Keweenaw Bay Indian Community v. Naftaly, 05-1952.
| Citation | 452 F.3d 514 |
| Decision Date | 26 June 2006 |
| Docket Number | No. 05-1952.,05-1952. |
| Parties | KEWEENAW BAY INDIAN COMMUNITY, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Robert NAFTALY, et al., Defendants-Appellants, Township of L'Anse, et al., Defendants. |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (6th Circuit) |
ARGUED: Todd B. Adams, Office of the Attorney General, Lansing, Michigan, for Appellants. Vernle C. Durocher, Dorsey & Whitney, Minneapolis, Minnesota, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Todd B. Adams, Office of the Attorney General, Lansing, Michigan, for Appellants. Vernle C. Durocher, Mary J. Streitz, Dorsey & Whitney, Minneapolis, Minnesota, John R. Baker, Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, Baraga, Michigan, Stephen D. Turner, Gregory N. Longworth, Law, Weathers & Richardson, Grand Rapids, Michigan, for Appellee.
Before: GUY, DAUGHTREY, and CLAY, Circuit Judges.
GUY, J. (p. 533-534), delivered a separate dissenting opinion.
Defendants Naftaly, et al., appeal the June 1, 2005 order of the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan granting Plaintiff Keweenaw Bay Indian Community's motion for summary judgment, entering the declaratory judgment that the Michigan General Property Tax Act ("Act"), Mich. Comp. Laws § 211.1 et seq., was not valid as applied to real property held in fee simple by Plaintiff or its members within the exterior boundaries of the L'Anse Indian Reservation, and enjoining Defendants from enforcing the Act against said real property. For the following reasons, we AFFIRM the order of the district court.
On August 13, 2003, Plaintiff filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan seeking declaratory and injunctive relief against Defendants. The suit was in response to Defendants' attempts to assess, collect, and enforce ad valorem taxes under the Act against real property within the L'Anse reservation held by Plaintiff or its members in fee simple.
On December 12, 2003, Defendants filed a motion to dismiss under Federal Rules of Procedure 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6). On September 27, 2004, the district court denied the motion.
On October 26, 2004, Defendants filed a motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6) and a motion for summary judgment under Rule 56. On December 17, 2004, Plaintiff filed a motion for summary judgment under Rule 56 on Counts I and II of its complaint. Count I alleged that Plaintiff was entitled to declaratory and injunctive relief because Congress had not clearly authorized state taxation of the real property at issue. Count II alleged that Plaintiff was entitled to declaratory and injunctive relief because application of the Act would violate the terms of the 1854 Treaty. On June 1, 2005, the district court denied Defendants' motion for summary judgment, granted Plaintiff's motion for summary judgment, entered a declaratory judgment that the Act was not valid as applied to the real property at issue, and enjoined Defendants from enforcing the Act against said real property. On June 28, 2005, Defendants timely filed a notice of appeal.
Plaintiff is a federally recognized American Indian tribe and is the successor in interest of the L'Anse and Ontonagon bands of Chippewa Indians. Plaintiff exercises powers of self-governance and jurisdiction over the L'Anse Indian Reservation in Baraga County, Michigan.
Defendant Robert Naftaly is the chairperson of the Michigan State Tax Commission ("Commission"). Defendant Robert Lupi is a member of the Commission. Defendant Doug Roberts is a member of the Commission. Defendant Dennis Platte is the executive secretary of the Commission. Plaintiff sued these Defendants in their official capacities. These Defendants are the appellants in the instant case.
Defendant L'Anse Township is a political and corporate body of the state of Michigan. Defendant assesses, collects, and enforces real property taxes under the Act. Defendant Baraga Township is a political and corporate body of the state of Michigan. Defendant assesses, collects, and enforces real property taxes under the Act. Defendant Matthew Arko is the assessor for L'Anse Township and Baraga Township. These Defendants did not appeal the district court's decision.
The following historical account was found by a district court in a case unrelated to the case before this Court, Keweenaw Bay Indian Community v. State of Michigan, 784 F.Supp. 418 (W.D.Mich. 1991):
The Keweenaw Bay is located on the southern shore of Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. From the earliest records there existed a band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians near the mouth of the Bay, on an east-west transportation corridor used by the Indians and later by fur traders. The Indians subsisted before the coming of European society, consistent with their traditional lifestyle, which included annual rounds of hunting and trapping in the Winter and fishing in the Spring, Summer and Fall. The Lake Superior Chippewas' lifestyle was first impacted by contact with the French, followed by the English and finally by the Americans. Euro-American contacts exposed the Chippewa, inter alia, to Christianity, a new kind of market economy, greed and avarice for their lands, intoxicants, disease, and a new style of dress and abode. These contacts, of course, did not supplant their culture.
. . . .
The 1832 expedition of Henry Schoolcraft, followed by Douglas Houghton's famous exploration of the western Upper Peninsula, outlined the immense mineral reserves of the Western Range and the Keweenaw Peninsula, which were all held at that time by the Indians, pursuant to their unextinguished aboriginal title. Not surprisingly, these rich mineral deposits evoked considerable interest from land speculators, miners, and the federal government.
The United States Congress appropriated money on March 3, 1841, to defray expenses of entering into a treaty with the Chippewa for the extinguishment of their title within the State of Michigan where the mineral deposits were found. The Treaty with the Chippewa, 7 Stat. 591, was subsequently negotiated on October 4, 1842, under which the Indians conveyed to the United States their aboriginal title to the entire western half of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, including the Keweenaw Bay area, and to all of northern Wisconsin. Although Article III of the treaty provided for the eventual removal of the Indians to an area to the west occupied by the Mississippi Chippewa, it was thought that such removal would not take place for a considerable time in the future. Ex. P-7. In Article II, the Indians stipulated for the right to hunt in the ceded territory, together "with the other usual privileges of occupancy, until required to remove by the President of the United States. . . ." Article VI provided that the Indians would be subject to removal from the mineral district at the pleasure of the President. It was contemplated that this limited removal from the mineral areas, if it occurred, would not move the Indians out of the remainder of their cession area. Article IV provided for the payment of annuities and the furnishing of goods and services to the Indians, including blacksmiths and carpenter shops, and schools. Notwithstanding the cession of title, the United States' laws with respect to trade and intercourse with non-Indians were to remain in effect in the ceded territory.
The events at Keweenaw Bay following the signing of the 1842 Treaty were significant. In accord with the treaty, farmers and blacksmiths were provided to the L'Anse band, along with funding to the mission boards in order to provide schools for the Indians. Although the treaty did not provide for land reservations, by all accounts the Indians were advised, and they so understood, that their lifestyle would be essentially unchanged after the treaty because the government only sought their minerals. Notwithstanding these assurances, the Indians, who did not want to remove, were very apprehensive about that potential. Of course, the threat of removal at that time seemed remote because the Indians were not living within the two important mineral districts in the area. The Indians' comfort was short-lived, however, due to the commencement of land surveying in 1845, which meant that legal descriptions could be made and land could be sold. To the Indians, land sales meant that their removal was likely and imminent.
On February 6, 1850, the President issued a removal order, pursuant to the 1842 Treaty. I Tr. 159. However, that order was subsequently withdrawn in August, 1851, and the Indians were never actually required to remove. II Tr. 164. Nevertheless, according to Henry C. Gilbert, the Michigan Indian agent who negotiated the subsequent 1854 treaty, removal was "the great terror of their [the Indians'] lives and I hazard nothing in saying they will sooner submit to extermination than comply with it." Ex. P-25; II Tr. 166.
The survey of the Upper Peninsula area around Keweenaw Bay was completed in 1848. Some land purchases began to occur on both sides of the Bay at about that time. Numerous urgent letters and petitions from Indians and their representatives to Indian agents and the President evidenced concern about removal and revealed a desire to purchase land around the Bay by and for the benefit of the Indians. . . . Many Indians in the Keweenaw Bay area adopted American-style (or non-Indian) names, clothing, houses, and other customs. Some swore allegiance to the United States before a magistrate. These accommodations to American culture were often intended to demonstrate the Indians' advanced degree of "civilization". It was hoped by some that such accommodations would convince the government to grant them citizenship and permit them to remain in their homes rather than force them to remove...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort v. Nat'l Labor Relations Bd., s. 14–2405
...of a more extended meaning than their plain import as connected with the tenor of their treaty,” Keweenaw Bay Indian Community v. Naftaly, 452 F.3d 514, 523 (6th Cir.2006) (quoting In re Kansas Indians, 72 U.S. (5 Wall.) 737, 760, 18 L.Ed. 667 (1866) ); and (3) “Congress may abrogate Indian......
-
Klein v. Wis. Dep't of Revenue
...the United States could not be taxed by the State of Michigan pursuant to the terms of that treaty. See Keweenaw Bay Indian Cmty. v. Naftaly , 452 F.3d 514, 525-27 (6th Cir. 2006). The Bad River Band, which had also been allotted reservation land under that treaty and had paid property taxe......
-
Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians of Wis. v. Evers
...705 n.5. In such cases "Congress simply has not spoken as to whether that land should be taxable," Keweenaw Bay Indian Cmty. v. Naftaly , 452 F.3d 514, 533 (6th Cir. 2006), and the state is "without power to tax." Yakima , 502 U.S. at 258, 112 S.Ct. 683.IIWhich brings us back to where we st......
-
Little Traverse Bay Bands Indians v. Whitmer
...between the federal government and the Band. Treaties are "interpreted liberally in favor of the Indians." Keweenaw Bay Indian Cmty. v. Naftaly , 452 F.3d 514, 524 (6th Cir. 2006) (quoting Minnesota v. Mille Lacs Band of Chippewa Indians , 526 U.S. 172, 200, 119 S.Ct. 1187, 143 L.Ed.2d 270 ......