RED LAKE, Minn. ? It has been nearly nine years since the Red Lake Band of Chippewa decided to pull its gill nets from its namesake waters, putting many commercial fishermen out of work and taking food off tables.
As the band prepares a return to fishing on May 6, its members are vowing to never again allow their self-proclaimed "food store" or "storehouse" to run dry. Thanks to a walleye restoration program started by the tribe's Department of Natural Resources, the lake will open to anglers two years ahead of schedule.
"There was a tremendous economic sacrifice by the tribe, as well as a significant cultural sacrifice that people outside the reservation probably don't understand," said Bobby Whitefeather, a former tribal chairman who held the first meetings about saving the lake. "I must say, I have to commend the membership in their refrain from exploiting that body of water we all hold so sacred."
Whitefeather was one of several Red Lake Tribal members who gathered at the tribe's headquarters recently to talk about the fishing revival. They spoke about the big lake with reverence. It's a spiritual connection that spans generations, said Bill May, a member of the tribe's fishery board.
"This is a positive note for the Red Lake nation," May said. "We're talking about a way of life. My father and several other people's fathers lived off the resources of this nation."
Commercial fishermen took nearly 1 million pounds of walleye a year from Red Lake in the late 1980s. Those numbers were similar to the annual harvest on Mille Lacs, considered one of the premier walleye lakes in the state. Quotas have since been put into effect on Mille Lacs.
The Red Lake Band has yet to decide if it will allow commercial fishing. In the meantime, the tribal council has approved interim regulations for 2006, allowing a daily bag limit of 10 walleyes. Fish over 18 inches must be released, except for one whopper (over 28 inches) per day.
Anglers must catch fish with a hook and line.
"The short and the long of it is, if the tribe and the resource managers feel it's ready, they should fish," said Robert Shimek, a tribal member and spokesman for the Indigenous Environmental Network, a national group based in nearby Bemidji. "It's going to be done very cautiously, very slowly."
The band controls all 164,990 acres of Lower Red Lake and 71,549 acres of 119,274-acre Upper Red Lake. Only band members are allowed to take fish from tribal waters.
The tribe isn't solely at fault for overfishing the lake, said Barb Woltjer, who owns a resort on Upper Red Lake, off the reservation. She's not a member of the tribe.
"A lot of people want to blame the walleye decline only on commercial fishing, and I don't agree with that," said Woltjer, who opened the West Wind Resort near Waskish in 2000. "There were many, many people who came here in the '70s and '80s who had boats full of walleye."
The commercial harvesting of walleye fell from 950,000 pounds in 1989 to 15,000 pounds in 1996. Fall assessment netting by the Red Lake DNR captured about 1,200 walleyes in 1987. By 1997, that number was down 12. This was the same year that the commercial fishery voluntary closed its doors.
"It was a major decision made to undertake the recovery," Whitefeather said. "The way we went about it is an example of true sovereignty. We entered into agreements with other governments and came together to work toward a common goal."
Pat Brown, a Red Lake Tribal biologist who was hired to oversee the restoration, said the band's decision to stop fishing "showed the state of Minnesota" that the tribe was serious about fixing the problem.
"The rest just fell into place," Brown said.
Commercial fishing on the lake was started by the state to help ease nationwide food shortages during World War I, said Dave Conner, administrative officer for the Red Lake DNR. Before that, the tribe fished the lake just for subsistence, he said.
Conner said the fishery eventually was turned over to the tribe in 1930, following a lawsuit by a private citizen complaining that the state was competing against its own residents. The U.S. Secretary of Interior was assigned to regulate the fishery, he said.
"It included a statement that the secretary should manage this system based on sound biological principles," Conner said. "Therein lies the catch ... the Secretary of Interior has culpability for what happened to the system over the years."
The Interior Department referred questions about past management practices to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which refused to comment.
In the past many netters were warned by tribal officials about taking too many walleyes, said Ron Beaulieu, a commercial fisherman. When times were good, some people used eight nets or more, but Beaulieu said he never used more than four or five nets.
Most of the walleye catch went to the tribe, he said. Some fish were sold on the black market.
"Some of them, if they needed cash right away, they would sell a couple of walleye to people coming through," Beaulieu said. "You couldn't blame them for that. They didn't have cash in their pocket. Hardly anybody did."
The decision to shut down the lake in 1997 left many people without a source of income, Conner said.
Any walleye fishing this summer is a victory, said Woltjer, who's expecting a big crowd for the fishing opener. The non-tribal part of the lake will open on May 13, with a limit of two walleyes.
"To us, a two-fish limit is a large number because we've been without walleye fishing for so long," Woltjer said.
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Topic: from the red star "Walleye fishing set to resume on Red Lake" (Read 2608 times)
