MSU NAISO will host a talk on Michigan Anishinaabek treaty rights tonight at 7 PM. The talk will be held at the MSU College of Law in Room 325.
treaty rights
News Coverage of Saginaw Chippewa Settlement
Isabella County Board of Commissioners Approves Saginaw Chippewa Reservation Boundaries Settlement
From the Mt. Pleasant Morning Sun (an excerpt):
Isabella County commissioners on Tuesday agreed to a settlement in the lawsuit filed by the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe.
Following in the footsteps of the federal government, the state, the Tribal Council and the city of Mt. Pleasant, commissioners agreed to the the settlement in a 6-1 vote, with Commissioner John Haupt dissenting.
Citing the Tribe’s planned water park on east Pickard Road, Haupt said he is concerned that the county will have to foot the bill for the infrastructure for the project,
which he said will also contain restaurants that could put existing eateries out of business.
Essentially identical to the settlement approved by the Mt. Pleasant City Commission on Monday, the agreement provides for cross-deputization of city and state police officers, and Isabella County Sheriff’s officers.
Tribal Police officers have historically been deputized but state, county and city officers have not been cross-deputized to enforce Tribal and federal law.
The agreement calls for thos officers to begin enforcing those laws and gives the Tribe jurisdiction over Tribal members and other Native Americans within the boundaries of the Isabella Reservation, which includes Deerfield, Denver, Isabella, Nottawa and Wise townships, and the northern halves of Chippewa and Union townships.
Washington SCT Materials on Off-Reservation Hot Pursuit Case
As Indianz reported, the Washington Supreme Court has decided State v. Eriksen — opinion here and dissent here.
Here are links to the briefs:
80653-5 – State v. Eriksen
Hearing Date – 05/12/2009
- Reply of Petitioner
- Amicus Lummi Nation Brief
- Statement of Additional Auth
- Answer to Petition for Review
- Appellant Brief
- Petition for Review
- Respondents Brief
Ninth Circuit Dismisses Appeal of U.S. v. Washington Subproceeding (Lower Elwah v. Lummi)
Here is the unpublished opinion. The underlying dispute apparently is the usual and accustomed fishing area of the Lummi Indian Tribe.
Here are the materials:
Suquamish Reply Brief in Support of Its Cert Petition
Rob Porter & Stephen Pevar Quoted in NY Post
The NY Post has an unfortunate and not representative headline for the body of the article. Which I suppose is hardly a surprise, given the publication:
Indian reservations a land of the freebie
By JENNIFER FERMINO
Last Updated: 10:11 AM, September 27, 2010
Bargain-priced butts, cheap gas and gambling casinos get all the attention, but life on an Indian reservation includes other lifestyle elements that are as foreign as the Wild West to most New Yorkers.
Step onto an Indian reservation and you’re leaving the United States and entering a sovereign nation that includes free health care, a tribal justice system with its own courts, jails and police — and even separate license plates and passports.
The state’s knockdown, drag-out fight with Indians over untaxed cigarettes has thrust the debate over their sovereignty — based on decades-old treaties between the federal government and the tribes — back into the headlines.
The reservations operate as nations within a nation, with tribes dealing directly with the feds on a government-to-government relationship.
Indians who live and work on one of the country’s 300-plus federally recognized reservations are exempt from paying state income taxes, but usually they are required to pay all federal taxes.
However, if a citizen of one of the 564 federally recognized tribes works off of the reservation, they are required to pay state taxes, no matter where they live.
Those who live on any reservation don’t have to pay state property taxes, but they might have to fork over some kind of tribal fees.
And state sales taxes are not levied on Indians who make purchases on a reservation — hence the low price of cigarettes and gas that attract non-Indians to the reservations.
Cert Opposition in Suquamish v. Upper Skagit et al.
Here: Cert Opp in Suquamish v Upper Skagit et al
Cert petition is here.
Split Tenth Circuit Rejects Cherokee Nation Bid to Intervene in Oklahoma v. Tyson Foods
Book Announcement: Charles Wilkinson’s History of the Siletz Tribe
The People Are Dancing Again
The History of the Siletz Tribe of Western Oregon
CHARLES WILKINSON
To be published in November by the University of Washington Press!
Book website here. Book trailer here.
Here’s the blurb:
The history of the Siletz is in many ways the history of many Indian tribes: a story of heartache, perseverance, survival, and revival. The history of the Siletz people began in a resource-rich homeland thousands of years ago. Today, the tribe is a vibrant, modern community with a deeply held commitment to tradition.
The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians-twenty-seven tribes speaking at least ten languages-were brought together on the Oregon Coast through treaties with the federal government in 1853-55. For decades after, the Siletz people lost many traditional practices, saw their languages almost wiped out, and experienced poverty, ill health, and humiliation. Again and again, the federal government took great chunks of the magnificent, timber-rich tribal homeland, reducing their reservation from the original allotment of 1.1 million acres-which reached a full 100 miles north to south on the Oregon Coast-to what is today several hundred acres of land near Siletz and 9,000 acres of forest. By 1956, the tribe had been “terminated” under the Western Oregon Indian Termination Act, selling off the remaining land, cutting off federal health and education benefits, and denying tribal status. Poverty worsened, and the sense of cultural loss deepened.
Turtle Talk 
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