Wisconsin Walleye War

The Wisconsin Walleye War became the name for late 20th-century events in Wisconsin in protest of Ojibwe (Chippewa) hunting and fishing rights. In a 1975 case, the tribes challenged state efforts to regulate their hunting and fishing off the reservations, based on their rights in the treaties of St. Peters (1837) and La Pointe (1842). On August 21, 1987, U.S. District Court judge Barbara Crabb ruled that six Ojibwe tribal governments had the right under these treaties for hunting and fishing throughout their former territory.

Protests erupted in Wisconsin among sports fishermen and resort owners who were opposed to tribal members spearfishing walleye during spawning season. Protests continued into 1991 against the Ojibwe walleye harvests. Tribal supporters successfully petitioned federal courts to issue an injunction against the protesters, curbing the protest events at boat landings.[1]

The events were chronicled in a Mother Jones 1991 article,[2] books published in 1994 and 2002, and the documentary film Lighting the Seventh Fire (1995).

  1. ^ Lac du Flambeau v. Stop Treaty Abuse-Wisconsin 991F. 2d 1249 (7th Cir. 1993)
  2. ^ Vold, M. 1991 "A people's birthright: Not for sale." Mother Jones 16 (1): 42.