Professor Miles, welcome back to the program. Thanks so much for joining us and, of course, congratulations again on the McArthur. And I’d like to ask you, when you first encountered stories of African-Americans and Native American slaves in Michigan, in the Michigan territory. I think it’s a surprise to many people to know or to even think about the fact that slavery existed that far north.

TIYA MILES: Well, I first encountered this when I took a class to the Ypsilanti Historical Museum, and we also took a local Underground Railroad tour. And we learned about an abolitionist here in southeast Michigan named Laura Haviland, who did work in Detroit and also in Ontario.

And she taught a school for escaped slaves in Canada, and there were blacks, as well as native people at that school. So that, for me, was the first clue that there was something between black people and native people in Detroit history regarding slavery, as well as in the Southeast.

MARTIN: Well, what have you been able to piece together about the slave experience in Michigan for both African-Americans and Native Americans? And I realize that the research is in its early stages. I know we want to stress that. But what have you been able to piece together?

MILES: Well, the first thing that strikes me about this research is that Detroit is a very unusual place. It was a major settlement for Native Americans, for French settlers, for British settlers and then later, for the Americans. So that meant that it was an area where lots of people were moving through and passing through.

There was a good deal of contestation over who would get to control Detroit. Would it be the French? Would it be the British? And would it be the Americans? And this meant that slavery also had a multilayered aspect in Detroit.

A little side note: Laura Haviland spent much of her adult life just outside of Adrian, Michigan in Raisin Township, and ran a school there, in addition to being a part of the Underground Railroad. Until 2010, a statute of her sat in front of Adrian City Hall. Put in storage while the old City Hall was demolished, the city is currently thinking about putting it in front of the Adrian Historical Society. Haviland’s papers are held by the University of Michigan, and she wrote her autobiography, A Woman’s Life Work in 1881. One of the first historical projects I ever worked on (including my first trip to an archive to look at her papers) was examining the many different editions Haviland released of A Woman’s Life Work, all with slight changes as she continually rewrote her life’s work.

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Romero Opening Brief

Nambe Pueblo Brief

Here are the lower court materials.

Mashantucket Pequot Motion for Summary J

Mashantucket Pequot Opposition to Town’s Motion for Summary J

Mashantucket Pequot Reply

Other grievances, not surprisingly, involve money – particularly the sovereign nation’s deal to pay the state a quarter of its slot machine revenues instead of local taxes on reservation property in the northeastern corner of Ledyard.

Though the town grudgingly concedes it can’t collect these revenues, it has for years been trying to levy taxes on personal property owned by non-Indians on reservation lands – specifically slot machines that a New Jersey company leases to the tribe.

Six years ago the tribe and Atlantic City Coin & Slot Service sued Ledyard to block these taxes, claiming such municipal action disregards well-established principles of federal Indian law and interferes with the tribe’s gaming operations, self-determination and sovereign immunity.

So far, the town has spent $900,000 fighting the litigation – a whopping sum that could have been used to hire teachers, repave miles of roads or buy thousands of new library books.

The second (here) includes a quote on the Indian law implications of the case:

Bethany Berger, a professor of Indian law at the University of Connecticut School of Law, said that taxation of non-Indians and their property on tribal lands is complicated. Berger, co-author and member of the editorial board of Felix S. Cohen’s Handbook of Federal Indian Law, the pre-eminent treatise in the field, does not think Ledyard’s case is a strong one.

“The machines are leased by the tribe as part of this federally regulated business that the tribe has a big interest in,” she said, adding that the interests of the state of Connecticut in the matter may not be as strong as Ledyard officials hope.

“With respect to state interest, it can’t just be revenue-raising interest,” Berger said. “Ledyard wants to make money by taxing the machines, and that’s not the kind of interest that’s really important. The federal interest is very strong because of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act and the tribal interest is also strong because this is the business that provides most of the tribe’s revenue.”

An excerpt:

He said: “My passionate support for Lansing and our casino project may have gotten the better of me, but none of my remarks were directed toward Native Americans, and nothing I said can fairly be construed as a racial slur, despite our opponent’s attempt to spin it that way. I make no apologies for using strong language against our opponents, who have made some very impertinent remarks about me, but I do offer my heartfelt and sincere apology to any and all who were offended by my choice of words.”

LANSING — Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero is under fire this morning from a pair of Michigan Indian tribes and a tribal lobbyist who said the mayor made a series of racially insensitive remarks about Native Americans at a fundraiser last week.

The Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi and Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribes, who have come out in strong opposition to a proposed Indian casino in Lansing, said Bernero “repeatedly used profanity and racial slurs in describing the (casino) controversy.”

DCT Decision in Frito-Lay v Stover

Frito-Lay Motion for Summary J

Stover Opposition to Frito-Lay Motio

Frito-Lay Reply

Stover Motion to Dismiss

Tribal Motion to Dismiss

Reginald Dale Akeen pleaded guilty in December 2009 to a felony violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. He admitted he offered to sell a fan made of juvenile golden eagle feathers, also known as “black and whites,” to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service undercover agent and that he contacted an accomplice who agreed to sell a nine-feather black and white fan. As part of his plea agreement, Akeen agreed to speak on video about the significance of the feathers of eagles and other birds to Native Americans and about the fact that he broke the law.