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JULY 26, 2000

Senator Peter Fitzgerald (R-Illinois) introduced legislation on Monday aimed at helping citizens of his state fight a 2.6-million-acre land claims suit filed by the Miami Nation of Oklahoma.

"Citizens are granted certain legal protections when they are sued by a business associate, a relative, the government, or practically anyone else," said Fitzgerald on Tuesday. "Why shouldn't these protections apply when a family is sued by a tribe?"

Fitzgerald said The Landowners Defenses Against Property Claims by Indian Tribes Act will force the tribe to "play by the same rules ... as everyone else." To level the playing field, the bill would allow the landowners in Illinois to utilize state law against the tribe's claims.

Applying state law to an area traditionally governed only by federal law might raise red flags for some, particularly in light of recent events surrounding the Washington State Republican Party. Treaties, various Supreme Court decisions, and the Constitution make it clear federal law governs areas Indian affairs, point out tribal leaders.

But a spokesperson for the Miami Nation says the proposed legislation doesn't worry the tribe at all.

"It doesn't affect the claim one bit," said George Tiger on Tuesday.

Tiger said he believes the legislation is simply a response to criticism the state has endured by its own citizens.

Since the law adds a new section to the portion of the United States Code affecting Indians and tribes, it could presumably be used in all future land claims filed by tribes, with one notable exception. The law would not apply when a governmental entity, such as a state or the federal government, is named as a defendant.

The Miami Nation's lawsuit, filed in US District Court in East St. Louis, Illinois doesn't name the state, but it does name individual landowners. The 15 families were picked at random to represent land in 15 counties along the Wabash River which the tribe says the federal government promised them in the Treaty of Grouseland of 1805.

"The United States do hereby engage to consider them [The Miami and other tribes] as joint owners of all the country on the Wabash and its waters," states the treaty.

Although the tribe signed subsequent treaties ceding parcels of land to the government, they say the Wabash land was not one of them.

Relevant Links:
Senator Peter G. Fitzgerald - www.senate.gov/~fitzgerald
Title 25 of the United States Code, Indians - http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/25/index.html