Four tribes in Michigan sign new fishing rights agreement with state, feds

BY: LAINA G. STEBBINS - DECEMBER 13, 2022 3:46 PM

Four Anishinaabek tribes in northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula have signed onto a newly revised deal with state and federal officials regarding tribal fishing rights in the Great Lakes, while one more tribe in the U.P. has offered its own fishing deal.

The proposed order from the Bay Mills Indian Community, Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians (GTB), Little River Band of Ottawa Indians and Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians (LTBB) — submitted Monday to a federal judge — revises and extends a fishing policy within areas of Lake Michigan, Lake Huron and Lake Superior for another 24 years.

Fishery deals between the state and Great Lakes tribes have been ongoing since 1985 as a solution to tensions between tribal and settler fishing operations. The last time the fishery management pact was updated was in 2000; it was set to expire in 2020, but was extended for negotiation purposes.

The areas in question are within the 1836 Treaty of Washington territory, one of eight main treaties that ceded Odawa, Ojibwe and Potawatomi tribal land in modern-day Michigan to the federal government. By ceding nearly 14 million acres of land and 13 million acres of water to the United States, the tribes, in return, were guaranteed fishing, hunting and gathering rights in those ceded lands.

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