Here is the release:
Above is the media release from the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community in regards to a recent report released by the United Nations.The full report is available at here. A UN news release is available here.
Keweenaw Bay Indian Community
Update in In re Greektown Holdings
Creditors fighting over the carcass:
KBIC Tribal Attorney Position
Here.
To serve as general in-house counsel for the Keweenaw Bay Tribal Council.
Provides legal advice and assistance to the Keweenaw Bay Tribal Council, tribal administrators, program and enterprise directors/managers.
Provides counsel and representation on treaty right issues: hunting, fishing, trapping and gathering, taxation, environment, and civil regulations.
Represents Tribal Council in court and before quasi-judicial or administrative agencies. Provides legal counsel and representation on Indian Child Welfare matters.
Maintains and revises the Tribal Code. Drafts, reviews, revises and acts as consultant in regard to tribal legal codes and legislation.
Reviews and assists in revision of personnel manuals, policies and procedures to ensure compliance with tribal and applicable federal laws.
Supervises Legal Department clerical staff, Tribal Prosecutor, and Police Commissioner. Reviews all tribal contracts for legal sufficiency in conjunction with the tribes’ Chief Financial Officer.
Represents the tribe in regard to land acquisition, including fee to trust applications.
Serves on advisory committees relative to economic and financial development, environmental concerns, employee benefits and employment policies. Performs other related duties as assigned by the Tribal President.
Federal Court Suit Filed to Stop Mining Activities in Northern Michigan/Upper Peninsula Mine
Here are the materials in Huron Mountain Club v. United States Army Corps of Engineers (W.D. Mich.):
Huron Mountain Club Brief in Support of PI Motion
Here is the Interlochen Public Radio coverage of the suit. An excerpt:
A private club in the Upper Peninsula has filed a federal lawsuit suit to stop the construction of a new mine in Marquette County. The nickel and copper mine, owned by Kennecott Eagle Minerals, has received permits from the state. But the Huron Mountain Club says the U.S. Army Corps needs to review the project to make sure it doesn’t violate the Clean Water Act.
The club owns nearly 20,000 acres of forest downstream from the mine on the Salmon Trout River. The lawsuit says sulfuric acid produced by sulfide mining could pollute the river. And the club is “horror-struck” by the prospect of the watershed collapsing because part of the mine will be dug directly underneath it. The lawsuit also says the federal government needs to consider the potential for damage to Eagle Rock, a site near the entrance to the mine that is sacred to American Indians.
Kennecott says the mine has been extensively reviewed and survived multiple legal challenges going back to 2006. Eagle Mine has been under construction since 2010 and the company says it is 75 percent built.
IPR on KBIC/Bad River Letter to UN Special Rapporteur re: Mining
Here.
An excerpt:
A tribe in the Upper Peninsula is appealing to the United Nations in an effort to restrain sulfide mining. The tribe hopes to strengthen its position through an international agreement signed by the Obama Administration.
The Keweenaw Bay Indian Community says mines that produce sulfuric acid can pollute the water and threaten places sacred to tribes in the Great Lakes. The Keweenaw tribe fought the Eagle Mine, a new copper and nickel mine under construction in Marquette County.
The owner, Kennecott Eagle Minerals says it is leading a resurgence of mining in the Upper Peninsula.
One of the issues raised was the mine’s proximity to Eagle Rock, a rock outcropping that has been used for sacred ceremonies. Eagle Rock is prominently cited in a document sent to the United Nations. It says tribes are overwhelmed by the development of new mines and the State of Michigan does not consider their cultures when issuing permits.
Many American Indian tribes are raising issues like these with the U.N. now because the U.S. endorsed the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People in 2010. A U.N. official is visiting this week to gather information about implementing the declaration.
An attorney for the Keweenaw tribe says the declaration is not law, it’s a political document that sets out principles. But she says it could lead to new laws that would help tribes in the Great Lakes region oppose sulfide mining.
Keweenaw Bay and Bad River Chippewa Media Release on Report on Mining to UN Special Rapporteur
Here (Media release. Bad River 5.2.2012):
Keweenaw Bay Indian Community and the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa recently collaborated on a Statement of Information submitted to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples documenting concerns about the activities of multinational mining corporations in Anishinabe territories. The Statement of Information is available here http://www.badriver-nsn.gov/images/stories/docs/activities_anishinaabeg.pdf.
Today, members of the Bad River Band Council are attending a consultation with the UN Special Rapporteur in Mission, South Dakota. Representatives from Keweenaw Bay Indian Community plan to attend another consultation with the UN Special Rapporteur later this month.
KBIC Proposed Gaming Facility in Marquette County Approved by Department of Interior; Cayuga Request Dismissed
From the press release (though the embedded links with additional information aren’t yet working):
The Keweenaw Bay Indian Community is located in Baraga County, Mich., and has approximately 3,310 members. It has more than 6,000 acres of existing trust lands on its reservation in the state’s Upper Peninsula. The tribe has been operating and regulating a class III gaming facility in Marquette County, about 90 miles from its headquarters, since at least 2000. The tribe is proposing to relocate this existing facility to a new location within Marquette County, on an 80-acre parcel at the site of the former Marquette County Airport. The new site is 18 miles closer to the tribe’s reservation than its existing facility. Under a 2000 settlement agreement with the state of Michigan, the tribe has agreed to close its existing off-reservation gaming facility if its proposal receives final approval and it begins gaming activities on the new site.
The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) prohibits Indian gaming on lands acquired in trust after the law’s enactment in 1988, unless one of three explicitly crafted exceptions applies. The Keweenaw Bay Indian Community submitted its application under IGRA’s “Secretarial Determination” exception, which requires the Secretary to determine the proposed gaming establishment is in the best interest of the tribe and its citizens, and would not be detrimental to the surrounding community. The governor of Michigan must concur in this determination before the land can be acquired in trust for the tribe for gaming.
Interior also dismissed an application by the Cayuga Indian Nation, stating it was incomplete. Here is press coverage of that decision. Senator Schumer’s quote is particularly disheartening:
Schumer acknowledged that the battle over the Cayuga application could continue if the Cayugas submit a new application.
“I fought tooth and nail to have the Interior Department block this application, and am pleased that the federal government has heeded our call,” he said. “I’ll continue to stand side-by-side with homeowners, businesses, and county government leaders to oppose further attempts to take land into trust without the consent of Seneca and Cayuga counties.”
The Cayugas started the trust application process in 2005. The 125 acres it sought to place into federal trust includes part of the nation’s ancestral homeland around the north end of Cayuga Lake.
Documents are also available here
Update in Eagle Rock Mine Dispute
Here is a link to the AP news story.
Ingham County judge Paula Manderfield expected to rule in the next few weeks.
Sixth Circuit Affirms Conviction and Restitution in Theft of Ontonagon Reservation Timber
Here is the opinion in United States v. Genschow.
The part of the opinion affirming restitution for a higher than market value of the timber is interesting:
Tribal land similarly holds unique value in that its pristine, natural condition allow tribes to partake in and to preserve tribal traditions. See Letter from Warren C. Swartz, President, KBIC, to U.S. Probation Office (July 1, 2009). Any court’s attempt to transform somehow this value into an actual market figure would most certainly be difficult and unreliable. Because we conclude the Eleventh Circuit’s analysis in Shugart was persuasive, we hereby adopt its rule and conclude that when destroyed property is unique or lacks an active market such that the actual cash value is unreliable or unavailable, using replacement value as a measure for restitution is proper under the MVRA. We therefore hold that the district court did not abuse its discretion in awarding restitution.
And the briefs:
And, finally, the lower court opinion.
Eagle Rock Protester Sentenced
From the Mining Journal:
MARQUETTE – Keweenaw Bay Indian Community member Charlotte Loonsfoot received a 30-day delay of sentence today on a misdemeanor trespass charge involving a May protest of the Kennecott Eagle Minerals Company at Eagle Rock.
Loonsfoot, 37, of Baraga pleaded no contest today to the charge in Marquette County District Court. If she abides by all terms of the 30-day delay, the prosecution has agreed to dismiss the charge.
Defense attorney Karrie Wichtman of the Lansing firm of Rosette and Associates said the no contest plea allowed Loonsfoot to admit no wrongdoing.
Turtle Talk 
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