Fish in the Lakes, Wild Rice, and Game in Abundance: Testimony on Behalf of Mille Lacs Ojibwe Hunting and Fishing Rights

by James M. McClurken (Editor), Charles E. Cleland (Contribution by), Thomas Lund (Contribution by), John D. Nichols (Contribution by), Helen Tanner (Contribution by)

Overview

On 13 August 1990 members of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe filed a lawsuit against the State of Minnesota for interfering with the hunting, fishing, and gathering rights that had been guaranteed to them in an 1837 treaty with the United States. In order to interpret the treaty the courts had to consider historical circumstances, the intentions of the parties, and the treaty's implementation. The Mille Lacs Band faced a mammoth challenge. How does one argue the Native side of the case when all historical documentation was written by non- Natives? The Mille Lacs selected six scholars to testify for them. Published here for the first time, Charles Cleland, James McClurken, Helen Tanner, John Nichols, Thomas Lund, and Bruce White discuss the circumstances under which the treaty was written, the personalities involved in the negotiations and the legal rhetoric of the times, as well as analyze related legal conflicts between Natives and non- Natives. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor delivered the 1999 Opinion of the [United States Supreme] Court.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780870134920
Publisher:	Michigan State University Press
Publication date:	03/31/2000
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	572
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 1.60(d)
Lexile:	1510L (what's this?)

About the Author

James M. McClurken has studied North American tribes for more than three decades. He is the founder and president of McClurken and Associates, a consulting company that researches issues related to the indigenous peoples of North America. He is editor of Fish in the Lakes, Wild Rice, and Game in Abundance: Testimony on Behalf of Mille Lacs Ojibwe Hunting and Fishing Rights.

Table of Contents

	Foreword	vii
Section 1	Primary Testimony Presented on behalf of the Mille Lacs Band in Minnesota v. Mille Lacs Band of Chippewa Indians (97-1337)
	Preliminary Report of the Ethnohistorical Basis of the Hunting, Fishing, and Gathering Rights of the Mille Lacs Chippewa	1
	An Overview of Chippewa Use of Natural Resources in Historical Perspective
	The Western Chippewa in the Early Nineteenth Century
	The 1837 Treaty of St. Peters
	The 1842 Treaty of La Pointe
	Chippewa-American Relations 1825-1850: A Clash of Cultures
	The Treaty of Fond du Lac-1847
	Attempts to Remove the Chippewa
	The Mille Lacs Chippewa in the 1850s
	The Reservation Policy and the Treaty of La Pointe-1854
	The Treaty of Washington
	The Treaties of 1863 and 1864
	Off-Reservation Hunting, Fishing, and Gathering in the Post-Treaty Era
	Statement of general Conclusions
	The Regional Context of the Removal Order of 1850	141
	White Population Growth in the Minnesota Region
	Political Leadership in Minnesota Territory
	Pressure for Removal
	Implementing the Removal Order
	Tragedy at Sandy Lake
	Removal Efforts in 1851
	Suspension of the Removal
	The Watrous Investigation
	The Pleasure of the President
	Remnants of the Removal
	Beyond the Removal Policy
	Mille Lacs Treaty Rights at the End of the Removal Period
	Summary and Conclusions
	Why Call It the Removal Order of 1850?
	Were the Mille Lacs Ojibwe Subject to the Removal Order of 1850?
	How Many Ojibwe Were Actually Removed?
	The 1837 Treaty of St. Peters Preserving the Rights of the Mille Lacs Ojibwa to Hunt, Fish, and Gather: The Effect of Treaties and Agreements since 1855	329
	Mille Lacs and the Treaty of 1855
	Treaties of 1863 and 1864
	Implementation of the 1863 and 1864 Treaties
	The Nelson Allotment Act, 1889
	Congressional Acts and the Mille Lacs Reservation
Section 3	Supporting Testimony
	The Mille Lacs Band and the Treaty of 1855	463
	The 1837 and 1855 Chippewa Treaties in the Context of Early American Wildlife Law	486
	The Translation of Key Phrases in the Treaties of 1837 and 1855	514
	Appendix
	Minnesota, et al., Petitioners v. Mille Lacs Band of Chippewa Indians et al.; No. 97-1337 Opinion of the Supreme Court	525
	Index	547