federal recognition

Schaghticoke Nation Student Profiled

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From Diverse: Issues in Higher Education:

Melissa Velky, a third-year law student at Michigan State University’s College of Law, is not waiting until graduation to immerse herself in a serious legal confrontation. With the livelihood of her native tribe at stake, Velky, daughter of Schaghticoke Nation Chief Richard Velky, is working now to help restore her tribe’s federal recognition.

Velky and nearly 300 others were members of the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation until their federal recognition was revoked in 2005. Velky, an indigenous law major, plans to launch an Internet-based campaign titled “Students for Justice” that will utilize social networks like Facebook and MySpace to garner support for her tribe.

“I am Schaghticoke, and I will always be,” says Velky, denouncing the notion that her identity and the history of her people can be revoked with the stroke of a pen.

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Burt Lake Recognition Bill Passes House Resources Committee

Matthew L.M. Fletcher4 Comments

The House Resources Committee last week approved H.R. 1575 (Stupak): To reaffirm and clarify the Federal relationship of the Burt Band as a distinct federally recognized Indian Tribe, and for other purposes. “Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians Reaffirmation Act.”

Schaghticoke Chief’s Daughter Takes Fight to Web

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From the Connecticut Post:

WASHINGTON — As far as Melissa Velky is concerned, she is Native American, tried and true.

The 24-year-old daughter of Richard Velky, chief of the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation, Melissa spent many a childhood day on the tribe’s 300-acre state reservation in Kent, Conn. As convinced as she is of her heritage, the federal government has said otherwise — declining to grant the tribe federal recognition, she claims, after state elected officials intervened. It is an injustice in her eyes and something she hopes to convince young Americans to rally around. “When we got our recognition reversed it was like my future being stomped on by the government,” Velky said in a recent interview. Velky, who is in her third year at Michigan State University’s College of Law, plans soon to launch “Students for Justice,” an Internet-based campaign that will utilize social networks like Facebook and MySpace to spread the word. “I’ve been through it all,” she said. “I’m interested in all aspects of the recognition process and hope other people will get involved and see what I see.” Velky was not yet born in 1981 when the tribe sent a letter of intent to the Bureau of Indian Affairs that they planned to petition for recognition. After years of gathering historical, genealogical and other records, the tribe submitted its petition to BIA and was approved on Jan. 29, 2004. The decision, however, was reversed on Oct. 12, 2005, on appeal from the state.

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McMillon v. Lost Cherokee of Arkansas and Missouri, Inc. — Probate Case

Matthew L.M. Fletcher12 Comments

Strange little case involving the Lost Cherokee of Arkansas and Missouri, Inc. — here is the opinion, which will be published in the Southwest Reporter. From the majority opinion:

This appeal arises from a petition to clarify a will filed by First State Bank in which it asked the court to clarify several issues, including whether the references in the will of Opal Gefon to “savings and checking account” and “remainder of my savings and checking” included the cash located in the decedent’s safety deposit box. Appellants, heirs of the decedent Opal Gefon, assert only one point of error on appeal: The trial court was clearly erroneous in finding that appellee Lost Cherokee of Arkansas and Missouri, Inc. was entitled to the $226,000 in cash located in the decedent’s safety deposit box at the time of her death. We find no error and affirm.

The dissent seems to have a point:

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NYTs Article on Little Shell Band & Federal Recognition

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

From the NYTs:

Landless Tribe Waits Federal Recognition

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: January 5, 2008

GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP) — Long after the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa was stripped of its land and scores of its people had been moved to Canada, the 4,300 surviving members are fighting to reclaim the shards of their past.

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IGRA Restored Lands/Restored Tribes Exception — Oklahoma Shawnee

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

From NewsOK.com:

Zoning, land trust could cloud Shawnee casino plan

By Richard Mize
Real Estate Editor

 

Landless the Shawnee Tribe is, and landless it will remain for some time. The tribe faces legal obstacles in its aim to develop land along Interstate 35 as a hotel-casino attraction and tribal headquarters.

Gardner-Tanenbaum Group sold the 104 acres on the west side of I-35 between Britton Road and Wilshire Boulevard to investors who are working with the tribe to get it put into trust, a requirement before the tribe can develop it.

The land is zoned for industrial use, not entertainment or retail. Gardner-Tanenbaum marketed it for several years as a prime Interstate site for warehouses or distribution centers.

Getting the zoning changed shouldn’t be too hard since the tribe has been working with city planners as it looked for land in Oklahoma City, said Greg Pitcher, head of the tribe’s economic development arm.

“In talking to the city and choosing a site, we took all that into consideration,” Pitcher said, in an effort to locate a site that specifically would not be at cross purposes with the city’s goals. “We assume the city would not oppose” a zoning change request, he said.

City planning director John Dugan said Wednesday that his staff had had no discussions with tribal officials — that they knew of. He said city planning staff deal with many planning and zoning inquiries daily.

Dugan said that if the land is put in a trust, it might supersede local zoning. In that case, Pitcher said the tribe still would work closely with the city.

“Our interest in the beginning has been to sign an intergovernmental agreement that would exceed their guidelines,” Pitcher said. “We’re going to exceed any requirement the city has, in doing this.”

Pitcher said he could not outline the argument the Shawnee Tribe will make to the Bureau of Indian Affairs in seeking that the land be put in trust — because it’s confidential.

But, he said, the tribe only appears to be caught by conflicting law.

The federal law that restored the tribe by severing it from the Cherokee Nation in 2000 forbids it from developing land in any other tribes’ jurisdiction, he said. That made Oklahoma City attractive, since the city is within no tribe’s jurisdiction.

BIA rules generally state that to have land put in trust, a tribe must have a historical tie to it, and the Shawnee Tribe appears to have no historical tie to the land on I-35.

But Pitcher said the issues are much more complex than that, partly because the Shawnee Tribe, while restored, is landless, and partly because federal laws in Oklahoma surrounding Indian tribes, trust land and what they can do with it are different from every other part of the country.

Op-Ed Favoring Virginia Tribes’ Recognition

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From WaPo:

For Virginia’s Tribes . . .
. . . A Dance and Their Due

Sunday, November 18, 2007; B08

Each Thanksgiving, Americans take time to appreciate what they have. At Virginia‘s First Thanksgiving Festival, held at Berkeley Plantation in Charles City County on Nov. 4, the annual Chickahominy friendship dance was preceded by a plea by Chief Stephen R. Adkins that we consider what Virginia’s tribes do without as the only Native Americans in the United States left unrecognized by the federal government.

This doesn’t give the tribes of Virginia much reason to give thanks.

Still, they came to do the friendship dance. The Chickahominy believe that once you have danced with someone, a bond of trust is forged. In this dance, a brave approaches the chief and dances for him. If the chief ascertains that the dancer is sincere, then the chief himself joins the dance, and negotiations may begin.

Virginia’s American Indian tribes have been officially embraced by the state since the 1980s, but the tribes’ sovereignty bill has been stalled in Congress since 2001, denying their existence and rights, even as the state, the nation and Britain‘s queen were celebrating their history at the 400th anniversary of Jamestown.

Federal recognition would bring federal grants for college scholarships, job training, housing, health care and other badly needed programs. Adkins adds that the tribes are not interested in opening casinos, which have been profitable but problematic in other states where tribes have received sovereignty.

Opponents ignore the rights and needs of the tribes and focus solely on the fear of Indian-run casinos, exempting tribes from taxes, preventing police from coming onto tribal grounds and inviting lawsuits to reclaim Indian land and water rights. The Pamunkey, Chickahominy, Rappahannock, Monacan, Weapemeoc and Mattaponi have danced before our nation’s chiefs for decades, only to be turned away to nurse their blisters.

Undaunted, the Chickahominy came to Berkeley because plantation owner Malcolm “Jamie” Jamieson has always kept the lands open to the tribe for any ceremonial use they require. One good steward of the land, tapping his foot to their music, has kept friendship and hope alive.

So the Chickahominy gathered to honor the site of the nation’s true First Thanksgiving at Berkeley, where English colonists held their first day of thanks in 1619, nearly two years before the Pilgrims did at Plymouth, Mass. While Virginians recognize Berkeley as the site of the first Thanksgiving, nationally this history is perceived as a myth. Once a year, the Chickahominy and Berkeley’s Jamieson champion each other’s causes, one underdog standing back-to-back with another.

If ever there were a sight to be grateful for having witnessed, it was this day of many dances. Few media representatives attended, yet the Chickahominy embodied the graciousness, spirit and strength of character so often denied them in the history books and halls of justice as if they were dancing for our commander in chief himself.

The tribes of Virginia have paid the piper more than his due, and they have danced. It’s time for Congress to stop being the wallflower and step up to recognize Virginia’s tribes.

— Lisa Suhay

Schaghticoke Tribal Nation v. Kempthorne Cross-Motions for Summary Judgment

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

The parties in Schaghticoke Tribal Nation v. Kempthorne have filed cross-motions for summary judgment.

STN’s brief was filed in September: Schaghticoke Summary Judgment Brief

The United States brief is here: Federal Summary Judgment Brief

The State of Connecticut’s brief is here: Connecticut Intervenors Brief for Summary Judgment

H.R. 2837: Indian Tribal Federal Recognition Administrative Procedures Act

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here’s the full text of the bill.

And here’s the link to the testimony in the House Resources Committee on October 3, 2007.

Jim Keedy of Michigan Indian Legal Services testified. As Jim notes in his testimony, MILS has assisted numerous Michigan tribes in their federal recognition efforts, including Pokagon Band, Little Traverse, Little River, Lac Vieux Desert — and Grand Traverse Band, the first tribe recognized under the Federal Acknowledgment Process, 25 C.F.R. Part 83 (then Part 54). MILS is now representing the Grand River Band of Ottawa Indians in their attempt to become federally recognized. Their petition is complete, but as Jim Keedy testified, it will be 15-20 years before the Bureau of Acknowledgment and Research will place their file on active review.

Schaghticoke Tribal Nation v. Kempthorne Materials

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Filed orders and opinions are available here in this ongoing case:

Here are the proposed finding documents dated December 5, 2002.

Here is the notice of proposed finding against the Nation dated December 11, 2002.

Here are the final determination documents dated January 29, 2004.

Here is the notice of final determination dated February 5, 2004 favoring federal recognition of STN.

Here is the appeal to to IBIA, dated May 12, 2005, reversing the decision.

Interlocutory opinions in the ongoing federal case in the US District Court in Connecticut are here:

June 14, 2006 opinion

June 26, 2006 opinion

October 3, 2006 Opinion

March 3, 2007 Opinion

A motion for summary judgment has been filed. Once we get that motion, we will upload it here.