The Nation - News from May 7, 1989

The opening of fishing season on Wisconsin’s northern lakes was tense with the threat that sport fishermen and Chippewa Indian spear fishermen might clash. Indian spearfishing begins during spring spawning, ahead of the general fishing season, and is far more efficient than rod and reel fishing. As a result, the state limits rod-and-reel catches of walleyed pike on 254 lakes. The state Department of Natural Resources moved 90% of its 173-warden staff to northern Wisconsin to deal with the increased number of boats expected. More than a hundred opponents of the Chippewa treaty rights were arrested when a crowd crossed police lines at a Trout Lake boat landing. The tribe had been fishing under a court-upheld guarantee of 19th-Century treaties that ceded much of northern Wisconsin to the United States.