Satz, Ronald Norman 1944-2006

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born February 8, 1944, in Chicago, IL; died of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, March 7, 2006, in Minneapolis, MN. Historian, educator, and author. Satz was a his- tory professor who specialized in U.S. policies towardNative Americans and their treaty rights. He earned his B.S. and M.A. from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1965 and 1967, respectively, completing a doctorate at the University of Maryland in 1972. Joining the University of Tennessee faculty in 1971, he became a full professor of history in 1980; he also served as dean of graduate studies, beginning in 1976, and dean of research, beginning in 1977. Satz left Tennessee in 1983 to go to the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire. Here he was also a professor and dean of graduate studies and research, and in 1988 he became director of the Center for Excellence for Faculty and Undergraduate Research. As a scholar, Satz often wrote on American history but was best known for his studies of U.S. treaties and policies with Native Americans. Among these are American Indian Policy in the Jacksonian Era (1975), Chippewa Treaty Rights(1991), Classroom Activities on Chippewa Treaty Rights (1991), and Classroom Activities on Wisconsin Indians: Treaties and Tribal Sovereignty (1993). It is his Chippewa Treaty Rights, which won a State Historical Society of Wisconsin award, that is especially notable for its role in an important 1998 U.S. Supreme Court Case. The Wisconsin Chippewa Mille Lac tribe used it as evidence supporting their case that they should be allowed to fish and hunt on lands according to their traditional needs, even when that land was outside stated reservation boundaries. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the tribe because, as shown in Satz's book, an 1837 treaty supported their position. Seven other tribes that joined the case also benefited from the decision.

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PERIODICALS

Washington Post, March 10, 2006, p. B6.