News

GTB & Derek Bailey Look Back on 2010

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

News article (and video) here, via Pechanga:

TRAVERSE CITY, MI — Tribal Chairman Derek Bailey looks back at 2010 with appreciation.

For him, it’s a year that broke down barriers and allowed him to pursue his goals as a tribal leader.

“When I campaigned to the tribal members I said that one of the commitments I bring forth, if elected chair, would be to increase our presence locally, state wide and nationally. Now I’m not taking away from what past tribal leaders have accomplished, but I wanted to build upon that,” Bailey said.

In the spring, the Grand Traverse Band received national recognition when President Obama announced he would be appointing Bailey to the National Advisory Council on Indian education.

“I know with my appointment to the National Advisory Council of Indian education, early education is a huge emphasis for me…significant brain development occurs between 0-5 years old. The least amount of funding goes in at that time.”

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Madison County v. Oneida Indian Nation Oral Argument Set for Feb. 23

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is the SCT docket sheet.

And a news article on the issue, via Pechanga.

Muscogee Judicial System “in Limbo”

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is the article.

An excerpt:

The judicial system of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation is in limbo.

At its Nov. 20 regular meeting, the tribe’s National Council overrode a veto by Principal Chief A.D. Ellis and approved a bill that abolished the tribe’s district court and replaced it with three courts.

Each of the new courts focuses solely on one legal area, with one for criminal cases, one for civil cases and one for family cases. The tribe’s Supreme Court was not affected by the legislation.

National Council Speaker Roger Barnett said, “We had some concerns about people getting proper assistance in specific areas, so specific courts were established for those areas.”

Ellis had vetoed the bill Nov. 10, claiming that it violated the separation of powers clause in the tribe’s constitution. The council voted 20-5 to override the veto.

So far, no judges have been seated to oversee the new courts. Barnett said the Chief’s Office has 60 days from the legislation’s passage to make nominations or the council will do it.

In response to the legislation, Ellis sued the National Council in the tribe’s district court.

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Federal Court Approves Cobell Settlement; Fairness Hearing in June 2011

Matthew L.M. Fletcher2 Comments

From BLT:

A federal judge in Washington this afternoon preliminarily approved a landmark $3.4 billion settlement in a longstanding class action litigation over the mismanagement of trust fund assets for hundreds of thousands of Native Americans.

Lawyers for lead plaintiff Elouise Cobell and a team of Justice and Interior Department attorneys urged Senior Judge Thomas Hogan to approve the deal. Hogan’s order kicks off a comprehensive notice plan to inform potentially 600,000 beneficiaries of the deal between the plaintiffs and the government.

Hogan and the opposing lawyers today in court recounted what they described as arms-length negotiations that produced a settlement in December 2009 to compensate individual Indians with trust assets held by the federal government. Cobell’s suit, filed in 1996 in Washington’s federal trial court, alleged decades of mismanagement of trust fund assets stemming from the use of land for oil, minerals, gas, timber and other resources.

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Rep. Herseth Sandlin Named to Indian Law and Order Commission

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Article here.

Thanks to T.E.

Michigan Indians in the Civil War, Petersburg National Battlefield

Kate Fort1 Comment

From the National Parks Traveler–Eric Hemenway is quoted extensively on the next page.

H/T Indianz
American Indians in the Civil War? Petersburg National Battlefield is Part of the Story

Submitted by Jim Burnett on December 17, 2010 – 12:34am

The 150th Anniversary of the Civil War is nearly here and a recent event at Petersburg National Battlefield underscored a bit of history that often escapes much notice—the role of American Indians in the conflict.

Estimates of the number of American Indians who fought for either the Union or the Confederacy vary widely; several sources cite numbers ranging from about 6,000 to over 20,000 men. One example occurred at Petersburg, Virginia, and that story has recently received some renewed attention.

Earlier this month, descendents of Company K of the First Michigan Sharpshooters returned to the park to meet with Superintendent Lewis Rogers and his staff and pay homage to their ancestors. Company K consisted entirely of American Indians from Michigan who enlisted in the Union Army.

According to information from the park, “The 1st Michigan Sharpshooters fought valiantly in every major battle in the Petersburg campaign. The American Indians were a memorable presence at the Battle of the Crater, where they were noticed for their composure under adversity. A Union officer described watching a group of them pull their jackets over their faces and sing their death chant when trapped in the crater under Confederate fire. When Petersburg fell in April, 1865, after a nine and half month siege, the First Michigan raised the first United States flag above the city.”

It’s not hard to see how specific details about individual units get lost in the history of the Civil War, and even just at Petersburg. A park publication notes that 800 regiments of nearly 160,000 soldiers served on both sides at Petersburg. That’s a lot of history waiting to be told.

The story of the men of Company K attracted the attention of the park staff as a result of a project at Poplar Grove National Cemetery, which is maintained by Petersburg National Battlefield. The cemetery is the final resting place of over 6,000 Union Civil War soldiers, and the tombstones lie flat on the ground. The park is in the planning stages of a project to replace the stones with new, upright markers that match the original Civil War design, along with other work to rehabilitate the cultural landscape. Studies for the project revealed that some of the men of Company K were buried at Poplar Grove.

“So far, five named Indian graves have been identified, but there are probably more unnamed individuals that have not yet been identified as Indians buried here,” explained Julia Steele, the battlefield’s cultural resources manager. “Of all the amazing stories that occurred here during the war, this is one of the most striking. When we started to research the role of Company K, we were touched by how deeply they were involved in the whole campaign.”

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White Earth Band Awarded Millions in Tribal Court Dispute with Former Chair and Gaming Management Co.

Matthew L.M. Fletcher4 Comments

From the Bemidji Pioneer:

An $18,562,767.45 money judgment was recently awarded to the White Earth Band of Chippewa against Angelo Medure and Gaming World International, Ltd. (GWI).

The award culminates a 14-year struggle of the people of White Earth to recover illegal profit distributions made to Medure and Gaming World International. The legal action began in White Earth Tribal Court and then removed by GWI and Medure to Federal Court and then remanded back to Tribal Court by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Medure was found to have conspired with former White Earth Chairman Darrell “Chip” Wadena to deprive the people of White Earth the benefits of the White Earth Land Settlement Act (WELSA). Although agreement provisions between GWI and Wadena required that Medure provide management services for the construction, development and operation of the Shooting Star Casino, GWI had no employees at the Shooting Star Casino at any time. In spite of having no employees at Shooting Star Casino, GWI and Medure were paid $10,153,772.61 in profit distributions. The management agreement required GWI to pay back the White Earth Land Settlement Act (WELSA) funds before any profit distributions were made to GWI.

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ICT Article on Hopi Constitutional Reform and Village Sovereignty

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From ICT (via Pechanga):

Voting on a proposed revision to the Hopi Constitution could violate village sovereignty and the results might create an ill-conceived fourth branch of government, according to a former Hopi Tribal Court chief judge.

“The Hopi Constitution was a historical agreement between the villages and Hopi central government,” Gary LaRance said.

In Hopi there are two separate governments – the central government, termed “the Hopi Tribe,” and the Hopi villages with their own inherent sovereignty. Each village is to determine for itself its own organization, he said.

About 75 years ago, at the time of the Indian Reorganization Act, Hopi and Tewa villages in northeastern Arizona decided that they wanted the Hopi central government to be their voice to the outside world but that they wanted to remain apart from it internally, he said.

LaRance is among those calling for a halt to a vote requested by the tribal council and scheduled by the BIA for Jan. 27, 2011. A delay is sought to provide more time to consider what amendments should be made to the IRA-era constitution that over the years has posed problems in the villages’ relationship to the central government.

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NYTs: Debate over Little Big Horn Battlefield on Crow Land

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

An excerpt from yesterday’s NYTs article (full article here):

Nearly 30 years ago, a group called the Custer Battlefield Preservation Committee began buying up land around the monument — some 3,300 acres in all — in an effort to stave off development. The group has since tried to donate the land, which it bought for $14 million that was raised through donations, to the Park Service.

But the service has said that unless Congress or the president changes the battlefield’s boundaries, it does not have the legal authority to accept the land.

Moreover, any land deal would need approval from the Crow tribe, which has considerable political influence in Montana and has resisted such a large land transfer.

The tribe cites a 1920 federal law, known as the Crow Act, which it says limits nontribal members to ownership of about 2,000 acres on the reservation, which is almost 2.3 million acres.

“We are trying to explain the advantages of adding on to the historical site right in the middle of their country, which would bring tourists — who need to eat, sleep and buy souvenirs — and produce jobs for Crow people,” said Harold G. Stanton, president of the Custer committee.

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NYTs: Quoting Haudenosaunee Leaders on Obama’s Promises to Indian Country

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is the article. An excerpt:

Robert Porter, the president of the Seneca nation in Western New York, said in an interview with the Caucus that Mr. Obama had failed to purse a legislative agenda that would help empower the American Indian nations and improve the economic situation for residents.

“The administration is very easily co-opting us with lofty promises of supporting the nation-to-nation relationship but then not following through,” Mr. Porter said. “We need to have support for meaningful tribal economic empowerment.”

Mr. Porter’s tribe has clashed with the administration over legislation passed last year that banned the direct sales of cigarettes through the mail. The Seneca nation had been an aggressive seller of cigarettes by mail and denounced the legislation as a means of crippling economic activity on American Indian reservations.

A news release in March from the Seneca nation accused Mr. Obama of “deliberately betraying” American Indians by signing the legislation into law.

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