Years ago, Wisconsin sued the Stockbridge-Munsee Community over the site of its Class III gaming operation, alleging that the land upon which the casino was located was outside the reservation boundaries, or that the reservation had been disestablished. The case is in the Seventh Circuit now and briefing is underway:
1999-dct-opinion-wisconsin-v-stockbridge-munsee
2004-dct-opinion-wisconsin-v-stockbridge-munsee
From the Wisconsin State Journal:
Northern Wisconsin marks an anniversary this year, but not everyone is celebrating. It involves 19th century Indian treaties that brought walleyes, fork-like spears, rock-throwing protesters and claims of racism to the forefront.
Twenty-five years ago, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago affirmed that Chippewa Indian tribes retained off-reservation fishing and hunting rights in 1837 and 1842 treaties that ceded millions of acres of what is now the northern third of Wisconsin to the U.S. government.
It led to a revival of an ancient Chippewa practice — spearing spawning walleyes from lakes in the spring — and led to fears from hook-and-line anglers that the fisheries would be ruined by a fishing method they claimed wasn’t sporting at all.
The Seventh Circuit remanded (again) the dispute over the revenue sharing provisions of the Class III gaming compact between the State of Wisconsin and the Ho-Chunk Nation.
The briefs are here:
Turtle Talk 