Ojibwe Band members had hoped to be spearing and netting fish on dozens of central Minnesota lakes by now. For seven years a group of tribes, led by the Mille Lacs Ojibwe, worked through the courts to restore fishing and hunting rights given them by treaty in the 19th century. It appeared the tribes would finally exercise those rights this spring. But a group of local landowners won an injunction earlier this month, halting the Indians' plans, at least for now.
The ruling came as a surprise because the state, not the landowner group, has been the most visible treaty-rights challenger. Mainstreet Radio’s Leif Enger speaks with some of the landowners and Mille Lacs Band members.
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LEIF ENGER: For those challenging the Ojibwe tribes, the 1837 treaty case has been an epic losing streak. In 1990, the Mille Lacs Band sued the state of Minnesota to regain rights granted in the treaty, rights allowing band members to hunt and fish under their own rules over a large section of east central Minnesota. In 1994, a federal district judge ruled in the Indians' favor.
In 1995 and '96, seven more Ojibwe bands, including some from Wisconsin, were granted the same rights. And this past January, another federal judge approved specific plans by the tribes to fish this spring in the treaty area. Bill Thompson, one of six landowners who have joined the state's case opposing treaty rights, says encouragement has been rare.
BILL THOMPSON: Good friends, people that you're used to doing business with, people you work for, as a matter of fact, you get the, well, you're going to lose anyhow. You don't have a chance of winning. You're going to lose. You get a lot of ridicule from people. I'll tell you, if you deal with that day in and day out, week after week, that starts to wear you down.
LEIF ENGER: But Thompson and the other landowners got some encouragement recently, when the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a surprise ruling. Tribal plans to net and spear fish were put on hold pending an Appeals Court decision this summer. The landowners say eight Ojibwe bands taking game unconstrained by state law will throw their property values into a tailspin. That matters to Thompson, whose family has owned this modest Mille Lacs home since the Great Depression.
BILL THOMPSON: The fish in the lake are the only reason that the people come up here. It's quite simple. If the county goes broke, if the tourism industry up here dies, somewhere along the line, the taxes have to be made up. I can see no other way of doing it except levying the taxes, raising the taxes. Someone has to make it up. The state's not going to give us the county money forever to survive.
LEIF ENGER: With Thompson this afternoon is resorter Joe Karpen, another participant in the case. He points out, when treaty rights were argued in northern Wisconsin in the 1980s, no landowners took part in the litigation. It was the state versus the Indians, and the state lost.
JOE KARPEN: All you got to do is to go across, look in Wisconsin. Resorts were real cheap, vacancy signs up all over. They say, well, it's coming back. My God, how long does it have to be down before it has to come back? What happened to the ones that went down?
LEIF ENGER: Karpen has spoken out often since the Mille Lacs first filed suit. Sometimes portrayed in the media as racist, he's more careful with his words these days but remains unapologetic about his view that treaty rights are about far more than fish. Karpen fears if the Ojibwe secure rights under the 1837 treaty, they'll push for more rights under the subsequent 1855 treaty, which he says could re-establish old reservation boundaries and threaten landowners' constitutional freedoms.
JOE KARPEN: Everybody dreams if they work hard in this country, they stand a chance of owning their own business. Everything I've owned has went into the resort. That's been my dream, to have a resort, have one of the nicest resorts on Mille Lacs Lake before I cash in or before I retire. And this comes along. And it destroys your dream. My life became shattered. And I'm not going to take it lying down.
LEIF ENGER: The landowners were less surprised than most when the Appeals Court put tribal harvest on hold. For them, the whole case has been fought uphill. They weren't even allowed to intervene in the case until they appealed the decision to keep them out. Columnists from Twin Cities papers have labeled them rednecks, racists, hate-mongers. And up the shore of Mille Lacs, they've become a bitter symbol to band members like Michael Nickaboine, who was planning to gillnet this spring.
MICHAEL NICKABOINE: Who's greedy? Who would be greedy? Who is the greedy person? The white people, white folks. They want all the fish. They want all the fish themselves, not the right thing.
LEIF ENGER: Another band member, Herman Kegg, says the landowners' assumption of ruined tourism and property values is itself a prejudiced position. In 50 years selling bait on Mille Lacs, Kegg says it was the coveted tourists who showed the most disregard for the lake, treating it as if the fish therein were infinite.
HERMAN KEGG: When the fish are biting, they will come in without limit. They'll go out again. And they'll come in without limit. They'll go out. There's no way you can control them. So that goofs me up when they start talking about an Indian doesn't abuse the fish. They'll go out and get what they eat. And they'll come in, and that's it.
LEIF ENGER: Nonetheless, the landowners have won some surprising allies in their challenge to the 1837 treaty. A newsletter published by Proper Economic Resource Management, or PERM, features articles by Vincent Hill, a Mille Lacs member critical of band leadership for spending casino profits on a contentious lawsuit, and by Bill Lawrence, a Red Lake member and publisher of the Ojibwe News. Lawrence, who's criticized his own band for overfishing Red Lake with nets, says the landowners are right to be worried.
BILL LAWRENCE: Fishing on the Red Lake is in very, very bad shape because of poor management. In fact, a lot of people refer to the lake as being fished out. And I haven't seen resources being managed very well by any of the bands. And I'm very concerned about that.
LEIF ENGER: A spokesman for PERM, the group funding the landowners, says support for their case is growing. The half million dollars raised is still well behind trial expenses. But memberships are up and contributions flowing after the recent appeals ruling. Bill Thompson says if the appeal succeeds, he looks for the band to appeal in return. And if not, he and the other landowners will take their case to the Supreme Court. Leif Enger, Mainstreet Radio.