The Gun Lake Band has filed an application to Chief Justice Roberts to vacate the stay issued by the D.C. Circuit preventing the Secretary from taking its Shelbyville, Michigan parcel into trust for gaming purposes. Here is the docket sheet so far.
Michigan Indian
News Coverage re: Pokagon Revenue Sharing Dispute
From the South Bend Tribune:
NEW BUFFALO — For the state of Michigan and local municipalities, the tribal Four Winds Casino Resort that opened a year ago in New Buffalo Township has a lot in common with the 1996 Tom Cruise movie “Jerry Maguire.”
Like the movie’s tag line, they’d like the casino to “show me the money.”
Certainly, the casino has been successful, earning an average of $24.4 million a month over its first eight months just on slot-machine revenue. But the state’s 8 percent share of those revenues and the local communities’ 2 percent share that were specified in the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians’ 1998 gaming compact have yet to be paid.And the payments, placed in interest-bearing escrow accounts, are sizable, amounting to $15.6 million for the state and $3.9 million for Berrien County, New Buffalo Township and the city of New Buffalo.
Essentially, the Dowagiac-based tribe’s stance, like that of other Michigan tribes with casinos, is that the Michigan Lottery’s Club Keno game introduced in 2003 violated their compacts’ exclusivity agreements. Two of the tribes sued the state, and although the Pokagons weren’t involved, they chose to withhold payment until the issue was resolved.
Sault Tribe Wins Gaming Case Against DOI
Here is the opinion: opinion
The interesting portion of this opinion is the court’s awareness that there is a circuit split over the question of whether Chevron deference will trump canons of statutory construction that favor Indian tribes. The Sixth Circuit has not yet decided this question. Here, the court chose to apply the Chevron test, but concluded that the government’s decision was arbitrary and capricious. So the question remained open.
Carcieri v. Kempthorne: Amicus Briefs Supporting the Respondent
They’re here, courtesy of the Supreme Court Project:
In support of Respondents:
Amicus Brief of Narragansett Indian Tribe
Saginaw Chippewa Hosting Meeting on Coal Plants in Michigan — Sept. 4
Here is the agenda:
10:00-11:00 Registration and Vendor booths on Green building resources
11:00-12:00 Saginaw Chippewa Housing- Guest Speaker, to be announced
12:00-1:00 Lunch (must RSVP below) provided by the Saginaw Chippewa Housing Department
1:00-1:15 Introduction:
1:15-2:15 Peter Sinclair-An Inconvenient Truth
2:15-2:45 Lee Sprague-Michigan Sierra Club, “Coal Rush”
2:45-3:00 Break
3:00-4:00 Steve Smiley-Heron Wind Manufacturing, Renewable Energy as a Tribal Economic Development Strategy.
4:00-5:30 Question and Answer Session
William Brooks, Attorney, and open session to discuss legal and regulatory issues involved with the proposed Coal Fired Plants in Mid-Michigan.
6:00 pm Dinner provided (must RSVP below) Sponsored by Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Council
You can download the registration form here.
BIA Repairs Roads in Wayland Township
from the Kalamazoo Gazette:
WAYLAND TOWNSHIP — Motorists who are enjoying smooth rides on a section of Sixth Street in Wayland Township can thank the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, which helped fund the repaving of the road.
Monte Davis, an environmental specialist for the Gun Lake Band of Potawatomi Indians, said Sixth Street between 126th and 129th avenues was repaved between July 23 and 25. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held there July 28.
Of the project’s $308,000 cost, the township is paying $108,000 and the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Indian Reservation Roads Program is paying $200,000.
Davis said the Gun Lake Band joined the program in 2006. He said he learned in June 2007 that the funding for the Sixth Street project was coming.
“We’re very happy for the tribe, the township and the county. The road was one of the worst roads in Allegan County,” Davis said.
The Allegan County Road Commission’s managing director, William Nelson, said the funding from the Bureau of Indian Affairs is the first contribution for roads that the county will receive from the agency.
Neocolonial Inscription and Performance of American Identity in American Indian Higher Education — Conference Announcement
The conference website is here and registration starts soon!
Here is the law panel, hosted by the MSU Indigenous Law and Policy Center:
Law: Who’s Legal and Why Should or Shouldn’t That Matter?
Panelists: Andrew Adams III, General Counsel, St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin; Trent Cable, Makah Nation; Colette Routel, Atty Jacobson, Buffalo, Magnuson, Anderson & Hogen in St. Paul, Minnesota.
John Petoskey, Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, and Kate Fort, MSU Indigenous Law and Policy Center, will be sitting on panels as well.
The rest of the panels are listed here.
ICT Article on Indian Language Textbooks
From ICT:
SANTA FE, N.M. – Long-talked-about efforts to infuse Native culture and language learning in the public education system have resulted in action in New Mexico.
A textbook co-authored by Evangeline Parsons Yazzie, a Navajo professor at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, has been selected by the state’s education department as a high-quality resource that will soon be made available to all school districts in the state.
State officials believe that New Mexico is the first state to adopt a Navajo textbook for use in the American public education system.
So far, officials from 10 districts have already signed on to have teachers in their systems use the book and its companion teaching guide. BIA schools are also eligible to review the text and decide whether to use it starting in the 2009-10 school year.
”It’s just wonderful that an Indian language is being honored in this way,” Yazzie said. ”It’s so important that American Indians learn about their people, their language and their culture from their own people, rather than just reading about it in a textbook that’s written by a non-Indian.”
Yazzie’s book, ”Dine’ Bizaad Binahoo’ahh,” or ”Rediscovering the Navajo Language,” is filled with cultural and language lesson plans that are suitable for all ages of students, according to the author. It is illustrated with many historical and contemporary pictures of people who have lived on the Navajo reservation. It’s also accompanied by a CD with the voices of Yazzie and her brother, Berlyn Yazzie, a former educator on the Navajo Nation.
Nottawaseppi Huron Band Casino Progress
From Indianz:
The Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi Indians is banking on a casino to create new opportunities for the Michigan tribe.
Nearly half of the adult members of the tribe are unemployed. But some are now finding work on the Pine Creek Reservation with the construction of the FireKeepers Casino. “I thank the Creator for the jobs,” Bill Osborn, who was out of work until construction started in May, told The Battle Creek Enquirer. “I think the opportunities in the future are going to be immense.” The $300 million, 236,000 square-foot casino is set to open in the summer of 2009. With $100 million in annual revenue, the tribe plans to improve governmental programs and services for its 850 members. The tribe has already built housing to lure more people back to the reservation. Only about 35 people live there right now. In related news, the tribe is offering a $250 reward for information about the theft of copper wiring from from the casino construction site.
Get the Story:
Tribe: Profits will provide programs for members (The Battle Creek Enquirer 8/17)
Casino will bring change (The Battle Creek Enquirer 8/17)
Neighbors differ on FireKeepers (The Battle Creek Enquirer 8/17)
Tribe reports copper theft at casino (The Battle Creek Enquirer 8/16)
MichGO v. Kempthorne — Stay Issued
From the AP:
WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court has issued a stay preventing a proposed tribal casino in Allegan County from moving forward.
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals issued the order Friday pending a potential review from the U.S. Supreme Court. Opponents of the casino have asked the Supreme Court to hear the case.
The Gun Lake tribe wants to build a $200 million casino in Allegan County’s Wayland Township. A group called Michigan Gambling Opposition has spent years trying to stop the casino from being built.
The appeals court sided with the tribe earlier this year, upholding a decision by the federal government to set aside 147 acres of land where the casino would be built near Grand Rapids.
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