Attorney for Menominee Tribe Nominated for WI State Bar Position

Here.

ETP Spills Two Million Gallons of Drilling Material in Ohio

Energy Transfer Partners’ Rover Pipeline construction spill mucks up Ohio wetlands

 

HERE.

The Wisconsin Experiment

Donald Trump’s war on the environment was prototyped by far-right politicians in state government. We can learn from Indigenous communities who fought back in the name of science and democracy — and won.

In the opening months of the Trump administration, we have seen concerted attacks on science, environment, and democracy. Climate change denier Scott Pruitt was put in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency, although he could not name a single regulation he favors. Congress revoked rules against dumping mining waste in streams, and the president began rolling back Obama-era climate actions. The draft federal budget includes deep cuts to the EPA, NOAA, and public lands agencies, slashing more than 50 programs, including environmental justice. 1 If dismantling environmental law is the first step toward what White House strategist Steve Bannon calls “the deconstruction of the administrative state,” 2 that’s because it touches everything Trump holds in contempt: empirical evidence, international cooperation, democratic process, the rights of minorities, the future itself.

HERE

Spring 2017 Michigan Indian Legal Services Newsletter

Download(PDF): MILS_Spring_2017_newsletter

Bringing Native History to Mackinac Island

Here.

This has been the result of years of hard work and relationship building. Eric Hemenway has done amazing work on this.

“We want to show in the Biddle House that the tribes were not just these passive participants in history. They were making their own decisions, their own moves.”

And here’s a kid of TurtleTalk lucky enough to get a proper history lesson from Eric on Mackinac Island before the signs went up:

Michigan Court of Appeals Finds Law Adding Wolves to List of Game Species Unconstitutional

The unpublished opinion is here. The Court found that Public Act 281 (which added wolves to the list of game species) violated the Title-Object Clause of the Michigan Constitution.

PA 281 was passed with the provision that kept portions of certain voter referendums even if voters rejected them: “In other words, even if voters rejected PA 520 and PA 21 at the general election, those portions of the rejected laws that were incorporated into PA 281 would nevertheless survive. … At the November 4, 2014 general election, a majority of voters rejected both PA 520 and PA 21. PA 281, which reenacted portions of voter-rejected PA 520 and PA 21, including the addition of wolf to the list of game species, took effect on March 31, 2015.”

Previous coverage here.

 

Spring 2016 Michigan Indian Legal Services Newsletter

Download Spring_2016_MILS_Newsletter (PDF)

ILPC Presentation at the Jackson, MI Community Forum on Land Treaties

MSU ILPC & Indian Law Clinic students presented at the Jackson Community Forum: Impact of Land Treaties.

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As a side note–this event, hosted at the Jackson District Library and open to the public, was very well attended. The questions we received were all thoughtful, curious, and kind. Our students did well and felt welcomed. This event came out of a project volunteers in the city did around the 200 anniversary of 1815 survey of Michigan–which happened because of the Treaty of Detroit. Instead of ending there, the organizers decided they needed to know more about treaties and how they work today. Because the event went so well, the librarians are planning to have more events on other issues involving Native communities in Michigan.

Michigan Public Radio on Anishinaabemowin and the Boarding Schools

Here.

Deleta Gasco Smith works for the Little Traverse Bay Band. She attended Holy Childhood for three years of elementary school.

“When we were in the school we were actually completely forbidden to speak the language, and if we were caught, the punishment was swift and it was severe,” Gasco Smith says.

Gasco Smith’s father was fluent in Anishinaabemowin, but he was careful not to teach his daughter the language. Gasco Smith says her Dad went to the same boarding school and knew she would be beaten for speaking Anishinaabemowin.

 

Ojibwe Gearing Up for Treaty Hunting and Gathering Case

The potential case concerns wild rice gathering and hunting off reservation and will likely include a habitat protection component. The Minnesota Public Radio article is here.