Opinion | Why the Sault Tribe cannot accept a court-imposed fishing decree

This past April, the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians filed an appeal to the court-imposed 2023 Great Lakes Fishing Decree that seeks to create a set of rules for fishing in waters ceded by our ancestors in the 1836 Treaty of Washington. We did so because the way that decree was created violated our treaty rights and our right to due process.      

This fishing decree, which I refuse to call a consent decree because we did not consent to it, is a continued source of frustration for the more than 50,000 Sault Tribe members across Michigan. Under this decree, certain waters have been designated as exclusive zones for specific tribes or sportsmen, while other areas are now restricted. This was not what our ancestors agreed to. These rules were forced upon us by U.S. District Court Judge Paul Maloney, who ordered the decree into effect despite the state of Michigan and other tribes conspiring to lock our tribe out of negotiations.

Judge Maloney also denied our requests for a trial, and therefore our right to due process, which was a necessary step in the proceedings according to the law and the precedent set by the landmark fishing rights case United States v. Michigan. Had we been granted our right to a trial, the Sault Tribe would have put forth vital expert testimony that would have been important to all parties’ understanding of the fishery.  

From our perspective, the only acceptable response is to fight against these injustices. Keep in mind, our ancestors ceded 14 million acres of land and 13 million acres of water while retaining the right to hunt, fish and gather and provide for ourselves in perpetuity. The treaty our ancestors signed was hard fought, and we will not dishonor their sacrifice by allowing our rights to be chipped away in this or any instance. 

The Sault Tribe represents the largest commercial fishing operation in Michigan and the largest number of subsistence fishers among the tribes. We also invest more than any other Michigan tribe in fisheries management programs by conducting invasive species monitoring, fish stocking and other activities to study and improve the health of the fishery. Our tribe lives by the Anishinaabe philosophy of the Seven Generations Principle, which dictates that we honor the work of past generations by always making decisions based on how they will impact the next seven generations. 

We are committed to protecting both a healthy, sustainable fishery and our treaty-reserved rights for many generations to come, and we will continue to take the necessary legal steps to do both.