In 2015, the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians filed a lawsuit in which it claimed an 1855 treaty created a reservation of 337 square miles along the Lake Michigan shoreline in Emmet and Charlevoix counties. Michigan said the treaty only offered the tribe pieces of the land, for members to have homes.
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case on Monday, ending a fight for tribal sovereign rights there.
Had the highest court reversed the lower court’s ruling, it would have meant more tribal control Up North. A similar case in Oklahoma ceded about half of the state’s land to the tribe’s authority.
Sources :
Taylor Wizner, “Petoskey, Harbor Springs area is not Indian Country, U.S. Supreme Court determines after declining to review Odawa Indians’ case”, Interlochen Public Radio, March 2, 2022.
Keith Matheny, “U.S. Supreme Court nixes tribe’s contention that much of ‘Up North’ is tribal reservation”, Detroit Free Press, March 1, 2022.