Get a load of this! What are they they thinking!

[Mark-n-Fish]

According to this article the DNR is giving the green light for native Americans to devistate lakes of game fish. 10% of the total population per year! This does not look good. Check out the link. :rant::rant::rant:
http://www.cadillacnews.com/articles/2007/09/27/news/news02.txt
Mark

[alex-v]

What article are you referring to.

The DNR is not giving them permission to do anything. We certainly cannot place any blame on them for this. It is the State of Michigan (and I believe that the Federal Court system is involved) which is reaching the agreement and the DNR is forced to administer it. I doubt that the department wants another chore to have to handle.

From everything that I have read the agreement only covers a certain portion of the state and only grants permission to specific inland lakes. Nothing I have read indicates otherwise.

The agreement is also considered by many of those involved in the bargaining to have given them LESS than what they actually had before. More restrictions have been placed on them.

[MDH]

Alex,

Could you please explain how they are getting less rights through this treaty? I haven't read all of the articles, and the one I did didn't explain how the Native Americans were actually losing some of their rights. I just want to make sure I know my facts about this issue before I draw any conclusions. Any info you could offer would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

MDH

[alex-v]

I do not read the newspapers on-line and instead get them delivered. If I am remembering right the story broke at the beginning of the week and appeared in the Detroit area papers on Tuesday of this week. If you don't have your hard copies of the papers then check them on-line. There should be a version of the article on the Det. Free Press site and also check the Macomb Daily.

Under the new agreement the Native Americans now have a shortened season for both fish and game animals. Shortened at both ends.

The limits have been reduced.

I also think that the methods used have been further restricted.

What the fish and animals can be used for has been reduced. (They cannot sell the animals or fish and I would think that this now covers trading for other goods or services but not sure on this point.)

Keep in mind that this agreement is not finalized. It still has to be approved by the 5 different tribes involved and one of them is balking a bit at signing off on the deal. So, the articles are still speculation until the final approval.

[Mark-n-Fish]

Alex the article link in the first post of the thread. It sure sounds like a drastic increase they will be able to take to me. Read it for yourself. They will have use of 37% of the state. A huge firearm deer season. Double the limit of turkeys. Netting on inland waters. :rant:
Mark

[huntingmaniac45]

:dizzy::rant:

[alex-v]

It may seem like a big increase but it actually is a cut back from what they can already take. Their deer season is longer and the new arrangement makes it a couple of months shorted.

All across the board they are taking a big compromise from what they could do earlier. This was all part of the articles in the Detroit papers and not mentioned in the article Mark found.

Another article that had more details was in the Grand Rapids paper last Friday. That article said that while they might be able to net fish on inland lakes they will not be able to use gill-nets.

[Houghton laker]

They will have use of 37% of the state. A huge firearm deer season. Double the limit of turkeys. Netting on inland waters. :rant:
Mark

From what Mike Cox said on the Michigan Outdoors TV show.....This is much less than if they went to court....the other states that went to court about this ended up giving them 50%

[alex-v]

What they got does seem like it is huge or double but we have to remember that this is when compared to what a non-American Indian has for seasons or limits.

There is an article in Sunday's Free Press (Spots section, last page) about this and it pretty much covers the facts without the emotionalism or human interest that the Cadillac News article relies on.