NATIVE TREATY RIGHTS

1. NATIVE TREATY RIGHTS Dr. Zoltan Grossman Faculty member in Geography and Native American Studies, The Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washingtonhttp://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz “Supreme Law of the Land” (U.S. Constitution Article VI )

2. Treaties for cessions (Land transfers to U.S.) • Cessions traded land for peace (prevented war) • U.S. benefited from ceded lands & resources • If abrogate treaties, give back land? Pay for resources?

3. Usufructuary (Use) Rights • Tribes could not survive on reservation resources alone, so treaties reserved use rights on ceded lands -- Hunting, fishing, gathering • Similar to use rights after selling private property • Access to fruit tree, boat landings, road, etc. • Some treaties further specified that services or payments were to be provided to the tribe • Unequal to land’s value

4. Treaty annuity payments to OjibweLaPointe, Madeline Island, WI 1852

5. Treaties Treaties are agreements between sovereign nations. 371+ treaties signed by U.S. & Native nations to 1871, implied recognition of sovereignty. Only federal government can negotiate a treaty; State laws cannot impinge

6. Reserved Rights Doctrine Treaties removed rights. They did not grant them. Tribes sold land to U.S. under conditions. Rights to control ceded lands taken away. Tribes retained some rights practiced for centuries.

7. Canons of Construction Accounts of treaty talks, translations often ambiguous Historical inquiry into context of culture & economy Ambiguities must be resolved in favor of Indians. Treaties must be interpreted and construed as Indians would have understood them.

8. Violations of treaty rights • Ward vs. Race Horse decision, 1896 • Statehood nullified treaties • Hunting/fishing for sport rather than food in early 1900s (T. Roosevelt) • “Conservation” of resources used to curtail tribal rights • Treaty rights practiced in secret; Confiscations, jail terms if caught

9. Washington “Fish-Ins,” 1960s • Treaties of 1854-55 guaranteed fishing rights • Returning vets asserted rights, called “poachers” • Attracted national support for Puget Sound tribes • Violent reaction from police, local vigilantes

10. Boldt Decision, 1974 • WA tribes entitled to a share of fish (50%) “in common” • Can fish in “usual and accustomed” places • Tribes need a “modest” standard of living • Belloni decisions for Columbia River tribes

11. Backlash to Boldt • Backlash from sportfishermen, commercial fishermen • Steelhead/Salmon Protective Assoc. and Wildlife Network (S/SPAWN) • Joined reservation whites opposing tribal jurisdiction • Interstate Congress for Equal Rights and Responsbilities

12. National Anti-Treaty Movement • Spread from Northwest to Great Plains to Midwest • Overlap with national “Wise Use” movement; some contact with right-wing extremist groups (Ryser) • Citizens Equal Rights Alliance (CERA) national network strongly denies racism www.citizensalliance.org

13. Definitions of Place • SOCIAL Defines place as belonging to one ethnic or racial group (“Law of the Blood”) • TERRITORIAL Defines place geographically as home for all who live there (“Law of the Soil”) “Ethnic cleansing” in early ‘90s to match ethnic, state boundaries Flag of Bosnian Serbs (ethnic) Flag of Bosnia (multiethnic state)

14. Geographies of Exclusion (Sibley) • “Insiders” belong in the place • “Outsiders” are transgressing in the place • “Insiders” set up boundaries, rules to exclude outsiders • Examples: Gypsies, Homeless, Ethnic minorities, etc.

15. Indians as “Outsiders” • Native Americans “belong” in place (on reservation) • Spearfishers “transgressing” into non-Indian social space • Whites “border towns” zones of social exclusion • Wisconsin chants: “White Man’s Land,” “Indians Go Home”

16. Anti-Treaty Movement:“Equal Rights for Whites” • Interpretation of civil rights as individual rights • Whites victims of “Red Apartheid” • Martin Luther King would have opposed treaties?

17. Anti-Treaty Movement:Access to natural resources • Indians granted “special rights” to resources • Tribes are pawns in federal “land grab” • Fish & game endangered by “rape” of resources • “Sport” is higher use of resources than “harvest”

18. Anti-Treaty Movement: Economic dependency • Indians opposed for being on welfare • “Welfare Cadillac” message • Indians have “free” housing, education, medical care, cash • Indians use tax $$, “don’t pay taxes” • Indians opposed for getting off welfare

19. Pro-Treaty Movement • Response to displays of racism by anti-treaty groups • Witnessing of anti-Indian harassment and violence • Public education on history, culture, resources • Build environmental and economic common ground with non-Indians

20. Shared identities in conflict • Both Native & non-Indian fishers depend on resources for identity • Both highly value outdoors for cultural lifestyle • Both relatively poor; mom & pop businesses closing for corporate chains • Both independent rural people often at odds with government

21. Anti-Treaty Movement:“Equal Rights for Whites” • Interpretation of civil rights as individual rights • Whites victims of “Red Apartheid” • Martin Luther King would have opposed treaties?

22. Anti-Treaty Movement:Access to natural resources • Indians granted “special rights” to resources • Tribes are pawns in federal “land grab” • Fish & game endangered by “rape” of resources • “Sport” is higher use of resources than “harvest”

23. Anti-Treaty Movement: Economic dependency • Indians opposed for being on welfare • “Welfare Cadillac” message • Indians have “free” housing, education, medical care, cash • Indians use tax $$, “don’t pay taxes” • Indians opposed for getting off welfare

24. Pro-Treaty Movement • Response to displays of racism by anti-treaty groups • Witnessing of anti-Indian harassment and violence • Public education on history, culture, resources • Build environmental and economic common ground with non-Indians

25. Shared identities in conflict • Both Native & non-Indian fishers depend on resources for identity • Both highly value outdoors for cultural lifestyle • Both relatively poor; mom & pop businesses closing for corporate chains • Both independent rural people often at odds with government

26. “When America says something, America means it, whether a treaty, or an agreement, or a vow made on marble steps. Great nations, like great men, keep their word.” -- President George Bush, Inaugural address, 1989