The Walleye War: The Struggle for Ojibwe Spearfishing and Treaty Rights

3 Hunting, Fishing, and ‘‘Violating’’

3 Hunting, Fishing, and ‘‘Violating’’ 5. Boy holding a speared walleye. Photo courtesy of Amoose, glifwc staff and Bad River tribal member. For the Ojibwe bands of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries , ‘‘leadership was based upon skill as a hunter and trapper, on maturity, wisdom, guidance, articulateness, and control of supernatural power’’ (Smith 1973:13, paraphrasing Rogers 1962:266). Successful men drew others around them. With the treaty period came a concentration of power in the hands of chiefs who mediated the relationships between Ojibwes and non-Indians. Such leadership was typically contested (Kugel 1985), preserving a diffusion of power in the face of external centralizing influences. The importance of access to forms of wealth and power such as hunting, warfare, and trade was reflected by the political organization of southwestern Ojibwe villages. By the early nineteenth century, six bands were discernible in the Lac du Flambeau area; they became the Lac du Flambeau Chippewas later in the century. They occupied Flambeau Lake, Trout Lake (Ma-tak-e-ge-ihik), Turtle Lake/Portage (Keche-non-ah-ge-vun)—referred to as Mercer by Amikonze of Lac du Flambeau in 1924—Lac Vieux Desert (Kitikitgan), the Wisconsin River (Monse-o-ne), and Pelican Lake (Ke-chi-waub-i-jish) (see Bokern 1987:72). The village at Flambeau Lake was central because the Midewiwin ceremonies were conducted there (Warren 1984:193). Flambeau Lake village had been established by the Crane clan leader, Keeshkemun, identified by Warren as chief of the Lake Superior Ojibwes. When the British sought the aid of Wisconsin Ojibwes against the American revolutionaries, they attempted and failed to enlist Keeshkemun’s help (Warren 1984:373). Britain’s inability to put down the rebellion led to the domination of the Americans in the Great Lakes region. The national expansion into the Great Plains in the nineteenth century motivated business interests to seek a means of access to the lumber in northern Wisconsin. Indians who signed a treaty in 1837, therefore , understood it to be a sale of only pine trees (Satz 1991:18). Article 46 Hunting, Fishing, and ‘‘Violating’’ 5 of the treaty stipulated hunting, fishing, and gathering rights: ‘‘The privilege of hunting, fishing, and gathering the wild rice, upon the lands, the rivers and the lakes included in the territory ceded, is guaranteed to the Indians, during the pleasure of the President of the United States’’ (Kappler 1904–41:492). Five chiefs from Lac du Flambeau signed that treaty: Pish-ka-ga-ghe (the White Crow), Na-wa-ge-wa (the Knee), O-ge-ma-ga (the Dandy), Pa-se-quam-jis (the Commissioner ), and Wa-be-ne-me (the White Thunder) (Satz 1991:156). A treaty signed five years later ceded rights to contiguous lands bordering on Lake Superior, which were desired by the government for copper mining and to consolidate control of the southern shore of Lake Superior. The treaty of 1842 was also signed by the first chief, White Crow from Flambeau, May-toc-cus-e-quay, and She-maw-gon-e (1991:173). Certain usufructuary rights were guaranteed: ‘‘The Indians stipulate for the right of hunting on the ceded territory, with the other usual privileges of occupancy, until required to be removed by the President of the United States’’ (Kappler 1904–41:542–543). Chiefs from the nearby Wisconsin River and Lac Vieux Desert signed the 1842 treaty as well, which shows a measure of growing local autonomy and geographic dispersal. Shortly after the treaty of 1842 and throughout the 1840s, the United States government made unsuccessful attempts to relocate the Wisconsin Chippewas to lands west of the Mississippi River (Satz 1991; Clifton 1987). In 1850, the commissioner of Indian Affairs and the secretary of the interior persuaded President Fillmore to issue an executive order revoking the Chippewas’ privileges of occupancy and requiring them to remove to their unceded lands in Minnesota. The Indians were incredulous at this shift in policy, since they had never understood themselves to have agreed to such a contingency. Pezheke , the first chief of the LaPointe band and signatory to the 1837 and 1842 treaties, traveled to Washington dc and convinced the president to rescind the executive order. In exchange for yet another cession of lands in 1854, the Ojibwes negotiated permanent reservations within the ceded territory (Satz 1991:68). The delegation from Flambeau that signed the 1854 treaty was complex in organization...