treaty rights

Wolfchild En Banc Petition

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is the petition — Wolfchild En Banc Petition

An excerpt:

this appeal requires an answer to the following precedent-setting questions of exceptional importance:

(1) Should en banc review be granted when a panel’s analysis fails to follow principles of statutory construction resulting in the re-construction of Indian trust law contradicting Supreme Court and Federal Circuit precedent?

(2) Should en banc review be granted when a panel’s decision fails to apply recent Supreme Court precedent relating to Indian trust law beneficiaries and contradicts long-settled principles of law regarding termination of Native American trusts?

Keweenaw Bay Challenge to State Sales and Use Taxes Reaches Sixth Circuit

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Here are the appellate materials:

KBIC Opening Brief

Michigan Appellee Brief

KBIC Reply Brief

And here is our earlier posting on the district court case, along with all of the extensive exhibits, etc.

Alistair Bonnett on Black Indians

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is a short article about black Indians called “Shades of Difference,” published in the Dec. 2008 issue of History Today.

Bonnett — Shades of Difference

GLIFWC Report on Efficacy of Walleye Advisories to Great Lakes Tribes

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Adam D. DeWeese, Neil E. Kmiecik, Esteban D. Chiriboga, and Jeffery A. Foran have published “Efficacy of Risk-Based, Culturally Sensitive Ogaa (Walleye) Consumption Advice for Anishinaabe Tribal Members in the Great Lakes Region.(Report)” in Risk Analysis, May 2009 (GLIFWC Report on Walleye Advisories). Here is the abstract:

The Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC) has produced Ogaa (walleye-Sander vitreus) consumption advisories since 1996 for Anishinaabe from GLIFWC member tribes in the 1837 and 1842 ceded territories of Wisconsin. GLIFWC’s advisory maps were revised in 2005 to address cultural sensitivities (to protect tribal lifeways), to utilize recent mercury exposure information, and to incorporate changes in advisory levels for methyl mercury. Lake-specific, risk-based, culturally sensitive consumption advice was provided on color-coded maps for two groups: children under age 15 years and females of childbearing age, and males 15 years and older and females beyond childbearing age. The maps were distributed to, and a behavioral intervention program developed for, the six GLIFWC member tribes in Wisconsin as well as member tribes in Minnesota and the 1842 ceded territory of Michigan. Tribal fish harvesters, tribal health care providers, women of childbearing age or with young children, tribal leaders, elders, and children were targeted specifically for the behavioral intervention. The efficacy of the behavioral intervention was assessed using surveys of 275 tribal fish harvesters from Wisconsin, 139 tribal harvesters from Michigan and Minnesota, and 156 Wisconsin women of childbearing age. Significant increases in the percentage of survey participants who indicated awareness of advisory maps occurred among Wisconsin harvesters (increase from 60% to 77%), Michigan and Minnesota harvesters (29% to 51%), and women of childbearing age in Wisconsin (40% to 87%). A significant increase in preference for smaller Ogaa occurred among tribal harvesters in Wisconsin (41% to 72%) and tribal harvesters in Michigan and Minnesota (49% to 71%), although not among women of childbearing age. The GLIFWC map-based advisory program did not adversely affect tribal harvest of Ogaa, which increased from 63,000 to 88,000 fish in the three states after the intervention.

Saginaw Chippewa Reservation Boundaries Dispute Update

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Judge Ludington has granted the motions of the United States and the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe to strike the so-called “Rosebud Sioux” defenses and associated witnesses. Here are the relevant materials.

scit-motion-to-strike-rosebud-defenses

us-motion-to-exclude-rosebud-witnesses

michigan-response-to-motions-to-strike

isabella-county-response-to-motions-to-strike

mount-pleasant-response-to-motions-to-strike

scit-reply-re-motions-to-strike

us-reply-brief-re-motions-to-strike

dct-order-granting-motions-to-strike

Elk v. United States Opinion — Sexual Assaults and “Bad Men” Clause in Fort Laramie Treaty

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is the coverage from Indianz, and here is the very remarkable opinion from the Court of Federal Claims — lavetta-elk-dct-opinion

Douglas Harris on the Boldt Decision in Canada

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Douglas C. Harris posted his paper,The Boldt Decision in Canada: Aboriginal Treaty Rights to Fish on the Pacific, part of THE POWER OF PROMISES: RETHINKING INDIAN TREATIES IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST, Alexandra Harmon, ed., University of Washington Press, 2008. Here is the abstract:

The Oregon Boundary Treaty of 1846 established the forty-ninth parallel as the boundary between British and American interests in western North America. After 1846, Aboriginal peoples to the north of the border negotiated with the British Crown the terms of their coexistence with incoming settlers, those to its south with the United States. As a result, while some of the Coast Salish and Kwak’waka’wakw peoples in what would become British Columbia concluded treaties between 1850 and 1854 with the Crown’s representative, James Douglas, the tribes in the United States settled with the governor of the Washington territory, Isaac I. Stevens, in 1854 and 1855.

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Complaint in Blacks Hills Judgment Case

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is the complaint in Different Horse v. Salazar — different-horse-v-salazar-complaint — referenced here.

If I were the government, I’d file a Rule 19 motion to dismiss, naming the eight tribes as indispensable sovereigns. 🙂

Black Hills Case Reopened

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

From the NYTs:

A band of Sioux whose ancestors were driven from the majestic Black Hills more than 130 years ago is seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation, upsetting other tribal members who say taking money for the sacred land would be legitimizing the theft.

A lawsuit filed last week asks a federal judge to release as much as $900 million in compensation and interest that eight Sioux tribes refused decades ago. The tribes insisted instead on return of the rugged land in southwestern South Dakota they lost in military battles that included Custer’s Last Stand.

The dispute has split the tribes. Some 5,000 tribal members have signed up for the class-action lawsuit, but just 19 plaintiffs are listed because many others live on reservations and fear retribution, said lawyer Wanda L. Howey-Fox of Yankton.

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LRB and State of Michigan Enter into Agreement re: Authority of Tribal COs

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From the Ludington Daily News:

Any confusion over whether tribal conservation officers have the right to stop state-licensed hunters has been removed.

The Little River Band of Ottawa Indians and the State of Michigan have entered into an agreement that satisfies a provision in the 2007 Inland Consent Decree regarding enforcement of conservation regulations, according to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

The issue came to light locally when Ed Haik, a retired Manistee County sheriff and the deputy chair of the Manistee County Board of Commissioners, noted that there was no legal mechanism for tribal conservation officers to stop state-licensed hunters or anglers. Last month, the county board sent a letter to Gov. Jennifer Granholm opposing any cross-deputization measures and asking for a public hearing on the issue.

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