Mrs. Abbott Richmond, of the Leech Lake Area Citizens Committee, answers questions as to the purpose of the "Fish-In" that took place at the Maple Leaf Resort. Unable to get their case against the laws resulting from Governor Anderson's treaties heard in court, the group decided to openly break the law requiring tax stamps for fishing on Chippewa Indian land to get their take on the matter a day in court.
Part one of a three part report.
SPEAKER: The first arrests to test the constitutionality of Indian hunting and fishing rights in the Leech Lake area took place tonight. They happened at the Maple Leaf Resort in Sucker Bay on Leech Lake. The fishing wasn't to begin until tomorrow morning. But when a conservation warden appeared, seven or eight men went down to the dock and began casting their lines. The arrests followed immediately, and this is how it sounded.
SPEAKER: Mr. Bowman, do you have the stamp?
SPEAKER: No, I don't.
SPEAKER: You realize that Minnesota statutes require you to have a Leech Lake Reservation stamp?
SPEAKER: That's what they say.
SPEAKER: And I'll have to ask you to accompany me to the car. You are a non-resident, therefore you'll have to post bail until a court date. So if you'd accompany me, please.
SPEAKER: OK. Well, wait, wait till I get out here. [INAUDIBLE] [LAUGHS] Do you have a license, sir?
SPEAKER: No. A fishing license? Well, yes.
SPEAKER: I'm a conservation officer. I'd like to see them, please.
SPEAKER: All right, here it is. [INAUDIBLE]
SPEAKER: Do you want-- do you want a pull?
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
SPEAKER 2: Is that VB or GB?
SPEAKER: JB.
SPEAKER: JB?
SPEAKER: Yes.
SPEAKER: Mr. JB, do you have the stamp required by law fishing inside the reservation?
SPEAKER: Oh, no, sir.
SPEAKER: You realize the Minnesota statutes require you to have a stamp inside the Leech Lake Indian Reservation?
SPEAKER: Well, I heard something about that. But I haven't been too particular about it.
SPEAKER: OK. You are a non-resident, therefore you'll have to post bail. I ask you to come to your car, if you would, please.
SPEAKER: All right. I hope we get a big Muskie.
[LAUGHTER]
[INAUDIBLE]
SPEAKER: Mrs. Abbott Richmond is one of the organizers of the Leech Lake Area Citizen's Committee. Several of your people have been arrested this evening. Maybe you could explain to us why this is all happening. Why is there-- why is the fish in taking place?
ABBOTT RICHMOND: We have tried three different times to get our side of this controversy into court. We have been unsuccessful in the federal courts. After our last brush with the federal courts, the state legislature passed a statute ratifying a treaty that Governor Wendell Anderson made with the Leech Lake Band of Chippewa Indians.
That treaty in the first place was made without proper authority because only Congress can make treaties with Indians. In the second place, the ratified treaty gives the Indians the authority to collect a tax on the public for a private purpose. In the third place, the federal order did nothing more than take the Indians out from under the state conservation laws, but governor Anderson's treaty with them gave them exclusive right to all rough fish and also the right to change the categories of fish any time they so chose.
There is nothing in the Anderson treaty that prevents the Indians from declaring any species of game fish a rough fish. Also the species included in the rough fish, which are now by the Anderson treaty exclusively Indian are species that a great many of the people up here make their living from, especially the perch, the whitefish, the bullheads, and the catfish. Now recently, the Indian Conservation Committee decided that a non-Indian may take 25 whitefish and 25 perch and have them in their possession.
The reason for the fishing is that so some of our members could be arrested, thus giving us the opportunity of getting into court and testing the constitutionality of the ratified Anderson treaty because the state is very specific Article IV section 33, which says the legislature does not have the power to pass a law which permits any group or any person from levying a tax on the public for a private use. Then two, Governor Anderson's treaty with the Indians violates the federal, which gives the power of treaty making with Indians to Congress alone.
Our constitutional rights as citizens have been taken away from us. We feel this law is discriminating. It is a racist and thoroughly unfair for everyone concerned.
SPEAKER: Have you had-- your group had good relations with the Indians. You see this more as a constitutional issue rather than as a dispute between the home owners--
ABBOTT RICHMOND: Oh, no, no. From our point of view, there is nothing racist about this, except as the governor has made the decision. He has introduced the racist by putting the Indians in one category and the non-Indians in another.
Now to make this point clearer, most of the people in our area of Cass County are related to the Indians or have Indian blood themselves. So accusing us of racism is ridiculous. My husband has an Indian ancestor, so have I. And our attitude toward that is, well, isn't that interesting? And so what?
SPEAKER: But the Indians take a different position.
ABBOTT RICHMOND: Yes. They do now. They didn't a couple of years ago or several years ago. This racism and the accent on racism is something entirely new.
Digitization made possible by the State of Minnesota Legacy Amendment’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, approved by voters in 2008.
Views and opinions expressed in the content do not represent the opinions of APMG. APMG is not responsible for objectionable content and language represented on the site. Please use the "Contact Us" button if you'd like to report a piece of content. Thank you.
Transcriptions provided are machine generated, and while APMG makes the best effort for accuracy, mistakes will happen. Please excuse these errors and use the "Contact Us" button if you'd like to report an error. Thank you.