WI Opener

Don’t you just love it!!! Our native friends…can take more and we get less? whats wrong with this picture?

What the ____??? They make it REAL hard not be be prejudice in this world!!! RR

what a bunch of crap…just give them the damn lake is the way it is going!

This may be unrelated, may not be. Tell me how to compete against a treaty and a virtually unlimited budget?

Tribes Funding – 25 Billion dollars

How many nets are you going to have in front of your house this year Bob Unfortunatly this could only get worse in the future.

I hope we get cold weather all through Feb and into March so we get some more ice. Other wise we’re looking at an early ice out and thats not good for us.

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This may be unrelated, may not be. Tell me how to compete against a treaty and a virtually unlimited budget?

Tribes Funding – 25 Billion dollars

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We need to start making them pay taxes or building our own Casinos.This is getting way out of hand.

That Casino parking lot sure is full everytime I drive by. I’ve seen plenty of rigs with boats sitting there too.

not from minnesota but was wondering how the state regulates the amount of walleyes taken from the lake?

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That Casino parking lot sure is full everytime I drive by. I’ve seen plenty of rigs with boats sitting there too.

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It’s my understanding that the Mille Lacs band does very little netting. (As a percentage of total allocation) Most of the tribe over there would rather fish out of a boat. The vast majority of tribal netting is from the Michigan and Wisconsin tribes.

Believe it or not, most of the Indians living on the ML reservation would rather not urine off the neighbors.

-J.

You are so right Jon!!!

Just how many walleyes are there in 122,500 lbs?? 75,000 give or take? thats alot of walleye for a few natives.

They do surveys at the landings and resorts when anglers come off the lake…but I question how accurate they are because I haven’t been checked once this year and I was checked once last year and that was on opener.

I guess I don’t really mind that we can take less fish home and the natives can take more. Don’t get me wrong…I like to eat fish once in a while but I would rather catch and release big fish. Also, when the slot tightens up it usually keeps a lot of people from fishing so there will be less people on the lake… which is fine with me.

what concerns me is what effect this will have on the business such as resorts, bait shops etc around the lake. We have seen a number of them in just the last year. Most recently Liberty Beach, Izaty’s have closed to name just afew.
Whenever the harvest and slot changes on the lake. It will have a direct effect on the number of fisherman that will come and fish the lake.

I like less traffic out front on our lake….but it also effects how much money goes in the resorts and my pockets!! And thats what concerns me……….

The Wisconsin Bands take the most fish but in the last couple years there have been natives also coming from other states.I guess they already netted all the fish in their state

Yeah…your right Bob. I forgot about that view point (resorts and guides) and how it may affect their businesses. I hope it doesn’t affect them too much like Liberty Beach and Izatys. I’m all for helping resorts and businesses around Mille Lacs..heck I wonder how much money I have spent at that BP gas station (next to DQ) on the corner in Onamia?? That place makes a killing and I don’t think I can think of one time that I’ve been up there and did not stop there for something.

If the Mille Lacs band doesn’t want to “tick off the neighbors” why are they allow tribes from other states to come net walleyes??

I would think if the fishing in Mille Lacs goes in the tank or the DNR shuts it down completely it would have an adverse effect on the casino with less people going to that area to fish.
I would think, from a business perspective, the tribe would be all over allowing anglers to take more fish, it would put them in a better light with the sportsmen and women and probably help their business by increasing the # of anglers that come to the area.

It just frustrates me that the native americans want equal rights for some things and to live by the treaties for others.

I think non tribal casinos would be great here in MN, it would eliminate the monopoly on gambling the tribes have.
JB

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If the Mille Lacs band doesn’t want to “tick off the neighbors” why are they allow tribes from other states to come net walleyes??

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First, the Mille Lacs band has no say in the matter. Google up GLIFWC. It’s a territory deal, not state lines. Like I said, the Mille Lacs band is not the enemy here….

-J.

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First, the Mille Lacs band has no say in the matter. Google up GLIFWC. It’s a territory deal, not state lines. Like I said, the Mille Lacs band is not the enemy here….

-J.

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But Jon, don’t forget who started all of this.

1990 – The Mille Lacs Band sues the State claiming harvest rights in the 1837 Treaty ceded territory, which lies immediately to the south of the 1854 ceded territory.

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/aboutdnr/laws_treaties/1854/litigation.html

this is why it is so important for all of us to realize where we spend our money. Personally I don’t like to use Eddy’s, eat or gamble at the casino, or spend money at corporate places.

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I wonder how much money I have spent at that BP gas station (next to DQ) on the corner in Onamia??

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I’m not sure what the BP deal is (franchise or corporate) but I try to give my business to Lundeens, malmo citgo and similar place around the lake, is it more expensive? yes. But I think it’s worth it.

I try and support the people that I know and get good service from. If it costs me $2 more so be it.

Please do not get this wrong k, and not to be an [censored]. But does everyone need a history lesson. We the white people took there land, killed them and put them on resorvations. Then to be nice the goverment the ones who took there land gave all tribes bits and pieces of land. Yes i dont agree with all of it, but history doesn’t change. Again please dont get me wrong.

I for one remember my history lessons all to well. I also remember that our goverment could have settled this problem for far less than the current agreement but they thought it best to fight the indians in court . so who do we thank ?

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Please do not get this wrong k, and not to be an [censored]. But does everyone need a history lesson. We the white people took there land, killed them and put them on resorvations. Then to be nice the goverment the ones who took there land gave all tribes bits and pieces of land. Yes i dont agree with all of it, but history doesn’t change. Again please dont get me wrong.

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Yes. And prior to the “White Man” Indians did this to themselves. Tribes would war for hunting and fishing rights, land and territory rights as well. Countries around the world did this as well. I personally cannot accept that reasoning.

Here is my take. The Natives wanted to do this to continue their ceremonial fishing and hunting herritage. In the day, it was done to provide food for the tribe. I can imagine some was done for sport as well. So far, we are on the same page. Minnesotans (Black, white, yellow and brown..)also fish for food and sport. I am in agreement with that.

Where this goes horribly wrong with me is that you are now taking a “Special Interest Group” and a
“Race” of people, and telling them that they now have “More” rights than any other Minnesotan (Or American.) And they can take these fish by means of netting. Not by hook and line like the rest of America. There was a HUGE left turn along the way.

The different bands like to [censored] about inequality – then they want special rights, etc…..B.S.

The taking of the Indians land happened a long, long time ago. It wasn’t right – but we can’t change the past. I have NO personal responsability for whatever happened back then – and I will be damned if I am going to apologize and grovel to the bands like they are the victems here. It is time to stand up, move forward – and quit pizz-whining about the past. Neither I nor anyone in my family ever stole land or owned a slave……..

Our country was started by breaking laws and fighting the homeland…..you don’t hear a bunch of brits whining now about how we screwed them by leaving…..

Let’s move on for pete’s sake.

Tim

couldn’t agree more with you Chris.

I wouldn’t even care if they did hook and line or even spearing year round….but the netting is purely for makeing money under the cover of tradition and heritage.

That is one reason that its the out of state tribes that are doing it. They don’t have the economic resources the other tribes have here.

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I wouldn’t even care if they did hook and line or even spearing year round….but the netting is purely for makeing money under the cover of tradition and heritage.

That is one reason that its the out of state tribes that are doing it. They don’t have the economic resources the other tribes have here.

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ABSOLUTELY!!!!

What started out as a tradition of spearing a few fish for the tribe has turned into commercial fishing.

Take Red lake for example.When WE were restocking this I dont remember them saying they were planning to rebuild the fish plant and take out 800,000 #s of fish a year.And if they dont get them with hook and line they WILL put the nets in to get them.

Same thing on Mille Lacs.What used to be a few natives spearing fish has turned into more of a commercial harvest.They now show up in motor homes with new boats and large nets.I sure would like to know where these fish actually go when they head back to Wisconsin.

As far as wars and land this has been going on since the beginning of time.We also made deals for a lot of the land and are still paying for it.

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Same thing on Mille Lacs.What used to be a few natives spearing fish has turned into more of a commercial harvest.

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I have not been able to find any evidence that Mille Lacs walleye are being sold commercially. If someone could provide factual evidence of that, I’d be interested in reading it.

-J.

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First, the Mille Lacs band has no say in the matter. Google up GLIFWC. It’s a territory deal, not state lines. Like I said, the Mille Lacs band is not the enemy here….

-J.

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But Jon, don’t forget who started all of this.

1990 – The Mille Lacs Band sues the State claiming harvest rights in the 1837 Treaty ceded territory, which lies immediately to the south of the 1854 ceded territory.

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/aboutdnr/laws_treaties/1854/litigation.html

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Believe me, I understand the history very, very well. My point is this. It’s baseless to blame the ML band for over fishing, over netting the lake. Or to point fingers at fellow fishermen who choose to do business with the tribe or visit the casino. The Mille Lacs band is not the Red Lake band. Big difference. As I understand and have been told by a tribe member, the fish that the ML band net are not sold or put out on the buffet. They are distributed to band members to eat.

I also know from personal experience that the tribe members and non-indian employees at the casino there are hard working people doing their jobs like most of us. Go home at the end of the day and don’t get too involved in the tribe politics. There are a lot of non tribe people that work there or benefit from the business. The casino may not pay taxes on the gambling revenue, but the jobs they keep running generate a lot of taxable economy around the lake.

Again, the majority of band members are good, hard working people eeking out a living on the reservation. The last thing they want to do is be outcast as bad neighbors.

Also, don’t take this post as me agreeing with the current situation regarding tribal netting, the 1837 treaty or reservations in general. I’m just pointing out the making baseless or false allegations gets the white guy nowhere. Just makes a bad situation worse. Let just stick to the facts please!

-J.

This treaty business was what was thought to be best at that time in history. It is obvious that it is not best today. If you are going to side with the old excuse that we took their land, then we should be compensating the decendents of the African slaves, the Chinese servents, the Asian decendents from the internment camps, and God knows how many other groups. History is history. Every country in the world has had one group or another take over part or all of its territory. If we, as a group, continue to allow our government to fund the Indians livelihood, then they will continue to take the middle and both ends. The only way to get this to change is to cut them off. Boycott the casinos, quit fishing and stocking tribal waters, and let the sovereign nations support themselves. This is all easier said than done. Everyone of us knows we will not quit fishing this lake. Our legislaters will never have the courage to lobby for cutting off the paychecks. Unfortunately, the Indians also know this and take full advantage of it each year. Until we can all band together to fight for a change, we will just have this sight to aire our complaints.

Mille lacs walleyes arent being sold commercially but I do think some get sold along the way.JMO

The ML band doesnt take near the fish the Wisconsin tribes take and they dont even like the Wisconsin tribes being there.If there werent so many issues going on up there between the ML band and ML county they might even be more involved in what is happening on the lake if they could.

As far as the ML band being hard working people well I dont know about that.Im sure there are some but I know the leader of the band told all the natives if they wanted to work they could have a job at the casino.Well I dont see many working there so they must be working somewhere else.They also have a huge drug and crime problem there.Just read the ML messanger and there is always something going on.

As long as this keeps going the way it is,its only going to get worse.Their Quota will keep going up and the sport fishing quota will go down.Then it will be like Red Lake.Come on up and catch 2 fish.That will wipe out the rest of the resots and most of the bussinesses.

I just hope it warms up soon so I can get out fishing while we still can.