Members of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe harvest “manoomin” (wild rice), an essential traditional food. The tribe is fighting for this plant’s right to thrive.
In response, the state of Minne-
sota filed a motion to dismiss the case based on a “false claim,” saying the lands affected are not within the tribe’s jurisdiction. When the motion was dis- missed, the state sued the tribe’s judge in federal court, violating a treaty that guaranteed the Ojibwe inherent and sovereign rights to hunt, fish and gather, even in the territories that were ceded to the U.S. government. This past January, the Sauk-Suiattle
Tribe sued the city of Seattle, seeking legal recognition of the rights of “Tsu- ladxw” (salmon) to “exist, flourish . . . and regenerate” and asserting the tribe’s responsibility to protect salmon from the
damages caused by the city’s dams on the Skagit River. Similar to the White Earth Case, the Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe vs. City of Seattle lawsuit is predicated on a treaty between the tribe and the United States that grants tribal members rights to fish, hunt, gather and travel on their ancestral territory. For now, these cases seem to be play-
ing out a football match of who ulti- mately has what control over jurisdic- tions on and off tribal lands. As of early March, the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals had not yet issued a verdict in the White Earth Band’s case and the Sauk-Suiattle Tribe’s lawsuit has yet to be seen in court. Yet these are just two of many more Indigenous-led cases to come to pro- tect threatened ecosystems across the United States. If treaty rights based in the inherent sovereignty of American Indian tribes are not upheld by federal courts, these cases could expand to the International Courts of Justice. Legal
dismissal of rights defined by treaties between the United States and tribal sovereign nations will weaken the sov- ereignty of nation states around the world, contributing to global trends to undermine democracy while making a statement that Indigenous peoples and the ancestral territories we protect do not matter. “We have perpetual rights to enjoy
and spiritual duty and responsibility to protect the gifts from the Creator,” said Frank Bibeau, citizen of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe and the attorney repre- senting White Earth Band’s case. “Our quality of life is directly dependent on and connected to the quality of lives of our relations—the water (“nibi”), wild rice (“manoomin”), fish, birds, four- legged animals and plants. We cannot live without them.”
alexis celeste bunten (Yup’ik/ Unangan) is co-director of the Bioneers’ Indigeneity Program.
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION SPRING 2022 9
VICKIE KETTLEWELL
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