Boozhoo (“hello” in Ojibwe) and miigwech (“thank you”) for reading the First Nations Wisconsin newsletter.
Whenever I write about Ojibwe spearfishing activities in northern Wisconsin, I tend to receive a number of phone calls and emails containing quite a bit of racist vitriol.
This was the case again after reporting about my late January trip up north to cover the Mole Lake annual ice spearfishing camp.
Moving past the racist name-calling and vulgar language, many of the complaints center around the misconceptions that tribal members are spearing too much and harming fish populations.
For tribal walleye spearing, scientists and wildlife biologists determine each year how much tribal spearfishers can harvest from each lake. Those catches are monitored by creel clerks waiting on shore.
Another complaint is that state fisheries supply the fish that tribal spearfishers take.
State fisheries actually help replenish the harvests of non-tribal anglers. Consider that there are about two million fish licenses issued in the state and compare that with the about 500 tribal spearfishers.