Wisconsin Walleye War - Resolution

Resolution

Protests subsided in 1991 as a result of developments on several fronts. Judge Crabb issued an injunction against the "Stop Treaty Abuse" group for physically harassing and blocking the exercise of treaty rights by the Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe. (Lac Courte Oreilles had not been the target of any protests, primarily because of long-standing social relationships between tribal leaders and local resort owners.)

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission reported that the Ojibwe speared only 3 percent of the walleye in treaty-ceded territory. Protest leaders had lost considerable prestige by reports of racially motivated chants, gunshots, an occasional pipe bomb, and frequent rock throwing and slingshot attacks. Also in 1991, the newly elected Wisconsin Attorney General, James Doyle, reached an agreement with the six tribes by which neither the state nor the Chippewa would further appeal the federal court rulings.

The state legislature passed a hunters' protection law and a law requiring schools statewide to include information about local tribes in history and geography curricula, which included an explanation of their treaty rights in exchange for much land. Later in the 1990s, some of the European-American sportfishing groups, which had originally opposed Native American fishing rights, worked with northern Wisconsin tribes to protect the fish from industry plans for metallic sulfide mining, particularly the Crandon mine.