Bruce R. Greene has devoted his practice to all aspects of federal Indian law, with special emphasis on treaty hunting, fishing, trapping and gathering rights, and Indian gaming matters. Mr. Greene’s work in the field of treaty rights has included the establishment, through litigation, of off-reservation treaty reserved commercial fishing rights on the Great Lakes, of subsistence hunting and fis...
Bruce R. Greene has devoted his practice to all aspects of federal Indian law, with special emphasis on treaty hunting, fishing, trapping and gathering rights, and Indian gaming matters. Mr. Greene’s work in the field of treaty rights has included the establishment, through litigation, of off-reservation treaty reserved commercial fishing rights on the Great Lakes, of subsistence hunting and fishing rights on inland areas in Michigan, and the allocation of treaty reserved fishing rights among the western Washington tribes which were signatories to the Stevens treaties in the 1850s. Mr. Greene has represented numerous tribes around the country in all aspects of Indian gaming. His clients have included the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Sisulaw Indians, the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, the White Mountain Apache Tribe, the Forest County Potawatomi Indian Community, the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin, and the Navajo Nation. Those matters concerned applications for trust designation of newly acquired lands for gaming purposes, scope of gaming issues with regard to tribal-state gaming compacts, negotiations of tribal-state gaming compacts in Michigan, Wisconsin, Washington and Oregon, casino management contract issues, and development agreements for casino complexes. Mr. Greene handled federal court litigation on behalf of certain Wisconsin, Michigan, and Washington Indian tribes that successfully concluded in tribal/state gaming compacts in those states. On behalf of his tribal client, he was lead counsel in negotiations with the State of Michigan and most of its tribes, which lead to an omnibus tax agreement under which the State and the tribes shared in the collection of numerous State taxes. He successfully negotiated a development agreement with the City of Detroit in connection with a State licensed gaming facility owned by one of Mr. Greene’s tribal clients. In addition, Mr. Greene has been immersed in the federal acknowledgment process for an unrecognized tribe in the eastern United States, and litigated acknowledgment issues before the Department of the Interior.Throughout his career, Mr. Greene has handled or been exposed to virtually every aspect of federal Indian law affecting Native American Indian tribes. He has successfully litigated numerous cases in federal district courts around the country, and argued many cases in the various United States courts of appeal, as well as handling matters in the U.S. Supreme Court. Mr. Greene is a frequent lecturer at various law schools, as well as at numerous professional conferences. In 2008, Mr. Greene was awarded the Tecumseh Peacekeeping Award, by the State Bar of Michigan, for his lifetime achievements and dedicated service to protecting the rights of American Indians