cfm&ConferenceID=5382

Here is a Milwaukee Sentinel Journal article discussing Bad River Chairman Mike Wiggins’ concerns with the proposed mine:

http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/119739399.html

Here is recent article describing the mine from Northwoods Wilderness Recovery:

http://www.northwoodswild.org/component/content/article/57-sulfide-and-uranium-mining-news/93-proposed-mining-in-northern-wisconsins-penokee-range

Protect Goshute Water website

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Now available here.

This site has been put up to try to support the Goshutes in their attempts to protect their water supply instead of having it tapped into for the benefit of Las Vegas suburbs.

Yurok Tribe Presents Draft Legislation for the Transfer of National Park Land

Adrea Korthase

An excerpt from the Times-Standard article:

According to the tribe, the draft legislation — which outlines the transfer of 1,204 acres of Redwood National Park land to the Yurok Tribal Park System — is a part of the tribe’s plans to reclaim ancestral territory. The tribe is scheduled to make a presentation on the matter to the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday at 10 a.m.

The draft legislation also asks for an additional 285 acres of public lands and the inclusion of the California Coastal National Monument Redding Rock and would designate a conservation status to the Yurok Experimental Forest — 1,198 acres that are north of the national park land.

In a public meeting in March, tribal leaders spoke about the importance of the lands to the tribe’s culture, traditional hunting and gathering, and ceremonies. Environmentalists in attendance expressed concern over the precedent the legislation could set — transferring already protected land to a sovereign nation — particularly legislation that doesn’t come with a finalized management plan.

Yurok Tribe Policy Analyst Troy Fletcher said last week that the tribe has been working with groups since the meeting to address concerns in order to improve its draft before submitting it for consideration. He said the change in management is not intended to affect public access or the park land’s sustainability.

Arctic Slope Regional Corp. Challenge to USFWS Designation of Critical Habitat for Polar Bears

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is the complaint in Arctic Slope Regional Corp. v. Salazar (D. Alaska):

Arctic Slope Polar Bear Complaint

The summary from the complaint:

1. When polar bears were recently listed as a “threatened” species under the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”), it triggered a statutory duty for the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (the “Service”) to designate critical habitat to the extent prudent and determinable. The Service recognized that no on-the-ground North Slope activities (e.g., subsistence uses, oil and gas exploration activities) posed a threat to the species. Instead, the Service forecast that climate change was likely to cause sea ice to recede in the coming decades and that this would have a negative impact on polar bears.

2. The polar bear critical habitat designation is unprecedented in important ways. First, it is far and away the largest designation in history – covering 187,157 square miles along the North Slope. Second, it is not expected to result in a single additional conservation measure to help polar bears. The Service does not have the tools to address climate change, so instead it mechanically applied the critical habitat designation even though this action provides little to no assistance to polar bears and risks crippling the North Slope villages and Alaska Native communities in its path.

3. Alaska Natives have been the Arctic’s primary conservation stewards for thousands of years, carefully balancing subsistence needs and cultural traditions with a profound respect for polar bears and the other wildlife that share their habitat. As repeatedly recognized by the Service, Alaska Natives and other residents of the North Slope Borough are the key partners for any conservation efforts directed at polar bears. Their voluntary conservation efforts have been vital to getting the polar bear population to its current healthy status.

4. The Service’s designation of 187,157 square miles of critical habitat will disproportionately harm Alaska Natives and other North Slope Borough residents, the people who share habitat with polar bears and whose livelihood depends on those lands. As the Service has acknowledged, the listing of polar bears as a “threatened” species and the resulting critical habitat designation are both driven entirely by impacts associated with climate change. Alaska Natives and Borough residents did not cause and cannot halt the climate change at issue. The imposition of added government regulation pursuant to this critical habitat designation will not address the primary threat to polar bears, the loss of sea ice due to climate change.

5. Alaska Natives living on the North Slope are heavily dependent on their natural resources for survival. In particular, Alaska Native Regional and Village corporations in the area are employers, landowners, lessors of subsurface rights, and business partners with oil and gas companies and others working in the region. As a result of the critical habitat designation, the consultation requirements under Section 7 are expected to impair the ability of Alaska Natives to benefit from their natural resources, leading to a loss of jobs, income, tax revenues, royalties, and dividends for Native shareholders. Even relatively modest economic impacts from a designation could force Alaska Natives to abandon their ancestral villages in search of work.