The 14th Amendment and Indian Citizen Act
Wisconsin’s fishing seasons are timed to allow fish to spawn. When this is combined with proper bag limits, it ensures an ongoing healthy population of fish. If managed properly, there should rarely be a need to restock the resource.
But since 1985 Chippewa tribal members, who are U.S. citizens that represent 1% of the population, have been solely allowed to fish for Wisconsin’s Ceded Territory walleyes as they spawn and before the season for them opens. During the 40 years that this has been allowed, a calculated 33,717,384 “keeper walleyes” (fish weighing between 1 ¾ and 2 lbs.) have been removed from the Ceded Territory lakes. The out of season fishing has destroyed the natural reproduction of the walleyes there.
Adding insult to injury the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has subsidized the destruction of the Ceded Territory walleyes, by paying the Chippewa Tribes to restock them. The money paid for the restocking comes from the 99% of non-tribal U.S. citizens who the DNR won’t allow to participate in the out of season fishing. Further, the restocking has been an exercise in futility because there is no substitute for the lost natural reproduction of the fish. (See Walleyes in Wisconsin’s Ceded Territory-Parts One through Five, in archived issues at onwisconsinoutdoors.com)
The abuse began when Federal Judge Barbara Crabb upheld the Chippewa Tribes’ treaty right to “hunt and gather” in the Ceded Territory, but disregarded the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the Indian Citizen Act, and the damage that would be done to Wisconsin’s walleye resource by a small minority of citizens. For 40 years that damage has had a devastating effect on the livelihood of millions of non-tribal citizens throughout Wisconsin. The damage continues today because the State of Wisconsin enables and participates in it.
The 14th Amendment and Indian Citizen Act
Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution ratified on July 9th, 1868 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.”
The Indian Citizen Act signed into law by President Calvin Coolidge on June 2nd, 1924 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.
Together, the Fourteenth Amendment and the Indian Citizen Act mean the following:
1. All Chippewa tribal members born in the United States since 1924 are citizens of the United States. Among other benefits, citizenship allows tribal members the right to participate in U.S. elections.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution is in place to protect every citizen, not just a privileged few. As citizens of the United States, the Chippewa tribal members do not have a “unique right” to destroy the Ceded Territory walleye resource that belongs to us all by fishing for them out of season and before spawning is complete.
If the Chippewa Tribes assert that they do have a unique right, based on treaties signed or their status as a “sovereign nation”, they will be undermining their own benefits as citizens, including the right to participate in U.S. elections. It is not their right to stand on the reservation or on U.S. soil, depending on which one benefits them most, when it hurts everyone else.
For 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.
