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Native News
Dan Gunderson

States challenge EPA rule to protect tribal treaty rights

Bruce Martineau poles his father Francis Martineau to the shore.
Bruce Martineau poles his father Francis Martineau to the shore of Deadfish Lake after harvesting wild rice on the Fond du Lac reservation. A new federal rule which would require states to give tribal nations more input on state water quality standards is being challenged by a dozen states.
Dan Kraker | MPR News 2017

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A dozen states are seeking to overturn a new federal rule designed to give tribal nations more input on state water quality standards.

Tribal nations across the country, including several located in Minnesota have moved to join the suit in defense of the rule.

The rule mandates that states consider tribal treaty rights, or reserved rights, when establishing water quality standards.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in North Dakota, claims the rule exceeds the Environmental Protection Agency authority to administer the Clean Water Act.

“Congress did not grant the EPA authority under the CWA to protect claimed tribal rights — the EPA’s mission is focused only on protecting ‘the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation’s waters,’” the states said in the complaint.

States trying to overturn the rule include North Dakota, South Dakota and Iowa.

In response, at least a dozen tribal nations across the country have moved to join the suit in defense of the rule.

The White Earth Nation, the Red Lake Nation and the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa are among those seeking to defend the rule.

“The EPA rule is a necessary step towards ensuring that our voices are heard and our rights are respected,” White Earth Chairman Michael Fairbanks said. “Our treaties are not just historical documents; they are living agreements that must be honored in today’s policies and practices.”

In the lawsuit, the states argue treaty rights are agreements between tribes and the federal government and the rule “unconstitutionally disrupts state-tribal relationships by compelling states to evaluate and protect claimed but undefined, and virtually unknowable, rights which the federal government may have reserved for the tribes.”