NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 26, 2012
CONTACT: Kent Love
517/432-6848, kent.love@law.msu.edu
MSU Law Professor Fletcher Releases Legal Book on Ottawa and Chippewa Indians
East Lansing, MI — Michigan State University College of Law Professor Matthew L.M. Fletcher has released his new book titled The Eagle Returns: The Legal History of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians.
The novel, published by Michigan State University Press, focuses on the Grand Traverse Band, a group from Lower Michigan that has become a well-known national leader in advancing Indian treaty rights, gaming, and land rights, while simultaneously creating and developing a nationally honored indigenous tribal justice system. Fletcher is a member of the Grand Traverse Band.
This book will serve as a valuable reference for policymakers, lawyers, and Indian people who want to explore how federal Indian law and policy drove an Anishinaabe community to the brink of legal extinction; how non-Indian economic and political interests conspired to eradicate the community’s self-sufficiency; and how Indian people fought to preserve their culture, laws, traditions, governance, and language.
Professor Fletcher is a professor of law and director of the Indigenous Law & Policy Center at MSU College of Law. He is Chief Justice of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians Supreme Court and also sits as an appellate judge for the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, the Hoopa Valley Tribe, and the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi Indians. In 2010, he was elected to the American Law Institute. Fletcher is the main editor of Turtle Talk, the leading law blog on American Indian law and policy.
Michigan State University College of Law, a leading institution of legal education with a long history of educating practice-ready attorneys, prepares future lawyers to use ethics, ambition, and intellect to solve the world’s problems. As one of only a few private law schools affiliated with a major research university, MSU Law offers comprehensive interdisciplinary opportunities combined with a personalized legal education. After 100 years as a private and independent institution, the affiliation with MSU has put the Law College on an upward trajectory of national and international reputation and reach. MSU Law professors are gifted teachers and distinguished scholars, its curriculum is rigorous and challenging, and its facility is equipped with the latest resources—all affirming MSU Law’s commitment to educating 21st-century lawyers.
