Wisconsin Ojibwe Tribes Support EPA in 12-State Water Rights Lawsuit

Two Ojibwe tribes in Wisconsin have defended the Environmental Protection Agency in a lawsuit filed by 12 states over water rights.

The Lac du Flambeau and Sokaogon (Lake Crete) tribes joined five other tribes from across the country in defending new Environmental Protection Agency rules regarding water rights for tribes under the Clean Water Act.

The legislation, finalized in May, requires state and federal officials to consider the rights of water-dependent tribes when setting pollution limits for waterways.

Republican attorneys general from more than a dozen states, including Iowa, South Dakota, Alaska and Wyoming, filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on May 28 challenging the new rules.

The lawsuit alleges that the EPA exceeded its authority with the new regulations and that they are too vague.

The seven tribes that joined in defending the EPA rule are represented by attorneys from Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group, and the Native American Rights Fund.

“Protecting and protecting land, air and water is at the heart of who we are as a people,” Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe Tribal President John Johnson said in a statement. “It has been a guiding principle for us since long before the United States was founded.”

The six Ojibwe bands in Wisconsin have historically fought to maintain their treaty rights to hunt and fish on the millions of acres of former Ojibwe territory in northern Wisconsin that were acquired by the United States.

“Our ability to hunt, fish and gather is directly dependent on the health and sustainability of our land, air and water, as enshrined in our treaty rights with the United States,” Johnson said.

He added that tribal officials are guided in their environmental decisions by the “seven-generation principle,” meaning that resources, or “kin” in Native thinking, should be protected or enhanced for at least the next seven generations.

“We ask how our decisions today will affect those who come after us hundreds of years from now,” Johnson said. “We respectfully ask every level of the U.S. government to do the same.”

Tribal attorneys say the EPA has never had a formal rule outlining the specific process and responsibilities of states for considering tribes when setting state water quality standards. They argue that tribes’ water rights are often ad hoc and adversarially considered by state regulators at the end of the process. They said the water quality needs are different for tribal members because they eat more wild fish and aquatic plants, such as wild rice, than non-Natives.

“This is simply the latest senseless attack on the Clean Water Act at a time when we must step up our efforts to protect and preserve our nation’s waters,” Earthjustice attorney Gussie Lord said in a statement responding to the state’s lawsuit. “Tribes will defend the waters and their reserved rights.”

Daniel Cordalis, an attorney for the Native American Rights Fund, said states have a legal and moral obligation to protect tribal rights when setting water quality standards.

“The struggles of states against practical and necessary regulations is frustrating because it highlights the ongoing efforts to subordinate tribal rights in water management at the state level.”

More: The Great Lakes Tribes teach that “water is life.” Yet they are forced to fight for their voice in protecting it.

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Frank Vaisvilas is a former Report for America corps member who covers Native American affairs in Wisconsin for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Contact him at [email protected] or 815-260-2262. Follow him on Twitter On @vaisvilas_frank.

This article originally appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Ojibwe support EPA against 12-state lawsuits over tribal water rights