Keweenaw Bay Indian Community

State Court Challenge to Kennecott Eagle Mine Permit Filed

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From the NYTs:

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Four groups have filed a lawsuit hoping to overturn a state permit for a nickel and copper mine in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, saying the project does not meet legal requirements for protecting the environment.

The opponents said Kennecott Eagle Minerals Co.’s application didn’t prove the project would avoid damaging rivers, groundwater and other natural resources in the Yellow Dog Plains region of Marquette County, an undeveloped area prized for its woods and streams.

They particularly fear the mine’s ceiling could collapse beneath the nearby Salmon Trout River, a Lake Superior tributary home to the rare coaster brook trout.

”The evidence is compelling, the facts are strong and the law is squarely on our side,” Michelle Halley, attorney for the National Wildlife Federation, said Monday. Also joining the suit are the Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve, the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community and the Huron Mountain Club.

The circuit court lawsuit was filed in Washtenaw County, where the wildlife federation’s Great Lakes regional office is located.

Continue reading →

U.P. Public Meeting on Kennecott Mine

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

From tv via A.K.:

ISHPEMING TWP. — Wednesday night, a public hearing was held at Westwood High School to discuss Kennecott’s Woodland Road Project. The road would connect Kennecott’s planned mine site to US-41.

The route is designed to avoid large population areas. Tonight’s public hearing was meant to be informative for both the community and the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, or DNRE. With the Kennecott Mine being such a huge controversy in the U.P., giving the public an open microphone, led to an interesting evening.

Within minutes of the hearing, one environmental activist was escorted out of the auditorium for disruptive behavior. But the interruption didn’t stop the hearing. Only allotted three minutes to speak, community members made sure their opinions were heard. Continue reading →

Kennecott Mine Permits Okayed

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From Michigan Messenger (h/t to A.K.) [DEQ press release here]:

Two days before the DEQceases to exist and a week after its director stepped down, DEQ moved to wrap up a long standing fight over permits for a planned nickel sulfide mine by concluding that only buildings may be considered “places of worship.”

A rock that is sacred toAnishnabe people need not be considered when issuing a mining permit because state law only recognizes buildings as places of worship, the Department of Environmental Quality announced Thursday.

This decision cleared the way for DEQ to finalize permits for a mine planned for public land on the Yellow Dog Plain northwest of Marquette.

The resolution comes at a time of great tumult for the department. Director Steven Chester resigned last week, and the department is slated to come under the leadership of DNR director Rebecca Humphries when it is rolled into the new Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment on Jan. 17.

For seven years the Kennecott Eagle Minerals Company, a subsidiary of London-based Rio Tinto, has been trying to develop the mine project. The company promised hundreds of construction and mining jobs but has faced opposition from groups that are concerned that acid drainage from the mine will damage the nearby Salmon Trout River and Lake Superior.

The National Wildlife Federation, Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve, and the Huron Mountain Club together filed an administrative appeal of DEQ’s 2007 approval of mining and groundwater discharge permits for the mine. Continue reading →

Profile of Fred Dakota: “The Father of Indian Casino Gaming”

Matthew L.M. Fletcher2 Comments

Written by KBIC chief judge (and Fred’s son) Brad Dakota.

Here.

PDF

Michigan Case re: Tribal Court to Federal Court Removal and Remand

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

This case, Geroux v. Assurant, Inc., started as a tribal court complaint against two insurance companies seeking benefits for long-term disability, but was removed by the defendants to federal court. The district court remanded the case back to tribal court under the principles of the tribal court exhaustion doctrine.

Tribal Court Complaint against Assurant

Tribal Court Complaint against Union Security

Geroux Motion to Remand

Union Security Co. Answer and Counterclaim

Assurant Answer

Geroux Motion to Dismiss Counterclaim

Union Security Opposition to Motion to Dismiss

Geroux v Assurant DCT Remand Order

Devastating Forest Fire at Keweenaw Bay Indian Reservation

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From ICT:

MARQUETTE, Mich. – Several American Indian tribes helped plant 12,000 trees across northern Michigan in May during the interfaith EarthKeeper Tree Project including members of an Ojibwa tribe who bravely tried to save 45 sacred spirit houses from being destroyed as two huge forest fires broke out just hours after planting the last seedlings.

Thousands of EarthKeeper volunteers from more than 100 churches and temples planted more than 12,000 white spruce and red pine seedlings measuring 12 to 16 inches tall in all 15 Upper Peninsula counties and Minocqua, Wis., said Catholic EarthKeeper Kyra Fillmore of Marquette, the project distribution coordinator, adding the teams hope “the trees grow strong and tall.”

The EarthKeeper team includes 10 faith traditions with more than 150 participating churches/temples (Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, United Methodist Church, Unitarian Universalist, Baha’i, Jewish, Zen Buddist, Quakers), plus the nonprofits Superior Watershed Partnership and Cedar Tree Institute, as well as the Northern Michigan University EarthKeeper Student Team.

Hours after the last of 12,000 trees were planted, a forest fire on the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community reservation jumped the road ravaging a sacred cemetery.

In an ironic twist, two huge forest fires erupted May 20 destroying thousands of trees only hours after the final ones were planted by members of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community.

Fanned by 40 mile per hour winds with gusts to 60 mph, one inferno in Baraga County rampaged across hundreds of acres of KBIC forest land and into a tribal cemetery used by members of the Zeba Indian Mission United Methodist Church.

Susan J. LaFernier, church member and KBIC vice president, said the fire destroyed 45 sacred spirit houses at the KBIC Pinery Cemetery that has been managed by the Zeba Indian Mission for nearly 200 years.

When the blaze roared across the remote cemetery surrounded by woods LaFernier was raking and preparing to bury her cousin hours after planting the last of the trees.

She and tribal men, who were preparing the grave, jumped into action using anything they could to prevent the fire from reaching the spirit houses; fortunately dozens were saved.

Continue reading →

Marquette General Hospital v. Chosa — Bizarre Fight over a Hospital Bill

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

The case involves an inmate of the Baraga County jail who is a member of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community. Apparently, the hospital and the county asked the tribe to reimburse for costs associated with a cardiac event, but too late for any federal or tribal medical cost reimbursement. And so now they’re fighting over who pays the bill (it looks like the county).

Here is the opinion, out of the Michigan Court of Appeals. An excerpt:

Baraga County contends that the Hospital did not take reasonable efforts to secure alternative payment almost entirely because the Hospital did not seek repayment from the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community. Baraga County contends that the Hospital should have known about the possibility of Indian Health Care for Chosa, but it provides no evidence in support of this assertion beyond the somewhat bizarre request for this Court to “take judicial notice of the fact that Plaintiff-appellant routinely bills the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC) for reimbursement for medical services provided to tribal members.” Baraga County apparently bases its assertion on the additional contention that “while it may not be politically correct to say so it is objectively true that Mr. Chosa’s appearance in no way disguises his Native American heritage.” The Hospital, more reasonably, points out that Baraga County is effectively urging this Court to adopt a policy of acting on assumptions based on physical appearance. In any event, the evidence of record shows that Baraga County was aware of Chosa’s heritage and that Baraga County informed the Hospital of this in a letter dated September 26, 2006. The record contains no evidence whatsoever that the Hospital knew or should have known anything about Chosa’s heritage earlier than that date.

UP Copper Mine Delayed by Bad Economy

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

From the AP:

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Construction of a proposed nickel and copper mine in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is being delayed because of poor market conditions, its parent company said Thursday.

But project manager Jon Cherry said the announcement by London-based Rio Tinto Group does not mean the Kennecott Eagle mine is off the table. Planning and preparations are continuing with the expectation that it eventually will be built, he said.

“Our offices in Michigan are remaining open and we are moving forward,” Cherry said. None of the 25 employees are being laid off, he said.

Continue reading →

Federal Criminal Jurisdiction over Ontonagon Reservation in the Upper Peninsula

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Kudos to Jeff Davis for this one! The United States Attorney’s Office in Grand Rapids is prosecuting the taking of tribal timber on trust land on the Ontonagon Reservation of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community. The defendant argued the reservation was no longer reservation land, but Judge Robert Holmes Bell rejected the motion. Interesting case!

genschow-indictment

genschow-motion-to-dismiss

us-response-to-motion-to-dismiss-genschow

ontonagon-band-constitution

united-states-v-genschow-dct-opinion

Fletcher on “Laughing Whitefish” and Tribal Customary Law

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Matthew Fletcher posted “Laughing Whitefish: A Tale of Justice and Anishinaabe Custom” on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

Laughing Whitefish, a novel by Robert Traver, the pen name of former Michigan Supreme Court Justice John Voelker, is the fictionalized story of a case that reached the Michigan Supreme Court three times, culminating in Kobogum v. Jackson Iron Co., 43 N.W. 602 (Mich. 1889). The petitioner, Charlotte Kobogum, an Ojibwe Indian from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, brought suit to recover under a note issued to her father, Marji Gesick, by the mining company in the 1840s. The company had promised a share in the company because he had led them to one of the largest iron ore deposits in the country, the famed Jackson Mine. Despite the company’s defense that Mr. Gesick was a polygamist and therefore Ms. Kobogum could not be his legitimate heir, the Michigan Supreme Court held that state courts had no right to interfere with internal, domestic relations of reservation Indians, and upheld the claim. Justice Voelker’s tale is a powerful defense of the decision, and offers insights into why state courts should recognize the judgments of tribal courts even today.

book cover of Laughing Whitefish by Robert Traver