During the 1970s, a war took place in Northern Michigan. Though no blood was shed, this “war,” known as the Indian Fish wars, completely changed the way the state of Michigan and the indigenous groups of Michigan interact, and created a unique partnership and regulatory system for Michigan’s great outdoors.
Our story begins in the 1800s, when settlers flocked to Michigan, attracted by bountiful timber and incredible lake fisheries. These lake fisheries were also extremely important to the Native tribes of the region, among them the Chippewa, Ottawa, and Ojibwe.
Fishing was important both for subsistence and for trade in exchange for American goods. As more and more settlers moved into Michigan, the federal government decided to create a series of treaties, with the ultimate goal of taking control of all territory we now know as the state of Michigan.
The two most important treaties were the Treaty of Washington, ratified in 1836, which ceded the upper half of the lower peninsula, and the Treaty of La Pointe, ratified in 1842, which ceded the western half of the UP. Though the land was ceded, they both contained an important clause which would set the scene for the future battle.
The treaties declared that indigenous people would have hunting and fishing rights on all ceded land until the land was needed for settlement. Indigenous people were allowed to continue their traditional practices of hunting, fishing, and gathering without interruption anywhere in the land ceded in the above treaties.
As the indigenous people of Michigan were pushed into reservations, their rights to hunt and fish were largely ignored. But the issue was brought up again in the 1930s, starting with a case known as The People v. Chosa.
In this case, the court found two Native Americans caught fishing the Keweenaw Bay guilty of violating state game laws. Most importantly, the state argued that game laws are an expression of state sovereignty, and that Native American treaty rights were subject to state game laws.
This meant that they had the right to fish like any other Michigander, but that these rights were not different from any other Michigander. This ruling would stand until the 1970s.
In 1971, the federal government, in several other rulings, started to interpret treaty law more liberally, taking into consideration the understanding of the Treaty by Native Americans at the time of signing.
This change, which implied that fishing, and specifically commercial fishing, should be a protected right for Native Americans in the State of Michigan, clashed with the previous ruling in Chosa and set the stage for a new legal battle.
But someone would need to take this battle to court. The person determined to do this was Albert LeBlanc.
LeBlanc was a commercial fisherman who lived near Sault St. Marie. He fished with gill nets, a traditional fishing technique for the Bay Mills Indian Community of which he was a member.
But fishing with a gill net was extremely controversial at the time. Starting in the early 1900s, and exacerbated by the introduction of lamprey to the Great Lakes in the 1930s, the Great Lakes fisheries were destroyed.
Commercial fishing started to decline, and the state took measures to protect sportsfishing with the creation of the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission. To protect sportsfishing they tried to ban gill nets, declaring them to be destructive to the fisheries.
These nets, and the indigenous fishermen who used them, became the target of harassment by white fishermen, who thought they were destroying the fisheries. This persecution, fueled by racial tensions between white and indigenous people, became so bad that the KKK even held a series of rallies in the state.
Amid all this, LeBlanc was still determined to protect his rights to fish. So he set gill nets in clear view of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, with the express intention of getting arrested. He was and took his case to federal court.
In the landmark 1973 decision United States v. Michigan, presiding Judge Noel P. Fox declared that Native Americans in Michigan never ceded their right to hunt or fish, and that Native American’s right to fish and hunt superseded the state’s right to regulate hunting and fishing.
This decision was coupled with an investigation into the Great Lakes fisheries in Wisconsin conducted by a select committee of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
In the report, called “Casting Light Upon the Waters,” they found that fish populations were not being affected by Native American fishing practices like spearing or gill netting. The report helped calm tensions and created a more productive working environment.
Today, Native American tribes and the state government work together instead of against each other in the ceded territories. Native American governments help police the land, protecting it from poachers and overuse.
They also invest in conservation projects, such as fish population monitoring, wild rice protection, species reintroductions, and habitat restoration. This court-ordered partnership protects our beautiful natural resources and the sovereignty of Michigan’s indigenous tribes.
Jack Ducote is a writer who loves fishing, hunting, the outdoors, and of course, Michigan. He writes under Hemlock Hobo on Substack.
