GLIFWC’s member tribes signed treaties in 1836, 1837, 1842, and 1854 with the United States government. In those treaties they ceded (sold) land in northern Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, but retained the rights to hunt, fish and gather in the ceded territories.

 

     The treaty rights retained by the tribes were subsequently ignored after the territories of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota assumed statehood and began regulating their natural resources. Those regulations were imposed on tribal members regardless of the reserved rights. Tribal members exercising those rights were often given citations, taken to court, fined and had their equipment confiscated if harvesting fish or game without a state license.

 

     In the mid-1900s tribes began to seek legal affirmation of the treaty rights. Several positive court decisions ensued both in the Northwest and in the Great Lakes region that affirmed the treaty rights and ruled for tribal self-regulation.
      The 1972 Gurnoe Decision ruled in favor of the Bad River and Red Cliff tribes’ fishing rights in Lake Superior.
      In 1983 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit ruled in favor of the Lac Courte Oreilles Band in a ruling now known as the Voigt Decision. That ruling was further supported when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal.

     In 1997 a three-judge panel of the Eighth Circuit Court of appeals upheld a federal district court ruling affirming the 1837 Treaty rights of the Ojibwe. That decision, known as the Mille Lacs Decision, was further upheld by a 1999 US Supreme Court ruling.

 

     In 1982 the Great Lakes Indian Fishery Commission was formed by six Ojibwe tribes with commercial fishing rights in Lake Superior as a mechanism to provide both biological expertise to manage the fishery and enforcement capacity. Following the 1983 Voigt Decision, the affected tribes merged to form the Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission to provide resource management and enforcement services to eleven tribes both inland and on Lake Superior. The Voigt Intertribal Task Force, representing tribes with inland treaty rights, became one of GLIFWC’s standing committees, making recommendations regarding the management of treaty resources and harvest in the inland ceded territories. The Lakes Committee, representing tribes fishing commercially in Lake Superior, makes recommendations as to the management of the Lake Superior fishery. Regulated seasons for each species were established under tribally-adopted codes. These imposed limitations on the treaty harvest in keeping with the tribes’ commitment to provide harvest opportunity while maintaining a sustainable resource.

 

     Both Michigan and Wisconsin treaty commercial fishermen experienced a backlash to treaty rights in the early 1970s involving verbal slurs, threats and damage to equipment. This carried over when the inland treaty rights in Wisconsin were first implemented in 1984. A strong, negative public reaction stemmed largely from several groups that formed in opposition to the treaty rights. Some of these included Equal Rights for Everyone (ERFE), Protect Americans Rights and Resources (PARR), and Stop Treaty Abuse (STA) in Wisconsin and Proper Economic Resource Management (PERM) in Minnesota.      

     Propagating misconceptions and organizing public rallies in opposition to the treaty rights, especially spring spearing and netting, these groups frightened local citizens by saying the resources were going to be destroyed along with property values and businesses. In Wisconsin they encouraged and organized active anti-Indian protests at boat landings, which turned ugly, racial and dangerous. After enduring years of racial harassment and slander, the protest movement was finally curtailed following a lawsuit filed by the ACLU against STA. In 1994 Judge Barbara Crabb ruled that racism motivated the STA protest activities. Also serving to quell the protest was the 1991 Casting Light Upon the Waters report based on joint federal, state and tribal fishery assessments. The report concluded the treaty fishing activities did not harm the resource.