Turtle Talk

Here.

Francis was the special master during the negotiations that led to the 1985 consent decree in the United States v. Michigan treaty fishing case. We brought Francis out to MSU a few years back to talk about the treaty fishing days — and he served up some of the funniest and most disturbing stories I’ve ever heard about those days. Francis also served as an adviser to the Restatement of the Law of American Indians. I spent some time with Francis on a long drive from the Dallas airport to Durant, Oklahoma when he invited me to do an Indian Law 101 in relation to the Choctaw and Chickasaw water rights negotiations a few years back. The man was an original, charming, and knew how to work a room. I’ll miss him.