Lac Du Flambeau

The Lac Du Flambeau area is home to the Ojibwe. With the rise of sport fishing back in the 50's and 60's, the walley numbers throughout the years have plummeted in northern Wisconsin. The Ojibwe were the perfect scapegoat for this drop in walleye numbers. During the 1980s and early 1990s, there were many violent clashes in northern Wisconsin over the issue of Ojibwe spearfishing. Violent scenes at boat landings received national and even international attention. Sometimes thousands of White protesters showed up at boat landings as Ojibwe fishermen prepared to spearfish walleye and other species of fish. These crowds often shouted racial slurs, threw things at the fishermen, and even assaulted them.

It all started when the Ojibwe signed treaties (aka - forced to sign) in 1837 and 1842 in which they ceded their land to the federal government. Per the treaties, they retained the right to hunt, fish, and gather wild rice and maple sap on lands they ceded to the United States. Even though they had these rights, the state of Wisconsin believed it had the right to regulate hunting and fishing as well. Slowly the practice of spear fishing in the Ojibwe of Lac Du Flambeau faded away. Throughout the years, Ojibwe members were arrested and tried for fishing as their ancestors did. Finally in 1983, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago--asserted that Wisconsin had no rights to regulate fishing on Ojibwe reservations and, more importantly, that the 1837 and 1842 treaties guaranteed Ojibwe rights to hunt and fish off their reservations without being bound by state regulations. This decision, commonly called the Voigt Decision, was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court that same year. Hence the Ojibwe began spear fishing again and became a perfect scapegoat as to the decreasing walleye numbers in northern Wisconsin.