From the Mining Gazette:
He’s back: Dakota wins runoff, back on council
Fred Dakota, shown in this June 2006 file photo, won Saturday’s runoff election for the second seat in the Baraga district of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community’s tribal council.
Keweenaw Bay Indian Community
Suit Filed Against State re: Acid Mine in U.P.
Here’s the commentary from the activists. And here are some materials on the mine from the Great Lakes Natural Resource Center in Ann Arbor. Here’s our previous post on the subject.
We’ll post the complaint when we get it.
Preliminary Results of KBIC Council Vote
From the Mining Gazette:
Tribal elections too close to call
By JANE NORDBERG, DMG Writer
BARAGA — Unofficial results from the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community’s Tribal Council elections held Saturday show a close race, especially for the two seats in the Baraga District.
More on the Manoomin Project – U.P. program for Juvenile Court youth
From Indian Country Today:Manoomin Project teaches at-risk youth respect, culture Posted: November 21, 2007 by: Greg Peterson
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| Photo courtesy Greg Peterson/second photo courtesy Steve Durocher — The Manoomin Project teaches at-risk teens – sentenced in juvenile court for minor crimes – respect for themselves, Native heritage and nature. The teens study and plant wild rice, and learn how the grain is used in ceremonies. Don Chosa, Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, guides the students on the outings. Teens and volunteers, who later planted wild rice, were shown young plants prior to the July 2006 survey. The teens were then asked to identify the wild rice – mixed with other plants – at the seven remote planting sites. |
MARQUETTE, Mich. – American Indians have long known the medicinal and spiritual benefits of manoomin; but along the shores of Lake Superior in northern Michigan, a wild rice restoration project is teaching non-Native teenagers respect for American Indian culture and the environment.”This is about respect for nature,” the Rev. Jon Magnuson said to a rambunctious group of teenagers.
On the first of a three-day outing in July 2006, the teens were embarking on a several-mile hike into the remote Northwoods of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to study the previous year’s wild rice crop.
It wasn’t long before those teens topped a hill and surprised two bear cubs that scrambled up a tree about 50 yards away.
”Look – there are two bears,” said a teenage boy motioning to others to run toward the cubs.
Their guide, Don Chosa, Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, knew that meant a protective mother wasn’t far away.
”Remember what I said about respect,” Chosa said – and the curious teens stopped in their tracks.
Chosa instructed the youth to give the cubs a wide berth.
The Manoomin Project teaches at-risk teens – sentenced in juvenile court for minor crimes – respect for themselves, Native heritage and nature. The teens study and plant wild rice, and learn how the grain is used in ceremonies.
Since 2004, about 130 teens and dozens of adult volunteers have planted more than a ton of wild rice seed in U.P. waters, where it once thrived but disappeared a century ago due to logging and other human activities.
The project is sponsored by the Cedar Tree Institute, the Superior Watershed Partnership and the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community.
Tribal Exhaustion Doctrine & KBIC Tribal Court
Judge Quist in the Western District of Michigan recently remanded a tort claim back to tribal court in accordance with the tribal court exhaustion doctrine, as articulated in National Farmers Union and Iowa Mutual.
The case is called Michigan Property & Casualty Guaranty Association v. Foucault-Funke American Legion Post 444.
The motion to dismiss is here: Memorandum in Support of Motion
The response brief is here: Response Brief
Judge Quist’s opinion remanding the case to tribal court is here: Opinion
Mich. Supreme Court Justice Cavanagh Talk: Michigan Indian Judicial Association
Justice Michael Cavanagh, the Michigan Supreme Court’s liaison with Michigan’s tribal courts, is speaking before the members of the Michigan Indian Judicial Association this morning.
Justice Cavanagh, along with Tribal Judge Michael Petoskey, spearheaded the Court’s adoption of Michigan Court Rule 2.615, extending comity to tribal court judgments.
Justice Cavanagh wrote about the origins of the rule in an article published in the University of Detroit Law Review. Download Justice Cavanagh’s Article.
Tribal courts from numerous tribes appeared at this talk today at the MSU College of Law: Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi Indians, Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, Bay Mills Indian Community, Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe.
Justice Michael F. Cavanagh
Justice Cavanagh received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Detroit in 1962 and his law degree from the University of Detroit Law School in 1966. He began his career as a law clerk for the Michigan Court of Appeals. In 1967, Justice Cavanagh was hired as an assistant city attorney for the City of Lansing and thereafter was appointed as Lansing City Attorney, serving until 1969. He then became a partner in the Lansing law firm of Farhat, Burns and Story, P.C. In 1971, he was elected judge of the 54-A District Court. Justice Cavanagh was then elected to the Michigan Court of Appeals, where he served from 1975-1982. At that time, he was the youngest person ever elected to the Michigan Court of Appeals. Justice Cavanagh was elected to the state Supreme Court in 1982 and was re-elected in 1990, 1998, and 2006. He served as Chief Justice from 1991-95. Justice Cavanagh’s current term expires January 1, 2015.
The son of a factory worker and a teacher who moved to Detroit from Canada, Justice Cavanagh worked on Great Lakes freighters during the summers to help pay his tuition at the University of Detroit. During his years in law school, he was employed as an insurance claims adjuster and also worked for the Wayne County Friend of the Court as an investigator.
Justice Cavanagh has participated in numerous community and professional activities, including Chairman of the Board of the American Heart Association, Past President of the Incorporated Society of Irish/American Lawyers, Board of Directors of the Thomas M. Cooley Law School, and the Commission on the Future of the University of Detroit Mercy . He is a Member of the Institute of Judicial Administration, New York University Law School. He has served as Vice President of the Conference of Chief Justices, Chair of the National Interbranch Conference of Funding the State Courts, and member of the National Center for State Courts Court Improvement Program. Other appointments include the Michigan Justice Project, Chairman of the Judicial Planning Committee, Michigan Crime Commission, Judicial Coordinating Committee, and Chair of the Sentencing Guidelines Committee. Justice Cavanagh is the Supervising Justice of the Michigan Judicial Institute. Justice Cavanagh was instrumental in the planning, design, construction and eventual completion of the Michigan Hall of Justice. He has served as Supreme Court Liaison, Michigan Indian Tribal Courts/Michigan State Courts since 1990, and has attended many national Indian Law conferences and participated in Federal Bar Association Tribal Court symposiums.
Justice Cavanagh and his wife, Patricia, are the parents of three children, and have two grandsons. The Cavanagh family resides in East Lansing .
Copper and Nickel Mining Proposal in the UP
Once again, mining companies are promising wealth and prosperity (along with no pollution) to the residents of the UP, this time proposing to dig a mine under Big Bay.
From the Detroit Free Press: “The proposed Kennecott Eagle mine would be dug directly beneath the shimmering Salmon Trout River, home to the rare coaster brook trout, and its tunnel would be blasted below Eagle Rock, considered sacred by the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community.”
Turtle Talk 