"Treaty Rights" - Part of a Wider Agenda to Extend Jurisdiction of Tribal Government
by Joe Fellegy

    Ojibwe on and off Minnesota Indian reservations frequently complain that their tribal governments are corrupt, or that major decisions are made by a handful of leaders who remain largely unaccountable to the people. Fairly or unfairly, guilty verdicts of some prominent tribal officials, including Chip Wadena, have deepened a lack of trust in reservation governments and in the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, an umbrella organization for six member bands including Mille Lacs.
    Nevertheless, a big-bucks agenda of extending the authority and jurisdiction of these tribal governments marches on at a fast pace. Treaty rights are only part of this power grab, much of which advances like a steamroller behind the backs of tribal members who are kept in the dark about everything, and behind the backs of non-Indian citizens who finance it via government grants and programs that they've never heard of.
    To advance the agenda of compromising state and local jurisdiction while expanding tribal government control, millions of dollars are being spent on legal work, consultant fees, scientific reports, and the assembling of tribal government bureaucracies to "manage" resources and to conduct regulatory programs.
    Some observers maintain that the tribal governments' main goal in suing for fishing and hunting rights has little to do with the desires or needs of Band members. Rather, it is more about using claims to fish and wildlife, and about using "Ojibwe culture" - from diet to religion - as stepping stones towards more tribal regulatory authority. It's all about jurisdiction and control, they insist.

Examples of recent happenings:

· The Fond du Lac Band and the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) signed an agreement in May which gives the Band the authority to establish water quality standards for Indians and non-Indians within the boundaries of the Fond du Lac reservation. The Band had earlier applied for Treatment in the Same Manner as a State under provisions of the Clean Water Act. Officials at EPA and at the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) expect other Bands to seek, and receive, similar authority. The Fond du Lac Band successfully demonstrated to EPA "its authority over all water resources on the reservation."

· Under provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act, the EPA has recently approved Treatment as a State (TAS) status for the Mille Lacs Band so the tribal government can conduct an underground injection control (UIC) program. That envisions the tribal government being the primary authority, like a state, over certain classes of wells and septic systems, for Indians and non-Indians, in the old 61,000-acre Mille Lacs Reservation covering several townships of northern Mille Lacs County. This "reservation" has been off the maps for many decades and is not recognized by the State of Minnesota. The Mille Lacs Band tribal government has also applied for authority to conduct a non-point source program in this same area, again with a regulatory role impacting non-Indians.

· Recently, the EPA approved the Grand Portage Band of Chippewa's application to administer the water quality standards and certification programs within their reservation pursuant to the Clean Water Act. Apparently the Band satisfied requirements specified in the Code of Federal Regulations, "Requirements for Indian Tribes to be treated as States for purposes of water quality standards." Under another section of the same act, the Grand Portage tribal government and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) have entered a Cooperative Agreement to jointly plan and administer water quality standards and certification programs for certain waters along the shoreline of Lake Superior.

    EPA's awarding Treatment as a State (TAS) status to the Mille Lacs Band within the boundaries of the old Mille Lacs Reservation for administering water quality programs would seem to foreshadow a clash with state officials, since Minnesota's position has been that the old 1855 Treaty reservation was diminished and disestablished. Moreover, the state has claimed in the past that Mille Lacs Lake itself was never part of the original Mille Lacs Reservation, which was ceded to the United States in the Treaty of 1864. The Mille Lacs tribal government claims otherwise.