Some good news in this legislative session–the Michigan Indian Family Preservation Act just passed in the House and, having already passed in the Senate, is heading to the Governor’s office for him to sign. Bill status and versions are available here.
Michigan Indian
Michigan v. Bay Mills Cert Stage Briefing Complete
Here are the briefs:
Michigan v Bay Mills Cert Petition w Appendices
A Conference date for this petition hasn’t been set yet.
MSU Law Alum Bryan Newland Joins Fletcher Law, PLLC
FLETCHER LAW, PLLC ANNOUNCES ADDITION OF BRYAN NEWLAND
FletcherLaw, PLLC is proud to announce that Bryan Newland has joined the Firm as a Member. Bryan comes to Fletcher Law, PLLC following three years of service in President Obama’s Administration at the Department of the Interior. At the Department, Bryan served as a Policy Advisor to Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk, Acting Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Del Laverdure, and Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Kevin Washburn.
In his service, Bryan led the Department’s efforts to reform its Indian leasing regulations, and was instrumental in the passage of the HEARTH Act. Bryan also advised the Assistant Secretary on land-into-trust matters, energy policy, and gaming policy – where he helped bring about a transformation in the Federal Government’s policy relating to tribal-state gaming compacts.
Bryan is a citizen of the Bay Mills Indian Community (Ojibwe), and is a 2007 graduate of the Michigan State University College of Law with a certificate from the Indigenous Law and Policy Center. He has extensive legal and policy experience relating to Indian and commercial gaming, Indian land issues, reserved treaty rights, tribal colleges, and energy development. Bryan has also represented clients relating to campaign finance compliance, election law, and other political matters.
FletcherLaw, PLLC is a national Indian-law firm based in Lansing, Michigan, and provides its clients with legal counsel and strategic consulting services. The Firm was founded in 2012 by Zeke Fletcher, a citizen of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School.
To contact Zeke Fletcher at Fletcher Law, PLLC, email zfletcher@fletcherlawpllc.com or call (517) 755-0776. To contact Bryan Newland, email bnewland@fletcherlawpllc.com or call (517) 862-5570.
Federal Court Dismisses without Prejudice Asian Carp Suit against US Army Corps
Here is the order:
An excerpt:
The defendants’ motion therefore presents the question of whether harms arising from actions or omissions that are required by a federal statute can constitute a public nuisance. Though mindful of, and alarmed by, the potentially devastating ecological, environmental, and economic consequences that may result from the establishment of an Asian carp population in the Great Lakes, the Court is nevertheless constrained to answer the question in the negative. In the absence of a constitutional violation (and none is here alleged), it is not the province of the courts to order parties to take action that would directly contravene statutory mandates and prohibitions, and the common law recognizes that actions required by law do not give rise to liability for nuisance. If the plaintiffs want to remove these congressional impediments to hydrologic separation and to replace them with effective barriers between the waterways, they must do so by means of the legislative process, not by alleging that the Corps’ acts and/or omissions, required by federal statutes, violate federal nuisance common law and therefore justify an override of those statutes by the courts. Plaintiffs’ complaint, therefore, is dismissed.
Bay Mills Indian Community Brief in Opposition to Michigan Cert Petition in Vanderbilt Casino Suit
Michigan COA Denies Nottawaseppi Huron Band Motion to Intervene in ICWA Case
Here is the opinion:
Update in Michigan’s Suit against Sault Tribe and Lansing Casino Proposal
The tribe has moved to dismiss and to oppose the State’s request for a preliminary injunction.
Sault Tribe Response to Motion for PI
The complaint is here.
News coverage is here.
The Environment Report: Wolf Classification as Game Animal and Tribal Opposition
Here. The audio version is longer than the print version.
We’ve been doing a lot of thinking in the office about how courts interpret the “public interest” when weighing tribal concerns. This story certainly shows how one state representative chooses to do so.
Allen: Many of the Indian tribes in Michigan are opposed to this legislation right now, and that’s primarily because they feel the wolf has a special status for them. It figures importantly in many of their creation stories. They consider the wolf to be a brother or part of their kin. Here’s what Kurt Perron, the president of the Bay Mills Indian Community, told me about that:
“As we see the wolf returning, or gaining strength, just like we, as Ojibwe Anishinaabe people have, we see that relationship. So that’s what concerns us with the hunt, it’s almost like you’re hunting our brothers.”
Perron also said that by hunting wolves, you really don’t know what’s going to happen in terms of how that affects the pack structure of wolves, since they are pack animals.
Senator Tom Casperson of the western Upper Peninsula, is the primary sponsor of the wolf hunt bill, and he says that he has met a couple of times with the Indian tribes, and heard their concerns, and he recognizes and respects their relationship to the wolf. But he also says that that’s not a value that all of his constituents hold.
“I don’t know how you negotiate that, because that’s a personal belief they have. But at the end of the day, I do think many people don’t hold that same belief, so what do we do. Do we hold fast to it because the tribes say it’s sensitive to them, when many of my citizens don’t hold that same value?”
Update in Sault Tribe Lansing Casino Proposal — Update to the Update
The City transferred the land to the Sault Tribe (here). Nothing all that terribly exciting — a chance to show off before the cameras.
In anticipation of today’s 11AM press conference at the Lansing Center (Casino Project Moves Forward – ADVISORY), casino opponents have issued the following preemptive comments:
Attribute the following statement to James Nye, coalition spokesman, for the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe and Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi:
“For over a decade, the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe has unsuccessfully pursued off-reservation casinos hundreds of miles from its reservation. These efforts have been rejected by the U.S. Congress, the State of Michigan, and the U.S. Department of Interior.
“People should not be fooled; this latest effort to build a casino in Lansing is just another loser. The Sault Tribe has argued that under the Michigan Indian Land Claims Settlement Act it can build a casino anywhere in the United States. That conflicts with federal law, and it violates the Tribe’s state gaming compact.
“We will continue to aggressively fight this ill-conceived casino at the federal and state level, and in the courts. We are very confident that this effort will fail just like the Tribe’s past efforts.”
Talk at Michigan Law School Tomorrow @ Noon — Skull Wars: Returning Native American Remains
The Cultural Heritage Law Society is sponsoring this lecture in conjunction with U of M Law’s Native American Law Student Association.The panel will be held in Room 218 of Hutchins Hall at the University of Michigan Law School on Tuesday, October 30th. It will be a lunch lecture, so it will begin at 12:00 and end at 1:15 with lunch provided. It will be open to all of the University community.
Speakers include Matthew Fletcher, Eric Hemenway, Laura Ramos, and Karen O’Brien.
Turtle Talk 
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