Wisconsin Walleye War facts for kids
The Wisconsin Walleye War was the name given to events in Wisconsin during the late 1980s and early 1990s. These events involved protests against the Ojibwe (also known as Chippewa) people's right to hunt and fish outside their reservations. This right was based on old treaties they made with the United States government.
In 1975, Ojibwe tribes went to court to challenge Wisconsin's rules about hunting and fishing. They argued that their rights were protected by treaties signed in 1837 and 1842. On August 21, 1987, a U.S. District Court judge, Barbara Crabb, agreed with the Ojibwe. She ruled that six Ojibwe tribal governments had the right to hunt and fish throughout their traditional lands, which were now off-reservation.
After this ruling, protests started across Wisconsin. Many sports fishermen and resort owners were upset, especially about tribal members spearfishing for walleye during the fish's spawning season. These protests continued until 1991. Eventually, supporters of the tribes asked federal courts to stop the protesters, which helped calm the events at boat landings.
The story of these events was shared in a 1991 article by Mother Jones magazine, in books published in 1994 and 2002, and in a documentary film called Lighting the Seventh Fire (1995).
Why the Court Cases Happened
During the 1970s, Native American groups became more active in fighting for their rights. They wanted to reclaim land, protect treaty rights, and have more control over their traditional practices. This particular conflict began in 1973. Two members of the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Ojibwe went fishing on Chief Lake, which was partly off their reservation. They cut a hole in the ice and used spears to catch fish. This was against Wisconsin state laws at the time.
These tribal members had learned in a class that their band had a treaty claim to hunt and fish off-reservation in northern Wisconsin. They were arrested and found guilty of fishing out of season.
The Lac Courte Oreilles band then joined the legal fight to support its members. They argued that their treaties from the mid-1800s gave them the right to fish off the reservation without state rules. At that time, the Ojibwe bands had given up huge amounts of land to the U.S. government. The case went to the U.S. District Court because it involved treaty rights. This court agreed that the band had treaty rights to hunt and fish in their old territories without state interference.
Wisconsin appealed this decision, but the Seventh Court of Appeals also supported the Ojibwe's rights. The state tried to appeal again to the highest court, the United States Supreme Court, but the Supreme Court chose not to hear the case. This meant the lower court's decision stood. After this, five other Ojibwe bands joined the Lac Courte Oreilles in their legal action. The case was sent back to the U.S. District Court to figure out exactly how far these treaty rights went and how to manage resources off-reservation.
On August 21, 1987, Judge Barbara Crabb of the U.S. District Court made an important ruling. She confirmed that six Ojibwe tribal governments had the right to hunt and fish throughout their former lands, based on their federal treaties. Judge Crabb also decided that while the state could step in to protect natural resources, the tribes had the first right to create their own rules. If the tribes could show their rules protected the resources as well as the state's rules, their system would be used.
After hearing many scientific experts, Judge Crabb approved a set of natural resource rules created by the six tribal governments. These rules allowed tribal members to harvest walleye and other fish using traditional methods during the spawning season. This was a time when lakes were closed to state-licensed anglers.
The Conflict Begins
By late April 1988, during the spring spearfishing season, people in Park Falls, Wisconsin, gathered at Butternut Lake. A group of Ojibwe fishers, led by Tom Maulson from the Lac du Flambeau Band, arrived to fish. A large crowd of protesters pressed against the fishers, tribal wardens, and state game wardens, pushing them towards the water. Local police did not help at first. The tense situation lasted until police officers from Superior, almost 100 miles away, arrived. They made their way through the crowd to help the fishers and wardens.
When the 1989 fishing season began, everyone wondered what would happen. Governor Tommy Thompson, a Republican, created a "Treaty Rights Task Force" to keep the peace. Police officers, dressed in riot gear, stood shoulder to shoulder, often three deep. They had sticks and shields ready to stop the crowds if they tried to push past temporary fences.
During the spring walleye spawning seasons of 1989, 1990, and 1991, the task force sent hundreds of police officers from all over the state. Their job was to help local sheriffs keep order at lakes where Ojibwe members were exercising their newly confirmed rights. Hundreds of protesters lined the boat landings. They argued that tribal members had "special rights" because of Judge Crabb's decision. They shouted offensive slogans and sometimes threw rocks at the tribal fishers and the officers protecting them.
To stop the fishing, some protesters launched boats and circled the fishers at high speed. They tried to make the Ojibwe fishers, who were standing in boats to spear fish by lamplight, fall over. Other protesters were arrested in large groups. At least one arrest turned into a struggle when police tried to take away sound systems from protest leaders.
In 1989, groups that supported the treaties, like the Midwest Treaty Network, formed to help the Ojibwe fishing families. Activists such as Walter Bresette from the Red Cliff Band and people from Minneapolis-St. Paul asked witnesses to record the anti-Indian harassment and violence at the boat landings with video cameras. Bresette published "Witness for Nonviolence Reports" in 1990 and 1991. Groups like the American Indian Movement from Minneapolis also joined the protests. They played native drums loudly to be heard over emergency power generators and the protesters' chants.
How the Conflict Ended
The protests began to die down in 1991 because of several new developments.
On April 10, 1990, Governor Tommy G. Thompson signed a new law. This law made it possible to fine anyone up to $1,000 for stopping Ojibwe people from spearfishing.
In the spring of 1991, a late thaw meant that the Vilas County Sheriff put weight limits on county roads. This stopped heavy satellite news vehicles from traveling to cover the protests. Protesters could still show up, but they couldn't be interviewed on camera. This led to a big drop in the intense emotions at the boat landings. In the following years, weight limits were put in place at the same time as the spearing season.
The Lake of the Torches Casino had recently opened nearby in Lac du Flambeau. Many people who lived on the reservation now had full-time jobs at the casino. They stopped participating in spearfishing because they were afraid of losing their jobs if they were absent.
Dean Crist, who led the "Stop Treaty Abuse" group, and Tom Maulson, the tribal chairman from Lac du Flambeau, were interviewed on camera. But these interviews happened outside their businesses during the day, with no protests in the background.
Judge Crabb also issued an order against the "Stop Treaty Abuse" group. This order stopped them from physically bothering or blocking the Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe from using their treaty rights.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission reported that the Ojibwe only speared 3% of the walleye in the treaty-ceded territory. By this time, the leaders of the protests had lost a lot of respect. This was due to reports of their groups' racially motivated chants, gunshots, bombings, and frequent rock throwing and slingshot attacks. Also in 1991, the new Wisconsin Attorney General, James Doyle, reached an agreement with the six tribes. Neither the state nor the Ojibwe would appeal the federal court rulings any further.
The state legislature passed a law to protect hunters. They also passed a law requiring schools across the state to teach about local tribes in history and geography classes. This included explaining the treaty rights the tribes gained when they gave up huge amounts of land to the U.S. This land benefited many European-American settlers. Later in the 1990s, some of the sportfishing groups that had first opposed Native American fishing rights began to work with northern Wisconsin tribes. They worked together to protect fish from plans for metallic sulfide mining, especially the Crandon mine.
Because of the protests, a group of federal, state, and tribal biologists formed the Joint Assessment Steering Committee in 1990. Their goal was to study how sportfishing and spearfishing affected walleye populations. More than 20 years of research by these fish biologists has shown that spring spearing does not harm the walleye population. They noted that only 9% of the tribal harvest is made up of female fish.
In Popular Culture
The fishing battles over treaty rights gained national attention from the media, including the political magazine Mother Jones. The events, issues, and people involved were shown in Lighting the Seventh Fire (1995). This was a documentary film made by Sandra Osawa (Makah) and shown across the country on PBS on July 4, 1995. The title refers to an Ojibwe prophecy about the seventh fire, which says that the people's traditions will be brought back after a difficult time.
Two books have also been written about these events. The legal challenges by the Ojibwe bands are seen as part of a larger movement by Native American tribes since the late 20th century. This movement aims to use their treaty rights, pursue land claims, exercise rights to traditional hunting and fishing (even when not clearly stated in a treaty), and have more control over their own affairs.
