Seasons of Change: Labor, Treaty Rights, and Ojibwe Nationhood

Introduction

1 Introduction In 1959, the Bad River Tribal Council issued a declaration of war against the Wisconsin Department of Conservation to protest state officials’ arrest of Ojibwe hunters and fishers for exercising their treaty rights. The declaration was in part a response to the termination policy; the aims of federal policy-makers shifted from allowing Ojibwe self-determination to a renewed focus on detribalization and the dismissal of tribal sovereignty. As part of this policy, the federal government transferred its jurisdiction over tribes to states. State violation of treaty rights, however, was not new to Ojibwes. Since the turn of the century, the governments of Minnesota and Wisconsin had seized control over Ojibwe lands and resources, while the federal government looked on. Using contemporary rhetoric from the Cold War to underscore its position, the council proclaimed: When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary to protect the rights and the liberties of certain peoples of this great nation from encroachment by other peoples, it is the duty of the Tribal Council, the governing body of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin, to take measures that will protect the members of said Band from unjust arrest by State Conservation officials. it is hereby declared, that a state of cold war exists between the Bad River Band of Chippewa Indians and the officials of the Wisconsin Department of Conservation, and that such state will exist until such time as the State of Wisconsin shall recognize Federal treaties and statutes affording immunity to the members of this Band from State control over hunting and fishing within the boundaries of this reservation. During this period, state conservation officials shall be denied access to all tribal and restricted lands within the boundaries of this reservation. 2 / Introduction The council delivered the imperative message that hunting and fishing were critical economic rights that defined their sovereignty. These were rights designated by exclusive treaties between Ojibwes and the federal government. Therefore, state conservation officials had no historical precedent to arrest Ojibwe hunters and fishers for exercising them. Bad River’s willingness to go so far as to declare war against the state of Wisconsin for violating their rights to hunt and fish illustrates the vital connection between Ojibwe livelihoods and their political autonomy. It raises questions about the economic and political history that lies behind this declaration. Namely, how did Ojibwe livelihoods become sites of political conflict and tension? This book explores two key dimensions of Ojibwe history: labor and tribal sovereignty. Beginning with the negotiation of treaties in the midnineteenth century and ending with Ojibwe life during the Great Depression , it traces the role that labor played as a historically shifting dynamic shaped by Ojibwe struggles with colonialism. It charts Ojibwe efforts to retain their autonomy under the increasingly difficult conditions presented by containment on reservations, the dispossession of their lands, federal Indian policy focused on eliminating their traditional ways of life, and state encroachment on their treaty rights. It examines how Ojibwes enacted their sovereignty around the axis of labor. The connections between treaty rights and Ojibwe economic actions raise a critical yet largely unexplored question: How does our understanding of American labor history change when we recognize tribes’ unique position as indigenous nations who were incorporated into the boundaries of the United States? Scholarship on indigenous labor during this period remains underrepresented in American labor history. However, a number of works on American Indian labor history have put the building blocks in place for exploring this question. In their watershed collection on Native Americans and wage labor, Alice Littlefield and Martha Knack brought attention to the importance of Native American wage labor in American society as well as its significance in defining social relations between Indians and nonIndians . More recently, a handful of scholars, including Colleen O’Neill, Brian Hosmer, Paige Raibmon, and William Bauer, have explored the role that labor has played in American Indian adaptability and perseverance. These scholars have demonstrated that wage labor facilitated cultural production and community among Native peoples rather than a loss of identity . Rather than discarding their traditions, American Indians integrated new forms of labor into the social, political, and economic structures in place in their communities in ways that enabled their survival. Introduction / 3 My book compliments this scholarship; I explore many examples of Ojibwe agency to illustrate how Ojibwes found meaning, sustained traditions , and...