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CATHY WURZER: We're warming up. The ice has finally gone out on most Minnesota lakes. That brings the launch of an annual spring tradition among some Native American tribes in Minnesota of harvesting fish from lakes where they retain treaty rights. Kirsti Marohn has this report.

KRISTI MAROHN: Bob Elm is waiting for the setting sun to dip below the horizon before heading out onto the chilly, blue waters of Mille Lacs Lake . At a public landing, he and family members are loading spears and buckets into fishing boats and donning helmets with headlamps attached.

BOB ELM: We use our lights to shine in the water. And the walleyes eyes actually glow or they reflect the light so they're easy to see.

KRISTI MAROHN: Elm is a member of the Lac du Flambeau band of Lake Superior Chippewa of Northern Wisconsin. It's one of several Native American tribes that retain the right to fish here on Mille Lacs, part of the territory the tribe ceded when they signed treaties with the federal government nearly two centuries ago. Those rights were affirmed in the 1990s by the US Supreme Court.

BOB ELM: It's that time of the year and we like to harvest walleye. And make sure it tastes good so we make the drive over here, you know, get out of town and do a little adventure and come over to the big lake over here. And we love it.

KRISTI MAROHN: Four dozen Lac du Flambeau members have made the nearly four hour trek here for a night of spearfishing. Elm brought his 26-year-old son, Jeremy Schumann.

JEREMY SCHUMANN: That's always been part of our culture. Our name Lac Du Flambeau actually comes from the torches on the lake our ancestors sustain themselves through the fisheries. So we like to keep that alive and stay close to who we are.

KRISTI MAROHN: Before heading out onto the water, tribal members check in with Adam Ray, a biologist with the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission or GLIFWIC. He's seated on a pickup tailgate filling out slips of yellow paper.

ADAM RAY: It's a permit that has its own number on it, so when they come back in, they'll give us this card back. And we match up with the fish that they take and make sure it's the same person that went out with the permit.

KRISTI MAROHN: Each Lac du Flambeau member is allowed one permit to spear up to 30 fish. Tonight, the walleye are running, and these experienced fishermen are skilled with the spear. Most will take about an hour or two to catch their limit. John Johnson, Sr. Is Lac du Flambeau's tribal president-elect. He brought along his two grandsons, 15-year-old Edward and 11-year-old [? Genabic. ?] Johnson shows me a metal tined spear he crafted decades ago. He holds his hands several inches off their sharp points.

JOHN JOHNSON: The tines were like this long when I made it. And that's how long it's been feeding our communities.

KRISTI MAROHN: Once the boat is ready, the spear fishers prepare to cast off. Bob Elm says they'll take a moment to thank the lake for always providing.

BOB ELM: We make an offering to the water, the water spirits here before we take anything. And that just ensures us that there will always be something for us to take. And we always give before we receive. It's part of our culture.

KRISTI MAROHN: Elm says many of the fish they spear tonight will be frozen and shared all year long with family members.

BOB ELM: We try not to waste anything. Whatever we take, we go home, we'll clean the fish. Even the guts will be used for people's gardens sometimes.

KRISTI MAROHN: As the boats return, the spearfishers carry their teeming buckets ashore. Then work begins to document and record each fish. Creel clerk Joseph Wade picks up a shiny walleye still flopping and stretches it on a measuring board.

JOSEPH WADE: 21.5, female.

KRISTI MAROHN: Ben Michaels is a GLIFWIC. Biologist. He says every fish that comes into the landing is counted and weighed.

BEN MICHAELS: A lot of people think that the tribes come to these landings, they take what they want. They leave. They have unlimited quota. The fish aren't counted. And that can't be further from the truth.

KRISTI MAROHN: On a sample of the fish, Michael says they gather more detailed biological information like tiny ear bones called otoliths that have rings like a tree.

BEN MICHAELS: So we can actually tell the age of the fish by counting those rings.

KRISTI MAROHN: That information helps biologists estimate the lake's fish population. Once the counting is done, Michael says they'll calculate how close the band is to their quota and whether the spearfishers can get another permit to go back out tonight.

BEN MICHAELS: So the quotas are created to protect the health of the fishery so that we don't overfish.

KRISTI MAROHN: This night is peaceful. But tribal members who spear or net say they frequently face harassment.

BOB ELM: I don't see it a lot, but I know that our tribal members face it probably on a nightly basis at least from what I hear back home in Wisconsin.

KRISTI MAROHN: Gail Smith is a conservation warden with GLIFWIC and a member of the Lac du Flambeau band. He witnessed obnoxious behavior at a different public landing on Mille Lacs just off the highway.

GAIL SMITH: I specifically remember last year, there was quite a bit of whether it was honking or flipping the bird or yelling out the window.

KRISTI MAROHN: While that behavior is mainly annoying, sometimes the harassment becomes threatening. A man was charged with harassment for allegedly yelling obscenities, exposing himself, and threatening to shoot a family as they spearfished last spring on Mille Lacs. Smith tries to maintain a visible presence to ward off any problems. He advises people not to respond to harassers.

GAIL SMITH: It's irritating, it's frustrating, but any chance I can to tell a tribal member to take that high road, somebody that's purposefully trying to get a reaction out of you.

KRISTI MAROHN: His uncle, Scott Smith has been spearfishing since he was a kid and says the harassment has improved from days past.

SCOTT SMITH: It's gotten better. I mean, I remember the days getting shot at twice. Getting rocks thrown at you, spit on you, beer bottles thrown at you.

KRISTI MAROHN: Smith's fishing partner, Kevin Malson says such reactions are rooted in ignorance of tribes legal rights to hunt and fish in the ceded territory.

KEVIN MALSON: It's a right given to us in our treaties. That's a lot of non-Indians don't understand. It's a privilege for them to fish and have permits, but it's a right for us given to us by the federal government.

KRISTI MAROHN: Tribal members say such incidents reinforce the importance of continuing to defend their rights to harvest fish and of passing on the tradition to younger generations. Kirsti Marohn, MPR News, Mille Lacs Lake.