I am a tribal member and yes you may have anybody you want out on the boat while you are netting fish... It is called a OBSERVER... The white man may be on the boat with the Native American aslong as the white man is not touching anything or doing anything..

It would not matter if the men had been fishing with the Native American even if his license was current. I am married to a tribal member with a subsistance fishing license. Since I am not a tribal memeber I am not allowed under their rules and laws to go set or pull a net with him. They were doing something illegal. It does not matter who they were with.

A little fish for their freezer? That's more than a little. If everyone went out and took this many fish; how many fish do you think in a short matter of time would be left in the great lakes? Limits for all!

My oh My how this has turned into a race thing. THEY WERE ALL AT FAULT!! Native American or not. They made the choice and are paying the price, they were all trying to put a little fish in their freezer times are hard.

shawn j., i am pretty sure the guys knew his tribal fishing rights weren't current. i also know that the 'indian' was called and told to come and join the 'white' boys event. the 'indian' didn't own any of the equipment. he went down so he could fill his freezer, and perhaps help out some of his family.

Why does is always have to boil down to race? Us vs. Them, white vs. indian, native vs. non-native. The ignorance that is spouted here by both sides when issues like this arise is appalling. No wonder society today is in the state it is in. Tribal members are prosecuted in tribal court if the violation occurs within ceded territories. This should not be a race issue, it is simply about people breaking the law, tribal or non. Violators of hunting and fishing laws come in all shapes, sizes, and races.

Sounds like they will be able to do the same kinda fishing for the next three years, and not even have to pay for a license.
They should be fined the amount it will cost to replace all the illegal fish they took...X3 (for the next three years). Somehow I get the feeling this was not their first time pulling illegal nets.

First of all it is being made a big deal because it happened in GARDEN. So what people got caught with fish, they did not kill someone. You don't hear about the two Indians they were with. That is prejudice.

shame shame, our family fishes and teaches our children the wonderful experience and how lucky we are to have such a great body of water to use, we see this happen all season long, it's about time our DNR is finally watching, and "trying" to "reel" the bad fish in. there are more than this crew out there. to stand behind the "Indian" legality is bull, just a try to get out of it, we saw you all season out there!!! hopefully we will see you behind bars, how do you explain this to your kids??? when we are trying to say well we got our limit we have to stop fishing now...

Actually they were fishing with a Native American who neglected to tell them he did not renew his fishing license. Guess that makes it their mistake but should have been mentioned on the radio. At least they took responsibility for their actions.

So it wasn't Indians? Why don't we have 36 comments here now? A white man is asking all you prejudice, judgemental, assumptive ingrates. Hate to tell you I told you so. I wouldn't blame an entire community on my lack of fishing skills, or a pack of wolves on my lack of hunting skills.

Uhm, they were illegally fishing with a net. The law didn't stop them the first time. What makes anyone think that levying legal action against law breakers will be obeyed by said law breakers.

"You, law breaker, you didn't obey the law the first time, so we will enact legal action against you and expect you to obey it..."

Does anyone *honestly* believe that they will listen and not fish at all the next three years? I don't.

Maybe i should just teach my young kids to fish with nets instead of poles! Atleast there chances of catching a fish will be better instead of getting skunked!

How about losing their boat too?!?

They could face up to 90 days in jail. Both will also lose their fishing license for three years.

What a Joke-Wonder what kind of Deal our Wonderful DNR helped them get this Horrible fine

They should lose their fishing licenses for life!!