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AUGUST 8, 2000

On Monday, five Michigan tribes, the state of Michigan, and the US government signed a new 20-year agreement regulating fishing on the Great Lakes.

The signing comes after the parties reached an agreement in principle in July. They had been in mediation talks since September 1999, negotiating over a 1985 consent decree which expired in May of this year.

The new decree addresses several issues concerning fishing on Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, and Lake Superior. The lakes were ceded by the five tribes in the Treaty of Washington in 1836.

The parties have agreed to a plan to rehabilitate lake trout on Lakes Michigan and Huron. Rehabilitation on Lake Superior has been succesful.

Most importantly, the agreement calls for the tribes to remove 14 million feet of gill nets. Sport fisherman have often complained about the use of gill nets, which is allowed only to tribal members.

The gill nets will be converted to trap net operations. The state will institute a commercial trap net fishery buy-back plan and offer these to tribal commercial fishers.

As part of the plan, the state will pay $17 million to replace gill-net boats with trap-net ones.

The five tribes who are affected by the agreement are the Bay Mills Indian Community, the Sault Ste Marie Ojibwe, the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Ojibwe, the Little River Band of Ottawa, and the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa.

The agreement becomes effective immediately once approved by Judge Richard A. Enslen, Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan.

Related Stories:
Fishing rights agreement reached (Tribal Law 07/14)

Relevant Links:
The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa - www.sootribe.org
Michigan State Department of Natural Resources - www.dnr.state.mi.us
Treaty Rights, Understanding the Conflict - www.fw.umn.edu/indigenous/default.html