Tribe amends lawsuit against the state seeking sovereignty in Isabella County

Observer Staff

4/13/2006 12:00:00 AM

MT. PLEASANT (AP)-The Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe has revised a lawsuit against the state that sought sovereignty over about 200 square miles of central Michigan's Isabella County, based on treaties from 1855 and 1864.

The Tribe had asked a federal judge to declare that all or part of seven Isabella County townships are Indian country as defined by federal law. The attorney general's office had said that if the Tribe's suit was successful, thousands of Michigan residents would find themselves living in a sovereign Indian nation.

But in a new filing in U.S. District Court in Bay City, the Tribe now asks for an injunction to prevent the governor, attorney general and state treasurer from exerting criminal or civil jurisdiction over the Tribe or its members "in a manner not allowed in Indian Country."

In the state's answer to the revised suit, Assistant Attorney General Todd B. Adams dropped his claim that the Tribe is trying to exert authority over people who aren't Tribal members but live in, work in or travel through the territory claimed by the Tribe.

The Tribe filed its amended complaint March 21, and the state filed its answer three days later.

The original suit filed in November claimed that treaties with the U.S. government gave the Tribe sovereignty over the part of Isabella County that made up the "historic Isabella Reservation," which it said includes Deerfield, Denver, Isabella, Nottawa and Wise townships, as well as half of Chippewa and Union townships.