BRIMLEY - Action on the battle over inland hunting and fishing rights between five Michigan tribes and the State of Michigan has been delayed until later this summer, according to Bay Mills Attorney Kathryn Tierney, allowing the parties involved more time to work towards settlement.
The trial, which was slated to take place on Jan. 9, was postponed by presiding Judge Richard Alan Enslen of the U.S. District Court, Western District Court of Michigan, after the tribes and the state expressed the time line given was not adequate enough to both explore settlement and be prepared for trial.
"The parties involved are working very hard to see if it is possible to settle the case," said Tierney. "At this time we have been told the hearing will be scheduled for later this summer, possibly July."
The original call for judicial resolution on the matter was made in September 2003 when Attorney General Mike Cox filed pleadings with the federal court to settle the dispute between the state and the tribes on legal rights to hunt and fish on approximately 40 percent of Michigan land or 13.8 million acres.
The case calls for the court to interpret the 1836 Treaty of Washington, which gave tribes rights until "the land is required for settlement." The state has taken the position that all rights retained by the tribe have expired, except in reservation areas and any federal lands that have continuously been in federal ownership since 1836. The tribes assert that their rights to hunt and fish throughout the ceded territory state property in question are expressly written into the Treaty.
"We have a very basic disagreement," said Tierney.
Questions of interpreting the 1836 Treaty began in the 1970s with disputes over tribal members and their use of gill nets on the Great Lakes. At that time the courts determined the Great Lakes could not be "settled" and the tribes would always maintain their rights to fish in those waters. Inland hunting and fishing was not addressed at that time.
The five tribes involved - Bay Mills Indian Community, Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Little Traverse Bay Band of Ottawa Indians, Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, and Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians - have been independently regulating both hunting and fishing for a number of years.
The outcome of this federal court case has the potential to limit the lands where tribal members currently hunt and fish throughout the state.
