Explanation reveals who the DNR really serves

A story in Mixed Bag, DNR announces temporary, seasonal fishing closures, Outdoor News Minnesota, May 3, 2023 (below). The report exposes the DNR’s failure to serve all citizens of Minnesota.

The DNR tries to finesse an obvious contradiction in their report on what waters get closed to protect spawning fish or doesn’t get closed. They make a reference to “where…fish are concentrated in one location.” But their explanation doesn’t hold up.

When it comes to “concentration,” the tribes only gillnet where they know walleye spawning beds are located—and walleye are concentrated. At the same time, nothing concentrates spawning walleye more than miles of high-tech monofilament gillnets.

Principles of conservation only apply to non-tribal anglers—but not for the tribes. This is yet another example of the DNR’s flimsy […]

A recent New York Times article reported on a tribal blockade of roads in Wisconsin, Amid land dispute deadlock, tribe blocks streets. (They are not “streets.”) It gives non-tribal MN residents in the newly expanded ML reservation a real-time example of what private property landowners face if they are located within a reservation. The currently deadlocked dispute involves four backroads used by about 65 homeowners, many only seasonally.

Developers of land for private landowners around lakes within the reservation acquired right of way easements decades ago. The easements expired about 10 years ago. The tribe’s dispute is with the Town of Lac du Flambeau. The town’s territory overlaps with the tribe’s and whose workers have maintained those roads. The dispute includes the two title companies that insure the properties involved.

Tribal leaders […]

A court ruling announced January 12th, in a press release from Mille Lacs County Administrator Dillon Hayes, restores the Mille Lacs Band’s ownership of the long dis-established 1855 Mille Lacs Reservation. This includes civil and criminal authority over all persons in that territory.

As PERM has often pointed out, such jurisdiction covers all natural resources. That puts anything related to hunting, fishing, and gathering, entirely beyond the reach of the MN DNR. That includes any “co-management” or “negotiations.”

These and other points in the press release are facts of law. Tribal protestations minimizing the threats or fallout from the ruling would be only opinions.

Read more from the press release below.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 12, 2023

The County is disappointed by the Court’s ruling as it allows tribal police to investigate the activities of non-Indians […]

Steve Johnson, Letter of the Week, Mille Lacs Messenger, finds cost of the Mille Lacs Reservation Boundary lawsuit to be relatively modest. He hopes ML County Commissioners will move forward through an APPEALS process.

PERM’s concern is that an expanded reservation puts a lot more natural resources–including hunting and fishing–under tribal management control.

Read more below

Mille Lacs Messenger
Letter of the week 12-21-22

Who’s suing who?

To the Editor:

The answer to this simple question seems elusive when conversation of the lawsuit Between Mille Lacs County and the Mille Lacs Band takes place.

One side (MLC Mille Lacs County) often neglects to mention it and the other side (Mille Lacs Band) probably appreciates that.

The Mille Lacs Band is suing Mille Lacs County, and as of this letter MLC has been vigorously defending itself from mentioned lawsuit. There […]

Joe Fellegy recently interviewed  Paul Radomski, A Q&A with Radomski author of new walleye book,” MN Outdoor News, December 2, 2022. The interview of DNR biologist Paul Radomski about  his latest book “Walleye: A Beautiful Fish of the Dark,” confirms what PERM has been pointing out all along: the Mille Lacs fishery has a management problem.

Radomski certainly has the expertise for doing this analysis but he also involves many experts in his detailed discussions about the fishery and its management. (He brings up more questions than Joe Fellegy.) His book has extensive notes, bibliography, and index. It’s well worth reading by anyone who is concerned about the Mille Lacs fishery.

Don’t forget, DNR Commisioner Sarah Strommen is in charge of all natural resources in Minnesota. If you have questions about Mille […]

DNR couldn’t answer questions; wouldn’t discuss upcoming regs.

I participated in the MLFAC meeting online and was surprised by the DNR’s lack of expertise about their own operations.

As Committee members were asking questions, the majority of the answers were “I don’t know,” “we are looking into that,” “we will look into that,” “we are working on that,” … These are the experts who sit down and deal with the Chippewa Tribes over co-management of Mille Lacs Lake? Wouldn’t you think, since their decisions affect the livelihood of Mille Lacs businesses and the livability of Mille Lacs homeowners, that they would be a lot more up to speed with their facts? They have been doing this for twenty plus years.

Worse, the DNR would not discuss new winter regs. The “Advisory” Committee has […]

In an interview of tribal representatives, Javier Serna, Assistant Editor, Outdoor News Minnesota explores reasons for why tribal and state hunting seasons differ. Many tribal and state hunting seasons differ: Why?

Tribal representatives tried to make the case that a “subsistence hunting and gathering culture” at the time treaties were signed still exists today. However, the Courts have ruled that the continued existence of treaty harvest rights was based on tribal culture and not on the need for subsistence. The failure of this workaround is due to the following:

They said it co-exists with “conservation,” the concept of which did not exist at the time treaties were signed.

It is their blending of culture and subsistence that today justifies the the tribes’ current subsistence basis for harvests, which undermines the conservation of our […]

Ask your candidates in the upcoming elections. They need to hear from you!

Start with these questions:

* Will you pursue correcting 20-plus years of Mille Lacs Lake co-mismanagement
by the DNR and the Mille Lacs Band of Chippewa?

* Will you support Equal Hunting and Fishing Rights for all Minnesotans?

* Will you push for EARLY session public House and Senate hearings relating
to mismanagement of Mille Lacs?

It’s easy to get candidate contact info with just your home address. Go to the state’s Voter Information Portal  Use the links to candidate websites for contact info. Then call, email, or send a letter.

If a candidate link is unavailable, you can also search the Internet by using their name and office they seek. Use their website for contact info or to leave questions above and/or comments.