PERM Letter to the President – UPDATE
Wisconsin Outdoor News features PERM letter to President Trump
We are happy to see Wisconsin Outdoor News also highlighting PERM’s letter to the President. They referenced Minnesota Outdoor News Editor Tim Spielman’s take on PERM’s Letter and included the full text of the letter. Spielman called PERM’s letter an “unprecedented step … that’s needed if [we] wish to see meaningful change.”
Makes sense. A large part of the 1837 Treaty ceded territory is in Wisconsin. They face many of the same “co-management” issues as we do here in Minnesota.
PERM is asking the President to rectify a US Supreme Court’s 1999 decision–as suggested in that same ruling–regarding the 1837 Treaty’s temporary Treaty harvest rights.
If you haven’t already, please join us in making sure our message is heard loud and clear! Just print a copy (see below) to mail President Trump using the letter’s address. (Yes, mail. A mailed letter gets–and requires–more attention.)
There are spaces on both pages to write in your personal comment about this request. (Be sure to include your address and signature.) Or include your comment, address, and signature on a separate paper instead.
Let’s make this issue a priority for President Trump!
[President Letter printer-friendly download here]
1855 Ceded Territory potential lawsuit – UPDATE
Judge in Gull Lake netting case finds defendant GUILTY on all four counts
On September 5th, Ninth Judicial District Judge Jana Austad heard arguments regarding defendant James Northrup who was charged with illegally setting a gill net in Gull Lake. Northrup claims that he is protected under the treaty rights drawn up between tribes and the U.S. Government in 1855.
A September 12 ruling by the Court found defendant Northrup guilty on all four counts brought by Crow Wing County Attorney Donald Ryan:
Count 1- Illegal Means of Taking Fish
Count 2- Netting Fish Without a License
Count 3- Operating Watercraft Without Registration
Count 4- Using Watercraft Without Personal Flotation or Lifesaving Devices
If the Court’s ruling is appealed as expected, the case potentially has more far-reaching consequences than the Mille Lacs 1837 Treaty case, for several reasons. (See an analysis of consequences here)
** The case applies to the entire 1855 ceded territory area (900,000 acres or 1,400+ square miles) including the Brainerd lakes area along with most of northern Minnesota’s large lakes. It also includes a small portion of Mille Lacs Lake, which means the entire lake if the usual “contiguous waters” principle is applied. (See map at perm.org.)
** The case is trying to establish that off-reservation hunting, fishing, gathering rights are actually determined by the Tribal Executive Committee, NOT the by the wording of any specific Treaty. “This committee determines whether or not people have rights to go outside the area they were historically enrolled in” according to Tribal defense attorney John Plumer in a September 6 Brainerd Dispatch report. That would allow the 1855 Treaty’s ceded territory–currently without any off-reservation hunting, fishing, gathering rights–to “inherit” rights from any other treaty.
** The case’s biggest threat comes from the tribe’s addition of “property rights” to claimed treaty harvest rights. Defense attorney Plumer stated that “[We are] exercising our hunting, fishing, gathering of properties, as it is our property rights” according to the Brainerd Dispatch report. Recognizing property rights will have land-use management implications far beyond wildlife harvest.
PERM stands by all treaties with the tribes as they are written.
Details on a sentencing hearing, held October 12, are pending. PERM will post the Court’s sentence as soon as it is published.
Blainbrook – UPDATE
What’s new for PERM’s ‘SAVE MINNESOTA’ Dinner and Fundraiser
** NEW DATE PERM’s ‘SAVE MINNESOTA’ Dinner and Fundraiser will be held on a FRIDAY. It will be held from 5 to 9 pm on Friday, December 7th. Save the Date!
** NEW MENU The entree this year will be a ham and chicken combo, a change-up to celebrate TGIF. AND PERM members’ resilience in supporting equal protection of the law for ALL citizens access to Minnesota’s natural resources.
RETURNING
** Grand Door Prize: Borderview Lodge Fishing Trip Certificate–three nights, two days with meals for two people.
** Auctioneer: Byron Robyn, MC and auctioneer extraordinaire. Watch for PERM’s bright yellow “Save the Date and Register” postcard. It could be worth $50! If you have not received this card in the past, go to perm.org and Sign up for PERM email UPDATES!
Outdoor News Editorial on PERM’s Letter to President Trump
PERM’s letter an “unprecedented step … that’s needed if [we] wish to see meaningful change.”
We are happy to read Outdoor News Editor Tim Spielman’s take on PERM’s letter to President Trump. He also reprinted PERM’s letter in its entirety.
(PERM is asking the President to rectify a Supreme Court decision–as suggested in the Court’s ruling–regarding the 1837 Treaty’s temporary harvest rights. They were defined in the Treaty to exist “during the pleasure of the President of the United States.”)
Spielman right away states that resource management involving more than one entity with varied goals and priorities is “seldom … without its challenges.” He adds, notably, “It’s not simply when there are Native American governments involved.”
He thoughtfully describes the “co-management” situation on Mille Lacs and various parties’ response to it. He then describes PERM’s letter as an “unprecedented step” in response to the “widespread chant … ‘Why doesn’t somebody do something?'”
Spielman further describes PERM’s letter as “a step that some of us around Outdoor News HQ a few times now have suggested might be the one the disgruntled should take.” Spielman then adds, “Yes, after the Supreme Court’s decision in 1999 regarding the 1837 treaty, it’s a step that dramatic that’s needed if the people of PERM and others wish to see meaningful change.”
Read Editor Tim Spielman’s editorial below.
Read PERM’s Letter to President Trump HERE
DEAR MR. TRUMP
Outdoor News, Vol. 51, No. 40, Page 3
OUTDOOR INSIGHT
For years now, we’ve heard demands from Minnesota anglers that state officials “do something” regarding Lake Mille Lacs and its so-called “co-management” of the resource by the DNR and the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. I might be able to count on one hand how many people truly believe it’s been an unmitigated success.
Seldom, it seems, is resource management without its challenges when its being done by more than one entity and with varied goals and priorities. And that includes the interactions that occur between, say, the state and federal governments. It’s not simply when there are Native American governments involved.
But Mille Lacs, for a variety of reasons, has been particularly messy. State and tribal officials haven’t seen eye to eye on what’s a reasonable harvest of walleyes from the popular central-Minnesota lake. State anglers, in general, haven’t approved of the manner in which–and when–tribal members take their apportionment of walleyes from the lake. Ojibwe bands in Minnesota and Wisconsin that harvest walleyes from the lake have been irked by state anglers taking, in a couple of instances, more than their agreed-upon share.
A citizens advisory group has been created by the DNR.
Experts from outside the agency have been recruited to analyze the lake, its management, and the data-collection methods of our own state natural resources management agency. A DNR office was opened in Garrison, just across the road from the 132,000-acre water body. Gov. Mark Dayton turned the opening of the bass-fishing season into another “opener,” for the lake–an event of sorts–then was met by what could be described as an on-the-water protest.
And the widespread chant continues: “Why doesn’t somebody do something?” Last month, an unprecedented step was taken that involves–who else?–the president, Donald J. Trump.
Printed to the right of this column is a letter written by Doug Meyenburg, president of Proper Economic Resource Management, better known as PERM. It’s a step that some of us around Outdoor News HQ a few times now have suggested might be the one the disgruntled should take. Yes, after the Supreme Court’s decision in 1999 regarding the 1837 treaty, it’s a step that dramatic that’s needed if the people of PERM and others wish to see meaningful change.
In essence, the letter asks for, in the subject line, “terminating the 1837 hunting and fishing privilege of the Chippewa.” The odds that it spurs action from the White House? That’s hard to say. I’d rate them poor at the moment–there are just a few other things on the front burners at the moment–but who’s to say? It’s not like peculiarities haven’t been part of the first two years of the Trump presidency.
PERM asks President Trump for Executive Order
As suggested by the US Supreme Court in its 1837 Treaty case ruling
Please read PERM’s letter to President Trump below. We are making a very specific request as suggested by the US Supreme Court in its 1999 ruling in Minnesota v. Mille Lacs Band of Chippewa Indians. This letter already has been hand-delivered to the White House.
Join us in making sure our message is heard loud and clear!
Please print a copy to mail President Trump using the letter’s address. (Yes, using the mail. It’s hands-on. It’s delete-click free.)
There are spaces on both pages to write in your personal comment about this request. (Be sure to include your address and signature.) Or include your comment, address, and signature on a separate paper instead.
Then forward this email to friends and family asking them to do the same. Print extra copies to take and share as you can.
Please take action today. Make our message reverberate throughout President Trump’s administration!
