Mainstreet Radio's Leif Enger speaks with Mille Lacs Band member Vince Merrill about gillnetting, the warrior society, and whether tradition can survive as written law.
When Ojibwa Indians in eastern Minnesota won restoration of an 1837 treaty, tribal leaders called it a victory for native traditions, including spearfishing and gillnetting. In the spring of 1998, the Mille Lacs Band and seven other Ojibwa tribes are taking fish under their own laws, but some say the laws are too strict. Every fish taken by band members must be weighed and measured by wardens. What was once a comfortable custom is now monitored, scrutinized, and recorded.
Transcripts
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SPEAKER 1: So it's legal now for you to gillnet walleyes or spear wall eyes in the ceded territories. But you've actually been netting for quite a few years, haven't you, as part of this informal group, the society of warriors or warrior society?
SPEAKER 2: It was a bunch of men that would gather together, and they would plan hunting trips. They kept the people that couldn't fend for themselves. And they give them deer meat or go get their birchbark for them. And it was mainly comprised of the men that could go out and do the things, the warriors, the warrior society.
My grandfather, what I gathered from it, when he was growing up, it was already dying out. So my cousin's father revived it one day. And it was kind of an overnight thing. We're all talking about it one time. And hey, that's us. Let's do it. And we started doing those things, going out and netting. And yeah, we'd take buckets of fish to the elders and stuff like that.
SPEAKER 1: Tell me how you go about gillnetting, what you actually do, what you use?
SPEAKER 2: Well, canoe, a couple of paddles, a net, two flotation devices. I like to use old Preston bottles, rinse them out, cork them up. I don't know, maybe I shouldn't reveal my tricks, but a glass bottle. You couldn't see it in the water. I mean, unless you were close to it. You just drop your net down in the water. You string it out. You had to have two people. One person has got to paddle you along. And you just reel the net out into the water, string it. 100 feet is the typical net size. And make sure the net drops straight down, no tangles in it. And wait.
SPEAKER 1: But this isn't something that you do real often.
SPEAKER 2: The only time I actually really go netting is for ceremonial purposes because I belong to some of these ceremonial doings around in the area, feasts, naming ceremony, things of that nature where they're going to feed some people.
SPEAKER 1: There have been so many regulations written now for netting and spearing. Every time you lift a net, a warden has to be along, and check your catch, and weigh the fish, and so on. And I can't help wondering, is it still worth doing? Is it still something native people will want to get out and do?
SPEAKER 2: The only two things I remember about going netting was if there was a woman along, if she was on her moon, that she couldn't go or touch the net. That was one rule that I remember. Another rule was put your tobacco out when you get to the lake. And that was the only real two rules I ever remember about going netting. Now, you might as well buy a license, like going out fishing with a rod and reel.
If I go out netting, my elders in East Lake call me up and say, well, we're going to have that dance next week, and we want some fish. That's ceremony. And that's something that, for hundreds of years, the people have been doing. I don't think there should be any restrictions to that. If them elders tell me to go out netting, then I go out and get the fish. I don't think I should have to come back and have somebody count them, weigh them, make sure they're male. I think I should be able to bring my fish home, and clean them, and go give them to the elders, say here's for the dance tomorrow.
SPEAKER 1: So now gillnetting and spearing are legal again for you. But legality aside, is tradition being served under the 1837 treaty?
SPEAKER 2: I feel more violation is being done than the good of letting the Native American people have their treaty rights. I'd rather go and put out my net, and get caught, and then getting a ticket than have 10 guys on the shore saying, well, let me look at your fish. This one's too small. Throw this one back. You guys were netting in the wrong area. That's like somebody coming and asking you if they could count your money or something like that. It would be more disgraceful for me. I'd rather have the DNR come out and say, give me your net, man. You're caught. At least you're standing up for yourself.
SPEAKER 1: You have kids, you and Suzanne are trying to raise in a traditional Ojibwe fashion. Is that easier with the treaty rights or harder?
SPEAKER 2: I've been waiting for my son to get old enough to where he can help me go netting. And when I go out there and take him out netting, I want to teach him what I was taught. I don't want to have to contend with a bunch of rules and regulations about netting. Netting is netting to me.
SPEAKER 1: And do you worry that there will be protests during this season, possibly violent ones, as there were in Wisconsin?
SPEAKER 2: It's the chance you've got to take, I think, being in our position. And I'm hoping that people just say, hey, we're cool with this. You guys go out and get your fish, man, and we'll leave you alone. That's what I'm hoping. But that ain't the way things usually work out.