Restoring equal protection, and walleyes
On July 9th, 1868, the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution was ratified. The 14th Amendment requires equal protection of laws for all U.S. citizens. Section 1 of the Amendment states:
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction equal protection of the laws.
On June 2nd, 1924, the Indian Citizen Act was signed into law by President Calvin Coolidge, and it gave all Chippewa tribal members born in the United States citizenship. Citizenship is the tie that bindsall Americans and it’s given the Chippewa all of the rights that every U.S. citizen has, including the right to participate in U.S. elections and the protections provided under the 14th Amendment. The Indian Citizen Act states:
All non-citizen Indians born within the territorial limits of the United States be, and they are hereby, declared to be citizens of the United States: provided that the granting of such
citizenship shall not in any manner impair or otherwise affect the right of any Indian to tribal or other property.
Even though all Chippewa tribal members born in the United States for the last 102 years are U.S. citizens, for more than 40 years the State of Wisconsin has been ignoring this fact and violating the 14th Amendment. Wisconsin has been doing this by allowing only Chippewa tribal members to fish out of season for spawning Ceded Territory walleyes, while preventing all other citizens from participating. The ongoing out of season fishing by the privileged few has resulted in the destruction of Wisconsin’s Ceded Territory walleye resource that belongs to all of us, and caused great economic harm to the entire state.
The unequal protection, destruction, and harm have been thoroughly documented by On Wisconsin Outdoors in our series, Walleyes in Wisconsin’s Ceded Territory. They are the direct result of poor leadership by Wisconsin’s elected officials, and within the Chippewa tribes, and must be addressed and corrected by Wisconsin’s next governor through the following steps:
1. Because fishing out of season for spawning Ceded Territory walleyes by 1% of U.S. citizens (Chippewa) has been proven to severely damage the resource and harm all but a few, the State of Wisconsin must file a federal lawsuit on behalf of all citizens to stop it, based on the 14th Amendment and the Indian Citizen Act.
2. Because the State of Wisconsin cannot “deny to any person within its jurisdiction equal protection of the laws”, until all out of season fishing for spawning Ceded Territory walleyes is stopped the State of Wisconsin must allow non-tribal U.S. citizens to participate in it.
3. The State of Wisconsin must stop paying the 1% of U.S. citizens (Chippewa) allowed to fish out of season for spawning Ceded Territory walleyes, to restock them. The money for restocking comes from the 99% of non-tribal U.S. citizens who are denied equal protection of the laws.
For more than 40 years, the State of Wisconsin has failed to equally protect all of its citizens as required by the 14th Amendment, and the Ceded Territory walleye resource that belongs to all of us. Wisconsin must now right the wrong, and protect both.
To receive a free copy of Walleyes in Wisconsin’s Ceded Territory, as well as Wolf Tracks, our series on Wisconsin’s wolves, and Restoring Verifiable Elections, our series on Wisconsin’s elections, email jellis@onwisconsinoutdoors.com.
