treaty rights

Saginaw Chippewa Reservation Boundaries Case News Coverage

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From the Morning Sun:

A federal judge has temporarily halted the lawsuit seeking to define the land inside the traditional boundaries of the Isabella Reservation as “Indian Country” while he decides what kind of case Isabella County and the city of Mt. Pleasant can present.

A hearing is set for next month before U.S. District Judge Thomas Ludington in Bay City, where the suit is being heard. The issue is whether the city and county will be permitted to argue that the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe waited too long to file its suit, and whether what the Tribe is asking for is impossible.

The Tribe filed suit in 2005, asking Ludington to declare that all or part of seven townships in Isabella County, and the northern half of the city of Mt. Pleasant, are “Indian country” as defined by federal law. The Tribe is asking for an injunction to prevent the governor, attorney general and state treasurer from exerting criminal or civil jurisdiction over the Tribe or its members “in a manner not allowed in Indian country.”

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1836 Treaty Tribes Comments on State Water Legislation

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

GTB Letter to Governor Granholm

–Attachment A

Joint Press Release

LA Times: Badlands Revert Back to Oglala Lakota?

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

From the LA Times:

x
BADLANDS NATIONAL PARK, S.D. — The southern half of this swath of grasslands and chiseled pink spires looks untouched from a distance. Closer up, the scars of history are easy to see.

Unexploded bombs lie in ravines, a reminder of when the military confiscated the land from the Oglala Sioux tribe during World War II and turned it into an artillery range. Poachers who have stolen thousands of fossils over the years have left gouges in the landscape. On a plateau, a solitary makeshift hut sits ringed by empty Coke cans and shaving cream canisters. It is the only remnant of a three-year occupation by militant tribal activists who had demanded that the land be returned.

Now the National Park Service is contemplating doing just that: giving the 133,000-acre southern half of Badlands National Park back to the tribe. The northern half, which has a paved road and a visitor center, would remain with the park system.
(H/T Patrick O’Donnell)

Klamath Tribe v. Pacificorp Cert Petition

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

This was filed May 28. The docket number is 07-1492. Our previous post is here.

Klamath Cert Petition

Samish Indian Tribe v US — DCT Dismisses for Lack of Jurisdiction

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

This case may harbor some bad news for Michigan tribes who had been administratively terminated and still hoping to be able to recover for the years that the federal government illegally failed to provide services.

samish-second-amended-complaint

us-motion-to-dismiss-samish-complaint

samish-report-on-why-discovery-should-be-permitted

us-supplement-brief-re-motion-to-dismiss

samish-response-to-us-supplemental-brief

us-reply-brief

dct-opinion-in-samish-v-us

Keepers of the Fire: The Potawatomi Nation by John Low

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Here is an outstanding powerpoint presentation about the history from pre-contact to modern day of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians. It’s a large pdf of the powerpoint.

University of Michigan Anishinaabemowin Classes Profiled

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

In USA Today:

DETROIT (AP) — The statistics might not be promising, but personal experience offers Brooke Simon hope that her ancestors’ language won’t disappear.

Lecturer Margaret Noori leads a weekly Ojibwe language study group at the University of Michigan, Thursday, April 3, in Ann Arbor, Mich.

“I can walk down the street and hear someone yell ‘aanii!’ from across the street,” said the 20-year-old University of Michigan student, referring to a greeting in Ojibwe, or Anishinaabemowin. “Students aren’t afraid to use the language and learn about this language.”

Simon participates in the Ann Arbor university’s Program in Ojibwe Language and Literature, one of the largest of its kind in the nation. It seeks to teach and preserve the American Indian language spoken by about 10,000 in more than 200 communities across the Great Lakes region — but 80% of them are older than 60.

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Federal Circuit Denies Western Shoshone Attempt to Reopen Dann Case

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

western-shoshone-v-us-fed-circuit-opinion

The briefs and materials are here.

Saginaw Chippewa v. Michigan Reservation Boundaries Update

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Laches has reared its ugly head in this case of course. Pending are motions from the United States and the Tribe to strike witnesses and defenses relating to laches, impossibility, estoppel, etc., and a government motion for partial summary J on the defenses.

us-motion-to-strike-laches-witnesses

saginaw-chippewa-motion-to-strike-laches-defenses

city-of-mount-pleasant-response-to-tribe-motion

city-of-mount-pleasant-response-to-us-motion

isabella-county-response-to-both-motions-etc

michigan-response-to-tribe-motion

michigan-response-to-us-motion

–gulig-report [michigan expert witness]

–karamanski-report [michigan expert witness]

New Jersey v. EPA: Industry En Banc Petitions Denied

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Here is the order-denying-rehearing-en-banc-petitions-05-1097.

Appellate Court Rejects EPA, Industry Bid To Overturn Mercury Ruling

A key appellate court has rejected EPA and utility industry requests to rehear and overturn a ruling from a three-judge panel vacating the agency’s clean air mercury rule (CAMR), leaving supporters of the contentious rule with the option to either abandon it altogether or appeal the case up to the Supreme Court.

Environmentalists, however, doubt that the government will appeal the ruling to the high court, but leave open the option that industry may. “I would be astounded if the Solicitor General’s office walked this dog up to the Supreme Court’s steps to soil those grounds. The utility industry on the other hand follows different public health practices,” John Walke, clean air director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a May 20 statement.

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