-
Epilogue
- University of Nebraska Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
† Epilogue 15. Spearing at Mille Lacs, 1998. Photo courtesy of Charles Rasmussen, glifwc staff. [35.173.233.176] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 09:28 GMT) In the 1990 season, spearfishers were again hit by rocks and fired at with guns. Protesters began to use bullhorns, whistles, and sirens, creating a carnivalesque atmosphere at the boat landings. They chanted slogans like ‘‘Tom, Tom, the white man’s son’’ and ‘‘Hi-How-are-ya’’ while beating a drum. The protests were large enough for the state to spend 1.7 million dollars in law enforcement protecting spearfishers and their supporters. Nevertheless, 1990 was one of the most successful spearing seasons. The bands took 25,348 walleye, 303 muskies, and 483 other fish (Masinaigan 1990:8), with Flambeau accounting for nearly half. Altogether , 9,000 more walleye were taken than in the previous year, and 41 percent more Ojibwe fishermen speared off the reservation that season. A total of 1,615 permits were issued, with Lac du Flambeau accounting for 751 (Kmiecik 1991). Important changes were occurring away from the reservation that year. Media coverage dropped sharply, in part due to a growing awareness of the racist dimension of the protests (Loew 1996:25–26). Twelve northern Wisconsin chambers of commerce issued statements recognizing treaty rights, responding to polls and studies that could not establish a deleterious relationship between Indian spearing and tourism (Whaley and Bresette 1994:159). Counterdemonstrations of support for treaty rights were organized by the Midwest Treaty Network in London, Oslo, and Vienna. Dorothy Thoms, a founding member of the Wa-Swa-Gon Treaty Association, addressed the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous People in Geneva, Switzerland, a few months after the season ended in August. Shortly after the 1990 season began on May 9, Judge Barbara Crabb ruled on another regulatory subphase of the Voigt case. Applying a principle used by Judge Boldt in the state of Washington, she found that the tribes were entitled to harvest no more than 50 percent of the treaty resources in any management unit. She refused the tribes provi- 210 Epilogue sion to hunt deer in the summer and established a season from Labor Day to December 31. Deer could not be hunted at night, and they could not be hunted on private land, with some minor exceptions (lco et al. v. Wisconsin 1990a). In October of 1990, Judge Crabb (lco et al. v. Wisconsin 1990b) ruled that the tribes could not pursue their claim for damages against the state of Wisconsin for deprivation of off-reservation treaty rights from the time shortly after the signing of the treaties until 1983. The value of the damages in the form of involuntary forbearance had been estimated at between 250 and 300 million dollars. On August 14 of that year, the Mille Lacs Band of Minnesota Chippewas , signatories of the same 1837 treaty upheld in the Voigt decision , filed suit in federal court against the state of Minnesota and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, seeking to enjoin the state from enforcing laws infringing on treaty usufructuary rights. Lac du Flambeau became more actively involved on the legal front in 1990. It attempted to capitalize on the newly passed Hunter Harassment Law (protecting the state’s lucrative deer hunting season from the increasingly powerful animal rights movement) by seeking remedy against four leaders of the protests arrested during the spearing season. In July, a Langlade County judge dropped the charges against the defendants. The leadership of the Wa-Swa-Gon Treaty Organization responded by enlisting the aid of the legal firm of Cherne, Clancy, and Taitelman and the Wisconsin chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union; on February 1, 1991, they filed suit in federal court under section 1982 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which forbids infringement on civil rights motivated by racial animus. The Lac du Flambeau band and its diverse leaders—tribal council chairman Mike Allen, Tom Maulson, Robert Martin, Nick Hockings, and Gilbert Chapman —sought an injunction to prevent Dean Crist of sta/w, fifteen other named individuals, and unnamed others from interfering with any tribal member’s treaty rights. The suit also named three county sheriffs as defendants in a racially motivated conspiracy to deny the Indians their treaty-guaranteed rights. On March 15, 1991, a week after a day-long hearing of the evidence presented by Tom Maulson, spiritual leader Edward Benton-Banai, and Nick Hockings, Judge Crabb (Lac du Flambeau v. Stop Treaty Abuse...