Tribal fishing battles loom in MinnesotaSome in the split Leech Lake Chippewa band may force a showdown with the state.
By DENNIS ANDERSON, Star Tribune
LEECH LAKE RESERVATION -- The stage is set for an off-reservation treaty rights battle to begin Friday in Bemidji that ultimately could engulf much of northern Minnesota. Some Leech Lake Chippewa band members say they'll set nets in Lake Bemidji the day before Minnesota's walleye and northern pike seasons begin.
The Indians are gambling they'll be busted for violating state angling rules, sparking a legal battle not only over northern Minnesota fish but also its wildlife and perhaps its timber, minerals and other resources.
Citing a treaty more than 150 years old, the Chippewa say most state fish and wildlife rules don't apply to them across a large section of northern Minnesota -- generally north of Interstate 94 -- that they ceded to the federal government in 1855.
The stakes are high for everyone. The Leech Lake Chippewa, and those of the White Earth band about an hour away, risk backlashes that could cut into their casino profits and fracture relations with nonband members that in some instances are already tenuous.
And while the state has signaled it will hold fast to its contention that the bands have no off-reservation hunting, fishing and gathering rights, its costly defeat in the U.S. Supreme Court to the Mille Lacs and other Chippewa bands over similar treaty claims in 1999 hasn't been forgotten.
"We need to exercise our rights or our sovereignty is just a thought,'' said Ren?e Jones-Judkins, 52, of Cass Lake, who with her four sons will net Lake Bemidji on Friday. She was one of about 125 Leech Lake members (out of a tribal enrollment of 9,400) who attended a tribal treaty rights meeting Friday at the band's Palace Casino in Cass Lake.
The White Earth and Leech Lake tribal councils aren't sanctioning the protests. Instead, they will sponsor a public forum on Friday in Bemidji to inform nonband members about rights the Chippewa say they hold.
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