From the Leelanau Enterprise:
Tribal officials have unveiled plans to build a 129 to 135-slip municipal marina in Peshawbestown that could be open for business as early as the 2008 boating season.
The Tribal Council of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians took actions last week that could pave the way for the dredging and construction project to begin before the end of this year.
The Burt Lake Band of Chippewa and Ottawa Indians is petitioning for federal recognition. The BIA has proposed to deny their recognition. Last year, the BIA finalized that proposal to deny, but these documents are not online yet.
Documents here:
Notice of Proposed Finding Against — dated April 15, 2004
Documents in Support of the Proposed Finding — dated March 25, 2004
A copy of the bill to recognize the Burt Lake Band via Act of Congress is here.
The Burt Lake Band are the descendants of the people subjected to the “Burt Lake Burnout” near the turn of the century. We’re written about this disaster here.
From the Leelanau Enterprise: “‘The tribe [Grand Traverse Band] has always been a good steward of the land,’ Bunek said, ‘and I’m glad that the 1836 treaty has been clarified so that there are no more rumors out there about what people are and are not allowed to do.'”
No quotes from any tribal members in this article — that’s unfortunate.
Muskegon Chronicle: “It is noteworthy that groups traditionally opposed to the terms of past settlement proposals seem to have resigned themselves to the inevitability of this deal, which gives neither American Indians nor non-tribal sporting interests all they want. Rebecca Humphries, director of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, in announcing the agreement, said it will ‘provide stability and predictability in an area of former legal uncertainty.'”
From the Escanaba Daily Press: Treaty gets historic clarification
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By George Weeks |
DETROIT — Much was made of last week’s historic deal between General Motors and the United Auto Workers that reflected current economic realities 70 years after a 44-day strike led to the UAW gaining power to bargain exclusively with GM on wages and working conditions.
More historically significant, after about 170 years, was last week’s recognition/regulation agreement that at long last clarifies how five tribes can exercise fishing and hunting rights under the 1836 Treaty of Washington that ceded about 13.9 million acres in the northern Lower Peninsula and the eastern Upper Peninsula.
The treaty, covering about 37 percent of the state’s land and water, was the single largest cession of land to the federal government by the first people of Michigan, and led to statehood in 1837.
As with the GM-UAW deal, the hunting/fishing agreement has some good for both sides and represents a reality check.
The reality is that although U.S. District Judge Noel Fox ruled in 1979 that “Indians have a right to fish today wherever fish are to be found within the area of cession,” there has been what Department of Natural Resources director Becky Humphries calls “legal uncertainty.”
Fox said: “The mere passage of time has not eroded, and cannot erode the rights guaranteed by solemn treaties that both sides pledged on their honor to uphold.”
But there was prolonged controversy because of conflicting court cases and interpretations of a 1985 consent decree setting tribal and non-tribal fishing zones in portions of Lakes Superior, Michigan and Huron.
During the legal battles, especially in the early days, there was animosity and occasional violence between tribal and sports fishers.
While tribes will get longer hunting seasons for some game, and have other benefits over non-tribal hunters, Marquette-based Jim Ekdahl, the Upper Peninsula DNR director and key negotiator on the agreement, said, “Michigan’s natural resources will not be compromised.”
In some tribes, only a small percentage of members hunt or fish — a far cry from earlier times when fish were needed for subsistence. Fishing was part of a way of life and a major factor in the formation, migration, and settlement pattern of Native Americans.
Treaty fishing controversies in no small part led to what is now a major economic factor for the tribes and the state — Indian casinos.
In fact, it was a catalyst for the organization and federal recognition of such tribes as the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians and the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians (GTB).
Former GTB Tribal Chairman Joseph Raphael, now a member of the tribal council, does not believe federal recognition “would have ever happened” had it not been for the fishing issue and the persistence of such GTB members as Arthur Duhamel, a tribal councilor who was arrested seven times in the 1970s for pressing his claim of treaty rights in Lake Michigan.
Raphael said: “After the 1979 (Judge) Fox decision, you needed to be a federally recognized tribe. Quite frankly, that was the instrument here. That was the push.” (The comment was in this scribe’s 1992 book, “Mem-ka-weh: Dawning of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians.”)
Fish and chips. Both part of the web of economic life for our first people.
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EDITOR’S NOTE — George Weeks is retired after being a political columnist for the Detroit News for 22 years. His syndicated column appears weekly in the Daily Press. Weeks is also former chief of staff for Gov. William Milliken and as a journalist covered the White House, State Department, and Pentagon.
From The Mining Journal:
Key dates in the battle over Indian hunting and fishing rights in Michigan:
1836: Treaty of Washington between Ottawa and Chippewa bands and the United States. Tribes cede ownership of about 13.9 million acres in northern Lower Peninsula, eastern Upper Peninsula.
1930: Michigan Supreme Court rules no Indian fishing rights exist under previous treaties.
1971: Court reverses itself, saying Bay Mills Indian Community has treaty fishing rights.
1973: Federal government files suit, seeking state recognition of tribal fishing rights.
1985: Consent decree reached, setting tribal and non-tribal fishing zones in portions of Lakes Michigan, Huron and Superior.
2000: Updated version of consent decree approved.
2003: Michigan asks court to rule that tribal fishing rights on inland waters and 1836 treaty lands have expired.
Sept. 26, 2007: State, tribes announce settlement of inland rights case.
Detroit Free Press: ” QUESTION: Why didn’t the state fight the Indian treaty rights in court? ANSWER: That’s the route Michigan took in the 1970s Great Lakes case and that Wisconsin and Minnesota elected to follow in the 1990s with even more disastrous results for sportsmen. Those other states got a series of rulings that not only upheld the treaty rights of the Indians but gave them 50% of the walleye quotas in inland lakes, allowed them to use gill nets and created inland commercial walleye fisheries.” Exactly!
Escanaba Daily Press: “The federal courts have consistently held that the passage of time changes nothing from when the original treaties were signed. It could be considered as similar to how our Constitution has held up without other interpretation, in providing our rights as citizens.”
Alpena News: “Avoiding litigation over the issue was a huge accomplishment – saving both sides a lot of money and needless aggravation. Tribal members seem content that their basic cultural identity and rights both were recognized and reserved, while conservationists seem satisfied safeguards are in place to scientifically manage our natural resources for generations into the future.”
The Grand Rapids Press has come out in favor of the inland treaty rights settlement. Hat tip to Indianz.com.
Here’s the text of yesterday’s editorial:
Michigan natural resources must be conscientiously respected and carefully managed. The same is true of the government’s promises to the first people of this region, American Indians. A hunting and fishing agreement among five tribes, Michigan and the United States would protect property rights, allow the state to manage fish and game and honor long-standing treaty agreements with native people.
Considering the volatile history of relationships between American Indians and the state when it comes to tribal hunting and fishing, that’s a major accomplishment. The consent decree deserves quick approval from U.S. District Judge Richard Enslen, who will have final say.
The agreement traces back to an 1836 treaty between the U.S. government and five tribes: the Grand Traverse Band; the Bay Mills Indian Community; the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians; the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians; and the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. In the treaty, the tribes ceded to the federal government land that became the western half of the Lower Peninsula and the eastern half of the Upper Peninsula.
The disputed part of the treaty gave the tribes the “right to hunt and the usual privileges of occupancy until the land is required for settlement.” The bitter controversy surrounding gill netting on the Great Lakes during the last few decades attests to how contentious such conflicts can become. That dispute involved hard feelings, vandalism, even occasional gunshots.
The decree recognizes that tribal rights under the treaty remain in tact, a fundamental point that had previously been in dispute. The agreement, which covers land and inland water in the treaty area, prohibits the tribes from hunting or
fishing on private property without permission. Hunting and fishing for commercial gain would be prohibited, too, except in very restricted instances.
The tribes would be allowed to write their own rules and issue licenses for hunting seasons that, in some cases, differ from the state’s. Nevertheless, the tribes and the Department of Natural Resources would share information and coordinate, to make consistent game management possible. Four of the tribes have ratified the settlement. The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa, by far the largest of the five, is conducting a referendum of its 23,870 members. A final decision is expected from Judge Enslen, likely later this month.
Judge Enslen should see the decree for what it is: a fair deal. American Indian tribes were in Michigan thousands of years before European settlers arrived. The 1836 treaty recognizes that history by granting special standing and privilege to the tribes. This consent decree recognizes that the best way to honor those obligations is to work together to manage the amazing resources we all share.
For commentary on the inland rights settlement on Interlochen Public Radio, see here.
IPR interviewed several tribal people, including Frank Ettawageshik, chairman of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians and Hank Bailey, a Grand Traverse Band elder.
The Tribal Law Journal has posted this attempt to summarize the common law decisions of the Grand Traverse Band tribal courts. Miigwetch to Zeke Fletcher for writing the introduction. And to Zeke and John Petoskey for offering comments and guidance on the article.
Turtle Talk 
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