Given the DNR’s new Mille Lacs walleye regulations–and shutdown–for 2017, it might be time to ask the President for an Executive Order to address the situation at Mille Lacs.
The new regulations came out right after my last email, where I first suggested asking for an Executive Order. As I wrote then, “Will this fix the situation at Mille Lacs? It can’t hurt. The more emails the President gets only helps our cause.”
It’s time everyone hunts and fishes under the same rules!
Here is a Sample Message to ask President Donald Trump to sign an Executive Order regarding the Mille Lacs situation. Add your own thoughts to make it personal.
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The MN DNR’s state/tribal “co-management” of 1837 Chippewa Treaty’s harvest rights for Mille Lacs has gone from over one million pounds of walleye to a tiny catch-and-release quota race with “hooking mortality.” Adding a mid-season shutdown of walleye fishing, which affects all species, further destroys Mille Lacs as Minnesota’s premiere walleye angling destination, its local economy, and its property values.
We ask that you sign an Executive Order to honor the 1837 Treaty’s original intent and address the technical flaw in the 1850 Presidential Order regarding the 1837 Treaty’s tribal harvest rights.
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Here are some reasons to ask for an Executive Order.
(Adding the whole list below is too large to fit size limits for the Contact the President email.)
Whereas:
* MN Dept. of Natural Resources, Mille Lacs Band, and Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission’s co-management of 1837 Treaty harvest rights for Mille Lacs has brought devastation of Mille Lacs as Minnesota’s premiere walleye angling destination, its local economy, and property values;
* Mille Lacs walleye harvest has gone from over one million pounds to this year’s negligible catch-and-release harvest quota using a poorly-substantiated hooking mortality algorithm and a mid-season shutdown of walleye fishing;
* The co-management of Mille Lacs allows the unsustainable gillnetting of walleye during spawning season; and prohibits that policy from being challenged or researched;
* The co-management of Mille Lacs impacts angling for all other species, further reducing Mille Lacs as an angling destination;
* MN Dept. of Natural Resources has publicly admitted that co-management of Mille Lacs is driven more by politics than biology;
* The Indian Claims Commission paid ALL claims brought by the Chippewa tribes; paying the Mille Lacs Band $3.93 million in 1965; and again paying the Chippewa, including the Mille Lacs Band, $9.02 million in 1973 for claims under the 1837 treaty, including claims for lost hunting and fishing rights (2016 dollar equivalents);
* Minnesotans and the Mille Lacs Band of Chippewa have traditionally maintained good relations since President Zachary Taylor’s 1850 revocation order;
* Minnesotans wish to restore such relations with the Mille Lacs Band, as well as Mille Lacs being Minnesota’s premiere walleye angling destination and its local economy;
* Chippewa tribes still retain all the rights, privileges, and responsibilities of U.S. and State citizenship, in addition to rights acquired under the concept of “tribal sovereignty”;
* Minnesota’s Gov. Dayton has publicly stated that “I believe that all hunting and fishing in Minnesota should be done under the same rules”;
* The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on the existence of treaty harvest rights was based on its determination that President Zachary Taylor’s 1850 revocation order was technically flawed;
Therefore:
We ask that you sign an Executive Order to honor the 1837 Treaty’s original intent and address the technical flaw in the 1850 Presidential Order regarding the 1837 Treaty’s tribal harvest rights.
