Native Americans have basic rights under various treaties they signed with the federal government
UPPER PENINSULA -- The right of Native Americans to fish in the Great Lakes comes from treaties between the United States and each tribe more than 175 years ago.
There is no uniform set of regulations for the tribes...each tribe sets its own rules.
Four Native American tribes in the Upper Peninsula govern themselves when it comes to fishing rights: the Bay Mills Indian Community, the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, and the Lac Vieux Desert Band of Chippewa Indians.
The Hannahville Indian Community does not have those same rights.
When the treaties were signed in 1836 for the eastern U.P., and 1842 for the western U.P., the United States Government agreed that the native people could hunt, fish, and gather in ceded territory.
"The Keweenaw Bay Tribe needs clean, healthy, and abundant natural resources to stay in traditional ways of life guaranteed by these treaties," says K.B.I.C. President Warren Christian Swartz, Jr. "It manages natural resources both on and off its reservations."
On our Facebook page, Tina Murray Anderson asked: "What qualifies a person to have fishing rights? What percentage of Native American do they have to have in their ancestry, and do they have to belong to a tribe?"
Tina, since each tribe is sovereign within the state of Michigan, they make their own laws, they determine who is a tribal member. They also determine the length of the fishing season and the amount that their tribal members can catch.
Native American fishing rights are controlled by enforcement personnel, tribal councils and in some cases, conservation officers from the D.N.R.
"These are not specific rights or privileges, these are rights reserved by a tribe as a property interest, a right to access and utilize a particular resource," says Kathryn Tierney, attorney for the Bay Mills Indian Community. "How the right is exercised in modern times is decided by the tribe."
State governments also recognize that the treaty right exists.
As for abuses of these fishing rights, tribal officials acknowledge that abuses do occur occasionally, but enforcement personnel try to keep the violations to a minimum.
So in summary, the state doesn't have authority to regulate Native American fishing.
Each tribe licenses its members. The tribes then regulate parameters like allowable catch, seasons, bag limits, gear restrictions, depth, etc. The tribes, however, are required to report their catches, and wholesale fish dealers that purchase are also required to report all of their transactions.
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