Michigan Indian – Page 136

Greektown Hearings to Begin

November 4, 2009Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From the Freep:

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Walter Shapero has scheduled four days of hearing time during which the plan’s proponents and objectors are to call more than 20 witnesses and present 539 exhibits to prove their cases, according to a procedural order filed with the court.

At dispute is how Greektown Casino, the smallest by revenue of Detroit’s three casinos, was valued. The higher the value, the more creditors have to share. As it stands now, the pre-petition lenders, led by Merrill Lynch Capital Corp., put the value at $540 million and would own the casino after it emerges from bankruptcy.

Negotiations were ongoing over the weekend to deal with a potential wrinkle after the attorney for one creditor said he might offer a competing plan for reorganization. This plan would ensure bondholders, owed about $185 million, would get something out of the process.

“All of the parties continue to negotiate,” said Chuck Moore, a turnaround expert for the casino’s estate. “At this point, there is no plan other than to move forward with the confirmation hearings.”

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Senate Hearing on Federal Recognition Witness List

November 3, 2009Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From the SCIA:

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, announced Tuesday the panel will hold a congressional oversight hearing at 2:15 PM on Wednesday, November 4. The hearing will examine Department of Interior efforts to repair the federal acknowledgement process for Indian tribes. It will also review proposals for improving the system.

Securing formal, federal tribal recognition is vital. It establishes a formal government-to-government relationship between the tribe and the U.S. government. Once federally recognized, a tribe has access to federal benefits and programs.

Yet, the acknowledgement process is broken and has been since it was established in 1978. Tribes routinely wait decades without getting a decision. Some tribes, including one tribe which will present testimony at the hearing, have been stuck in the federal acknowledgment process since 1978 with no decision. The prolonged process cost tribes funds urgently needed elsewhere, and denies tribes that are eventually recognized access to benefits and programs, often for decades.

Details follow:

WHO: U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, Senator Byron Dorgan, Chairman; Senator John Barrasso (R-WY), Vice Chairman, and other members of the committee.

WITNESSES: George Skibine, Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, U.S. Department of Interior; Frank Ettawageshik, Chair, Federal Acknowledgement Task Force, National Congress of American Indians; John Sinclair, President, Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Havre, Montana; Ann D. Tucker, Tribal Chairperson, Muscogee Nation of Florida, Bruce, Florida; and Patty Ferguson-Bohnee, Director, Indian Legal Clinic, Tempe, Arizona.

WHAT: Congressional oversight hearing

WHEN: 2:15 PM, Wednesday, November 4, 2009

WHERE: 628 Dirksen Senate Office Building, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C.

WHY: To review Department of Interior efforts to repair the federal acknowledgement process for granting formal recognition to Indian tribes.

House Hearing on Carcieri Fix Witness List

November 3, 2009November 3, 2009Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From the House Resources Committee:

The House Natural Resources Committee, led by Chairman Nick J. Rahall (D-WV), will hold a legislative hearing on the following bills:

H.R. 3742 (Kildee): To amend the Act of June 18, 1934, to reaffirm the authority of the Secretary of the Interior to take land into trust for Indian tribes.
H.R. 3697 (Cole): To amend the Act of June 18, 1934, to reaffirm the authority of the Secretary of the Interior to take land into trust for Indian tribes.

Subject:
House Natural Resources Committee
Full Committee Legislative Hearing on H.R. 3742 and H.R. 3697

When:
Wednesday, November 4, 2009, at 10:00 a.m.

Where:
Room 1324 Longworth House Office Building

Witnesses:

Panel 1

The Honorable Michael Arcuri
U.S. House of Representatives, 24^th District (D – NY)

Panel 2

Mr. Donald Laverdure
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs
U.S. Department of the Interior
Washington, D.C.
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NALSA Panel Event: Tribal Judges

November 2, 2009November 3, 2009Kate Fort1 Comment

MSU NALSA is hosting a panel of tribal judges on Wednesday, November 11 at 4:30 pm in the Castle Board Room. Hon. Michael Petsokey, Hon. Holly Thompson and Hon. Matthew Fletcher will be talking.

Food and drink will be served.

NALSA Tribal Judges Event

LTBB to Assist in Bay Harbor Cleanup

October 30, 2009Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From the T.C. Record-Eagle:

PETOSKEY — A local tribe could become involved in plans to treat large-scale pollution at Bay Harbor Resort on Lake Michigan’s Little Traverse Bay.

CMS Energy is responsible for treating contaminated groundwater at Bay Harbor Resort and may turn to the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians for help.

CMS currently trucks wastewater to Grand Traverse County’s septage treatment plant in Traverse City, but wants to treat the pollution closer to the contamination site in Emmet County.

Tribal officials aren’t specifying what role they could play.

“This is our bay as well as it is the community’s. I want to be proactive about this. I see possibilities and responsibility,” said Ken Harrington, tribal chairman.

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Hannahville Proposes Casino in Romulus

October 27, 2009Matthew L.M. Fletcher2 Comments

From the Freep:

A group of American Indians from the Upper Peninsula again is proposing to build a casino development in Romulus that will include a 200-room hotel and retail space.

The Hannahville Indian Community has resubmitted its application to the U.S. Department of the Interior, Ken Meshigaud, chairman of the Hannahville community, said Monday at the Romulus City Council meeting.

Meshigaud told the council that he’s “more confident than ever” that the $300 million project will go through.

The previous administration in Washington, D.C., was against off-reservation gaming and last year dismissed 27 applications, including Hannahville’s, according to its attorney, Raj Wiener.

The 800-member community runs the Chip-In Island Resort and Casino in Menominee County in the Upper Peninsula.

Hannahville is asking the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs to place a portion of a 27-acre site at Vining and Wick into trust — allowing tribal members to own the land and use it for gaming, as a sort of extension of their 5,500-acre reservation near Escanaba.

Past opponents of off-reservation gaming, who have included Gov. Jennifer Granholm, have expressed concern that such developments are far from the people who are supposed to be benefiting from them. Granholm’s spokeswoman, Liz Boyd, did not have an immediate comment Monday night.

According to Meshigaud, the proposed Romulus casino would draw as many as 6 million visitors annually, including many from nearby Detroit Metro Airport, and generate hundreds of millions of dollars a year for the Hannahville community.

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Detroit City Council Rejects Greektown Bankruptcy Deal

October 21, 2009Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From FREEP:

The Detroit City Council voted 6-2 Tuesday to reject a $15.3-million settlement for the city that would have transferred ownership of Greektown Casino to a new company after the casino emerges from bankruptcy.

The vote came after a group of local investors, including former Highland Park Emergency Financial Manager Arthur Blackwell, made its case to the council that the investors deserve some form of payment in the bankruptcy.

“I’ve never heard of a deal where the casino has never lost a dime” being in bankruptcy, said Blackwell, an investor who sold most of his stake in Greektown to casino mogul Don Barden, but retains $5 million in Greektown options. “By voting ‘No’ … we’ve got hope for something.”

But Mayor Dave Bing said he will ask the council to reconsider its vote.

In a statement, Bing decried the vote as “an attempt to force the Greektown bankruptcy court to make payments to a small group of casino investors” that violates U.S. bankruptcy rules.

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News Coverage of Pokagon Band Casino Revenues

October 21, 2009Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From Indianz:

The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians continues to report strong slot machine revenues at its casino in Michigan. The Four Winds Casino took in $311 million on slots from August 2008 to August 2009, according to the Michigan Gaming Control Board. That’s slightly more than the $309 million reported in the casino’s first year of operation, from August 2007-August 2008.

“It’s still a new property. People still are coming to test it out,” spokesperson Tom Shields told The South Bend Tribune. The tribe shares 6 percent of slot revenues with the state and 2 percent with local communities.

Get the Story:
Four Winds rakes in $1 million per day in 2nd year (The South Bend Tribune 10/21)

Univ. of Michigan Finally to Review Repatriation Policy

October 17, 2009Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

From CBS via Pechanga:

Facing criticism for still holding the remains of about 1,400 Native Americans in its archaeological collection, the University of Michigan will be reviewing its policies on how to properly deal with Indian bones and artifacts.

A committee charged with looking at the legal, ethical and scientific concerns involved will meet for the first time next week and “will hear all sides of the story,” said Stephen Forrest, vice president for research at the Ann Arbor school.

“We want to have a very balanced approach,” he said Friday. “We are actively seeking to understand all the aspects of the problem.”

At issue is the conflicting interests of researchers and museums in studying and teaching about earlier human cultures and that of native peoples to have their religions and ancestral remains respected.

Under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act passed by Congress in 1990, federally supported institutions must catalog the remains and burial items they hold and return them, when requested, to groups that have a “cultural affiliation” to them. Continue reading →