The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians recently asked the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider its stay in the case of Michigan v. Sault Ste. Marie Tribe. The court granted a hold while Attorney General Bill Schuette prepares an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. At issue is whether the tribe can be sued over its proposed 5 million Kewadin Lansing Casino. Last December the appeals court ruled in favor of the tribe, saying neither its Class III gaming compact nor the Michigan Indian Land Claims Settlement Act questioned the tribe’s sovereign immunity.
The tribe’s motion stated, “There is no reasonable probability that the Supreme Court will grant certiorari to review this court’s decision. And it is the Tribe that will be irreparably injured by the issuance of a stay, not the state by failing to secure such relief.”
The Sault tribe is awaiting the outcome of the litigation before it files an application to have its Lansing land taken into federal trust.
Also in Michigan, the Saginaw Chippewa tribe in Mount Pleasant ousted 50 members last October, stirring up memories of a dark period in 1996 when a failed attempt to remove 484 members caused divisions and conflict. Each adult ousted from the 3,700-member tribe lost $58,000 in annual payments derived from casino profits, as well as tribal health care, schooling and their home if they live on the reservation.
Fewer tribal members allow the remaining ones to receive a larger share of casino profits, noted David Wilkins, an American Indian Studies professor at the University of Minnesota. He said similar disenrollments are occurring across the nation; in fact, 54 tribes have forced out as many as 6,000 members. Tribes are stealing the self-identity and heritage of members by determining someone isn’t an Indian, or isn’t Indian enough, Wilkins noted. “The very definition of a tribal nation seems to be in rapid flux right now,” he said.
The tribe’s membership expanded to allow indirect descendants in the late 1980s, when the federal government said its membership requirements were too strict. Original members called new members “pretendians.” In 1996, the year the Soaring Eagle casino opened outside Mount Pleasant, the tribal council moved to expel 484 members. However, subsequent councils stayed the expulsions and eventually overturned 434 of them.
But in 2009 council members appealed a ruling by a tribal administrator opposing the pending expulsions of 50 members. Last year the tribal appellate court reversed the administrator’s decision, stating that allowing members to join the tribe under the relaxed rules of the late 1980s had been a mistake. Appeals are not allowed. Furthermore, since that ruling, the memberships of the remaining 434 people the council attempted to remove in 1996 are once again in jeopardy.
Some members blame the current situation on decreasing revenue at the tribe’s Soaring Eagle and Saganing Eagles Landing casinos. Per-capita payments have dropped from $78,000 in 2003 to $58,000 today. One of the 50 ousted members, Bill Masterson said, “This is all about money. The leadership is in a financial bind that they will do anything to get out of.”
