New Book on Great Lakes Indians’ Resistance in the Early Reservation Years

Edmund Danzinger has published “Great Lakes Indian Accommodation and Resistance during the Early Reservation Years, 1850-1900” with University of Michigan Press. Here is the website.

And the description:

During the four decades following the War of 1812, Great Lakes Indians were forced to surrender most of their ancestral homelands and begin refashioning their lives on reservations. The challenges Indians faced during this period could not have been greater. By century’s end, settlers, frontier developers, and federal bureaucrats possessed not only economic and political power but also the bulk of the region’s resources. It is little wonder that policymakers in Washington and Ottawa alike anticipated the disappearance of distinctive Indian communities within a single generation. However, these predictions have proved false as Great Lakes Indian communities, though assaulted on both sides of the international border to this day, have survived. Danziger’s lively and insightful book documents the story of these Great Lakes Indians—a study not of victimization but of how Aboriginal communities and their leaders have determined their own destinies and preserved core values, lands, and identities against all odds and despite ongoing marginalization.

Utilizing eyewitness accounts from the 1800s and an innovative, cross-national approach, Danziger explores not only how Native Americans adapted to their new circumstances—including attempts at horse and plow agriculture, the impact of reservation allotment, and the response to Christian evangelists—but also the ways in which the astute and resourceful Great Lakes chiefs, councils, and clan mothers fought to protect their homeland and preserve the identity of their people. Through their efforts, dreams of economic self-sufficiency and self-determination as well as the historic right to unimpeded border crossings—from one end of the Great Lakes basin to the other—were kept alive.

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Larry Leventhal on Treaty Rights

From News from Indian Country:

Back in 1974, Attorney Larry Levanthal, teaching at St. Scholastica College in Duluth, instructed two Lac Courte Oreilles tribal members Fred and Mike Tribble about unresolved treaty rights claims in the ceded territories of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.

It was illegal for tribal members to spear fish or hunt deer off the reservation except within narrow State statutes. Tribal members were being cited into state courts for trying to feed their families.

After the class, the Tribble brothers dragged their spear fishing shack off the reservation onto State waters, started fishing, and were arrested by Wisconsin game wardens.

The Tribbles’ showed the wardens the 1837 Treaty between the Chippewa and the United States which guaranteed the tribes’  right to hunt, fish, and gather in the ceded territory. But the wardens were unmoved.  A Sawyer County judge upheld the arrest.

On appeal Federal judge Doyle sided with the State. But the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed in 1984  and eventually treaty rights were upheld by the US Supreme Court in 1999 in  Mille Lacs v. Minnesota.

Larry Levanthal discusses the importance of treaty rights for tribal sovereignty and how treaty rights might be used to challenge coal fired, electricity plants and other polluting industries.

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GTB Chairman Meets with Pres. Obama During Last Week’s Michigan Visit

Here are the details — Tribal Chairman Email Blast Wk ending 071709

Sault Tribe May Give Up Majority of Control in Greektown to Merrill Lynch

From Indianz:

The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians could give up ownership of its commercial casino in Michigan under bankruptcy plan before a federal judge.

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Pokagon Band Election Results

From Indianz:

The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians of Michigan has a new chairman and vice chairman.

Matt Wesaw replaces John Miller as chairman. Wesaw most recently served as vice chairman and served as chairman in the 1990s.

Butch Starrett was elected vice chairman. He replaces Wesaw in the post.

The tribe held its election last Saturday, July 11.

Get the Story:

Pokagon Band elects Matt Wesaw (The Dowagiac News 7/17)

Lee Opinion from the Michigan Supreme Court

The Michigan Supreme Court upheld the lower court terminating the parental rights of Cheryl Lee, stating that there had been sufficient active efforts.  However, the Court did explicitly state that the AFSA does not supersede or relieve the State from providing active efforts.

Unfortunately, the Court also held that:

In this case, however, the fundamental disagreement is not about the nature
of the required services, but about the timing of those services. Indeed, respondent acknowledges that the DHS and the tribe provided active efforts in the past, but argues that 25 USC 1912(d) requires current active efforts, which the DHS failed to provide because it did not offer services in connection with the termination of her parental rights to JL. We decline to read the word “current” into 25 USC 1912(d). This statutory language does not impose a strict temporal component for the “active efforts” requirement.

and:

Similarly, we decline to hold that active efforts must always have been provided in relation to the child who is the subject of the current termination proceeding. Again, the question is whether the efforts made and the services provided in connection with the parent’s other children are relevant to the parent’s current situation and abilities so that they permit a current assessment of parental fitness as it pertains to the child who is the subject of the current proceeding. The evidence must satisfy the court “beyond a reasonable doubt” that the parent’s continued custody of that child “is likely to result in serious emotional or physical damage to the child,” as required by 25 USC 1912(f).

Lee Opinion

Our previous coverage is here and here.

Huron Nottawaseppi Awaits Public Safety Cooperation Agreement with Emmett Township

From the Battle Creek Enquirer:

Officials at Pine Creek Reservation, the Emmett Township Department of Public Safety and FireKeepers Casino are scrambling to get public safety agreements in place before the casino’s early August opening.

That’s because the agreements “have hit a last-minute snag,” township Supervisor Gene Adkins said at the board’s meeting Thursday.

The township board on Thursday postponed approval for the second time on a cross-deputization agreement between their public safety department and the Huron Potawatomi Police Department. In June, trustees wanted the township attorneys to review the language before voting on it.

The contract would deputize tribal police to act with authority on township property. Without the agreement, tribal police couldn’t leave the casino grounds, which are sovereign Indian land, in pursuit of criminals.

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Update on Challenge to Michigan Gaming Control and Revenue Act

Northville Downs’ opening brief before the Sixth Circuit in its challenge to the constitutionality of the Michigan’s Proposal E, barring additional, non-Indian gaming facilities in Michigan absent a state-wide referendum is here — Northville Downs Appellant Brief

In late February, the Eastern District of Michigan (Cohn, J.) rejected a constitutional challenge to Michigan Const. art. IV, section 41, otherwise known as Proposal E, and the Michigan Gaming Control and Revenue Act. Here are the pleadings in Northville Downs v. Granholm.

northville-downs-complaint

state-motion-to-dismiss

mgm-motion-to-dismiss

northville-response-to-motion-to-dismiss [response begins around page 27, the rest is an amended complaint]

state-reply-brief

mgm-reply-brief

northville-downs-dct-opinion

SCIA to Hold Hearing on Burt Lake Band Reaffirmation Bill

From Indianz:

The House Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing on July 15 to consider federal recognition bills.

The agenda includes:

H.R.2678 – Duwamish Tribal Recognition Act
H.R.1358 – Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians Reaffirmation Act
H.R.2576 – Chinook Nation Restoration Act
H.R.3120 – Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians Restoration Act

Since the start of the 111th Congress, the committee has considered bills to recognize the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina and six Virginia tribes. Both bills were passed by the full House.

The committee also held a hearing on a bill to extend the policy of self-determination to Native Hawaiians.

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In Honor of Frank Ettawageshik

Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians chairman Frank Ettawageshik recently lost his bid for re-election as chairman. We wish to honor Frank’s service not only to the Little Traverse Odawak but also to all of the tribes of Michigan.

Michigan Daily
Michigan Daily

Frank has been an enlightened and thoughtful ambassador for the Michigan Anishinaabek, serving as a leader on numerous tough issues such as the Great Lakes Compact, for which he won the 2007 Great Lakes Guardian of the Year award from Clean Water Action Michigan. He has testified before Congress on this issue (more testimony and still more).

He has appeared on CNN to talk about Congressional apologies to American Indians.

And at home, Frank’s administration renegotiated LTBB’s gaming compact and developed and built the Odawa Casino. He has worked on intergovernmental relations and economic development with the State of Michigan.

Frank is an amazing speaker and storyteller, as well as a leader, and he is to be honored.

Miigwetch, Frank.