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Topics: DURBIN MOVES TO PROTECT LANDOWNERS IN SUIT BY TRIBE Author:
Deirdre Shesgreen Dateline: WASHINGTON Article Text: Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., moved Wednesday to protect 15 Illinois landowners who are defendants in a lawsuit filed by an Indian tribe trying to reclaim 2.6 million acres of what it says is ancestral territory. Durbin said Wednesday that he will file legislation to remove the landowners as defendants in the suit and to prevent the tribe from claiming the land if the tribe's suit is successful. The tribe could win only monetary damages under Durbin's bill. Durbin's move stems from a suit filed last year by the Miami Indian tribe accusing the 15 Illinois landowners of "trespassing" on Indian land. The suit claimed the land rightfully belongs to the tribe and that the government violated two treaties, dating from 1795 and 1805, when it sold the property to white settlers. The land in dispute covers 2.6 million acres in Southern and central Illinois. The tribe sued one landowner in each county that it claims title to. "This affects thousands of people who live in the disputed area," Durbin said. Some of the landowners have alleged that the tribe is using the lawsuit to pressure the state to allow it to open a casino. Durbin said that the tribe has a right to make its case but that the federal government should be the defendant because the landowners would have had nothing to do with any treaty violations. Under current law, Indian tribes can't sue the federal government because the government has "sovereign immunity" from such action. Durbin's bill would waive the government's immunity and substitute it as the defendant. "What (we're) saying to the Native Americans is that the appropriate defendant is the federal government, because this dispute arises before Illinois was a state and certainly before any of these landowners had title," Durbin said. A lawyer for the tribe could not be reached (for) comment. Durbin announced his plans after huddling with Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, R-Ill., Rep. Tim Johnson, R-Champaign, Ill., and Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan. Johnson has filed similar legislation in the House. Copyright
(c) 2001 St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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