four-week occupation of Anishinabe Park in Ke-
nora, Ontario. The park sits on 14 acres of land
that the Canadian Department of Indian Affairs
purchased to create a camping area for Indian use.
Without the Indians’ permission, the government
sold the land to the town of Kenora, which devel-
oped it as a tourist area. The protest forces town
authorities to enter into negotiations with the Ojib-
way, but it elicits little support from most Canadian
Indians, who are uneasy with the Ojibwa Warrior
Society’s confrontational tactics.
December 22
Congress passes the Hopi-Navajo Land
Settlement Act.
A two-million-acre area of the Hopi Indian Reser-
vation is occupied by both the Hopi and the Navajo
(Dineh) (see entry for 1962). The two groups,
however, have great difficulty jointly managing the
land, which leads Congress to pass the Hopi-Na-
vajo Land Settlement Act. The act grants roughly
half of the area to the Navajo, with the transfer to
take place in 1977. The partitioning of the Joint
Use Area calls for the eventual relocation of several
hundred Hopi and nearly 5,000 Navajo. (See also
entry for MAY 11, 2005.)
1975The Council of Energy Resource Tribes
(CERT) is created.
To help tribes assert more control over the devel-
opment of mineral resources on their lands, 26
tribal governments form the Council of Energy Re-
source Tribes (CERT) in Denver, Colorado. CERT
research determines that one-third of all coal and
uranium in the United States is found on Indian
land. It also reviews the Bureau of Indian Affairs’s
(BIA) past efforts to develop these resources and
determines that many decisions made by the BIA
were based on inaccurate or incomplete informa-
tion. CERT takes on the goal of providing tribes
with the knowledge needed to negotiate leases with
energy and power companies for the groups’ maxi-
mum benefit.Dennis Banks is convicted of rioting and
assault.
A South Dakota court finds American Indian
Movement leader Dennis Banks guilty of rioting
and assault with a deadly weapon. The charges
stem from his participation in a demonstration held
in the town of Custer (see entry for FEBRUARY 6,
1973). Banks flees the state before sentencing and
becomes a fugitive in Oregon. (See also entries for
APRIL 19, 1978, and for SEPTEMBER 13, 1984.)Passamaquoddy v. Morton holds the United
States responsible for lost tribal lands.
In Passamaquoddy v. Morton, the Passamaquoddy
and Penobscot of Maine bring suit against the
secretary of the interior, Robert Morton. They
maintain that, even though they are not formally
recognized as tribes by the U.S. government, the
United States was negligent in allowing their tribal
lands to be overrun by whites. The basis of their
claim is the Trade and Intercourse Act (see entry for
1790), which forbade the sale of Indian land with-
out the permission of the U.S. government. The
Passamaquoddy and Penobscot had lost most of
their ancestral lands through a treaty with the Com-
monwealth of Massachusetts, which purchased
the land without authorization from the federal
government.
Confirming a lower-court decision, a U.S.
Court of Appeals finds in the tribes’ favor. In ad-
dition to suggesting that the tribes have a claim to
much of the land in the state of Maine, the ruling
also maintains that the federal government has a re-
sponsibility to protect Indian land claims, whether
or not the Indians are recognized. (See also entry for
OCTOBER 10, 1980.)United States v. Mazurie addresses tribes’
rights to regulate alcohol on reservations.
Tribal police on the Wyoming’s Wind River Res-
ervation arrested Robert Mazurie, a non-India, for
operating a liquor store on reservation land. Because