News coverage is here and here.
State Motion to Enforce Prohibition on Shining Deer
State Brief in Support of Motion
LDF Motion for Preliminary and Permanent Injunction
treaty rights
Eighth Circuit Rejects 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty Defense to Federal Drug Prosecution
Here are the materials in United States v. LeBeau:
Klallam Tribes Win Fishing Territory Rights Case against Lummi Nation
Here are the materials in United States v. Washington, subproceeding 11-02 (W.D. Wash.):
Study of Nez Perce Hatchery Cause for Optimism
Here’s a news article on a recently completed study of a Nez Perce hatchery project. The results suggest that hatcheries may help restore natural runs in some cases, particularly when the genetics of the hatchery fish match those of local wild fish.
US Army Corps on Great Lakes Treaty Subsistence Fishing
Last summer, the US Army Corps published a report titled “Treaty Rights and Subsistence Fishing in the U.S. Waters of the Great Lakes, Upper Mississippi River, and Ohio River Basins.” It’s well worth a read, especially for those tribes that did not respond to the Corps’ efforts to contact them. The authors wrote whatever they found online in such cases, and we wonder how accurate those descriptions are.
For example, Menominee Tribe is listed as a non-treaty tribe. For all we know, this may be accurate. But this 1968 Supreme Court case suggests that it is not accurate.
An excerpt from the report:
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), in consultation with other state and federal agencies and Native American tribes, is conducting the Great Lakes and Mississippi River Interbasin Study (GLMRIS) pursuant to the Section 3061(d) of the Water Resources Development Act of 2007. GLMRIS will explore options and technologies, collectively known as aquatic nuisance species (ANS) controls that could be applied to prevent ANS transfer between the Great Lakes, Mississippi River, and Ohio River Basins through aquatic pathways. As defined in the Nonindigenous Aquatic Nuisance Prevention and Control Act of 1990, 16 U.S.C. § 4702(1), ANS are nonindigenous species that threaten the diversity or abundance of native species; or the ecological stability of infested waters; or commercial, agricultural, aquacultural, or recreational activities that depend on such waters. In support of GLMRIS, the USACE GLMRIS Fisheries Economics Team is conducting baseline studies of fisheries in the Great Lakes, Mississippi River, and Ohio River Basins. This study focuses on a unique sector of the fisheries — the subsistence fishery undertaken by Native American tribes under treaty rights.
Montana Water Court Holds Blackfeet Water Rights Extinguished in Diminished Portion of Reservation
Here is the opinion in … oh, we’ll call it Johns v. United States.
An excerpt:
Under the particular and complicated facts of this case, there is no practical benefit to placing issue remarks on Claimants’ water rights stating that lands within their place of use were once within a former Indian reservation. Although the remark is historically accurate, it serves no useful purpose. Waters in Basin 41QJ are not physically available for diversion or use by the Blackfeet Nation, and any aboriginal water rights once in existence there have been terminated. The Blackfeet Tribe sued and recovered compensation for this termination. The Blackfeet have not made a claim to water from Basin 41QJ in their Compact with the State of Montana and the United States. The Tribe has not objected to the water rights in this case. No injury has been demonstrated to the Tribe or its members if these or any water rights in Basin 41QJ are diverted in accord with their actual priority dates. The United States concedes the priority dates of Claimants’ water rights are valid and enforceable against other non-Indian water rights.
NW Indian Fisheries Commission Releases “State of Our Watersheds Report”
Here is the press release. Here is the report.
From the release:
Ongoing damage and destruction of salmon habitat is resulting in the steady decline of salmon populations across western Washington, leading to the failure of salmon recovery and threatening tribal treaty rights, according to a report released today by the treaty Indian tribes.
The tribes created the State of Our Watersheds report to gauge progress toward salmon recovery and guide future habitat restoration and protection efforts. It tracks key indicators of salmon habitat quality and quantity over time from the upper reaches to the marine shorelines of 20 watersheds in western Washington. The report confirms that we are losing salmon habitat faster than it can be restored, and that this trend shows no sign of improvement.
“Indian people have always lived throughout the watersheds of western Washington. We know these places better than anyone else because they are our homes,” said Billy Frank Jr., a Nisqually tribal member and chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission. “This State of Our Watersheds report clearly shows that we must reverse the loss and damage of habitat if the salmon, our cultures and our treaty-reserved rights are going to survive.”
You can browse and download the entire or section of the report here.
The report includes data gathered over decades of tribal, state and federal efforts to provide a view of watersheds across western Washington, as well as recommendations for protecting those watersheds and the salmon they produce.
Key findings include:
- A 75 percent loss of salt marsh habitat in the Stillaguamish River watershed is believed to be a main factor in limiting chinook populations in the river system.
- Since the 1970s, the status of herring stocks in the Port Gamble Klallam Tribe’s area of concern has dropped from healthy to depressed because of degraded nearshore habitat. Herring are an important food source for salmon.
- In the Chehalis River system, the Quinault Indian Nation estimates that culverts slow or block salmon from reaching more than 1,500 miles of habitat.
- Since 1980 the number of permit-exempt wells in the Skagit and Samish watersheds alone has exploded from about 1,080 to 7,232. Property owners not served by a community water system are allowed a water right permit exemption to pump up to 5,000 gallons of groundwater per day. This makes less water available for lakes, streams and wetlands, and can harm salmon at all stages of their life.
The report also documents:
- Increasing armoring of freshwater and marine shorelines by levees, dikes, bulkheads, docks and other structures that harm natural functions and reduce or eliminate salmon habitat.
- Disappearing forest cover in our watersheds – especially along rivers and streams – that is not being replaced. Forest cover helps keep stream temperatures low and reduces bank erosion.
- A huge network of unpaved forest roads, especially those crossing streams, which contribute to sedimentation that can smother and kill incubating salmon eggs.
- Ongoing salmon habitat degradation on agricultural lands because of tree removal, diking and polluted runoff.
Despite massive harvest reductions, strategic use of hatcheries and a huge financial investment in habitat restoration efforts over the past 40 years, the State of Our Watersheds report shows that we are failing to turn the tide on salmon recovery. This fact is borne out by an assessment of the Puget Sound Chinook Recovery Plan developed by the state and tribal salmon co-managers and adopted by the National Marine Fisheries Service.
More on Fletcher Talk at Traverse City History Center: Legends of the Grand Traverse Region
Here:
Legend’s Grand Opening Announcement:
Don’t miss the exciting Grand Opening of “Legends of the Grand Traverse Region: Community out of Diversity.” This celebration is on Saturday, Sept. 22nd from 4:00pm to 6:30pm at the History Center of Traverse City. Attendees will tour the brand new Legends’ Exhibit, listen to the featured speaker, and then socialize at an elegant reception featuring adult beverages and tasty hors d’oeuvres. Admission is free, although good will offerings will be requested and are always appreciated!
The speaker is Matthew L.M. Fletcher, Professor of Law and Director of the Indigenous Law and Policy Center at Michigan State University College of Law, and member of the Grand Traverse Tribe of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. He will be speaking on “The Story of the Grand Traverse Band’s Treaty Rights Fight.”
Professor Fletcher’s talk is designed to complement our fall 2012 Legend’s Exhibit. It highlights three of the “Legends” of the Traverse area: Art Duhamel of the Grand Traverse Band, well known for his stands regarding native fishing rights and federal recognition of the Grand Traverse Band; The Schaub family and their famous relative, Emelia Schaub, who was the first female prosecutor in Michigan; and Augusta Rosenthal-Thompson, who in 1884 arrived in northern Michigan as the first woman physician to practice in this area.
The Legends’ exhibit will be open through October 25th. That Thursday this fall’s Legends’ activities will close with an afternoon workshop and evening presentation by Dr. Elizabeth Faue, Professor of American History and the History of Women at Wayne State University. The afternoon workshop is on genealogy and “Lost Mothers.” The evening talk is entitled: “Barriers and Gateways: Women, Gender, and the Professions in the United States.”
Don’t miss this opening celebration of the Legends of the Grand Traverse Region. These fall 2012 Legends events are only an introduction to continuing Legends activities. Over the next several years we will celebrating more Legends: People and families from diverse backgrounds who came together to build the community we live in today. Our next three Legends will be celebrated starting in March of 2013, with more Legends being announced in Fall of 2013, Spring of 2014, and hopefully far into the future.
The History Center of Traverse City thanks the Michigan Humanities Council for its crucial support of the Legends’ project. We also thank our Legends’ partners: The Grand Traverse Genealogical Society, the Northwest Lower Michigan Women’s History Project, Congregation Beth El, the Hispanic Apostolate of the Diocese of Gaylord, the Traverse City Human Rights Commission, Professor Jim Press of Northwestern Michigan College’s History Department, and Cindy Patek of the Grand Traverse Tribe’s Eyaawing Museum and Cultural Center
IPR on Tribal Treaty Rights and Wolf Hunts
Here.
An excerpt:
An animal that’s a symbol of the wild, and once nearly exterminated, has repopulated the upper Great Lakes region. In fact, the gray wolf exceeded recovery goals, times ten, over the last decade.
And now wolves are doing so well, states that manage them are opening hunting seasons on them. Some say there are just too many to coexist with people.
But a few Indian tribes argue that their treaty rights call for wolves to fill every niche in the landscape.
Wolf Brother
In the upper Great Lakes, Indian tribes still have rights to hunt, fish and gather plants in wide swaths of territory that go back to treaties signed in the mid-1800’s. Usually it’s pretty straightforward for the tribes and the states to agree on how many fish or deer to take.But with wolves, tribal officials say, it’s different. Their creation stories tell how the wolf was sent as a companion for the people. Tribes of the Great Lakes consider the wolf as kin. And the Creator told them the fate of wolves and the people are intertwined, as one goes, so goes the other.
“As we see the wolf returning or gaining strength, just as we Ojibway, Anishinaabe people have, we see that relationship,” says Kurt Perron, chair of the Bay Mills Community in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. “So that’s what concerns us with the hunt. It’s almost like you’re hunting our brothers.”
Now maybe that’s mostly symbolic, but not entirely. Because Perrin thinks if top predators are removed from the ecosystem, the effects will cascade through other species. And eventually humans may be affected.
Turtle Talk 
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