2 “Great Nations like great men must keep their word.” —President George H. W. Bush January 20, 1989 May 2017 We provide this report as a reminder of the enduring United States treaty obligations to our member Tribes. These obligations remain the Supreme Law of the Land in strict Constitutional terms. As such, their fulfillment remains an inherently federal function. Our Tribes have entered into land-cession treaties with the United States. They reserved hunting, fishing, and gathering rights in over 73 million acres in Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Courts, including the United States Supreme Court, consistently have recognized and upheld those rights. As treaty guarantor, the United States has been a long-standing partner in protecting and implementing our Tribes’ rights. The federal government supports our Tribes’ capacity to carry out the court-affirmed regulatory and co-management duties associated with the exercise of treaty rights. As intertribal treaty commissions, we assist our Tribes to secure and implement their natural resource-based treaty rights in the Great Lakes region. Our respective Treaty Rights Protection and Implementation Programs touch the very core of long-standing federal Indian law and policy, including: • Preservation of historically and culturally significant activities of Indian people; • Fulfillment of federal treaty guarantees; • Protection of significant subsistence and economic activity; • Enhancement of tribal self-government; and • Government-to-government dealings between Tribes and their federal, state, and local counterparts. We greatly appreciate the decades of funding and other technical support that Congress and each Administration have provided to our commissions and our member Tribes. The federal government has wisely chosen to invest in our programs as efficient, cost-effective service delivery mechanisms at the appropriate governmental level.