Last December the Hannahville Indian Community, which lives in
Michigan's Upper Peninsula, sued Notre Dame and the federal Interior
Department, saying the community was cheated out of a tract of
land on the Notre Dame campus near the modern-day WNDU television
studios.
The Hannahville Indians are successors to the Potawatomi people
who were living in Northern Indiana when Father Sorin arrived
in 1842. They allege that the state of Indiana illegally transferred
Potawatomi-owned land to Notre Dame in violation of treaties dating
to the 1820s. The University says it acquired the land legally.
The case is moving ahead. A pretrial preliminary conference is
scheduled for August 31, 2004, in federal court in South Bend.
(July 2004)
