The State Needs A Civic Lesson On Native Treaties, Rights

[updated April 1, 2013, 8:25 p.m. Originally posted, 9:30 p.m., March 31, 2013]

Posted earlier over at Purple Wisconsin:

Kudos to State Sen. Tim Cullen, (D-Janesville), for condemning  a Republican colleague's threat to withhold a state grant from one of Wisconsin's small Native American bands over its legitimate exercise of fishing rights guaranteed by treaty.

Treaties are nothing to be discounted.

And there will be walleye enough for everyone this year, due in large part to the tribes' long-time operation of fish hatcheries that meet their need for food as guaranteed by the treaties, and which help maintain the Northern Wisconsin recreation and tourism economy, too.

Given the stress and ugliness released during the spear-fishing battles a few decades ago, and the tension building over mining legislation threatening to pollute the Bad River Band's rice-growing waters, legislators should work hard to eliminate and not exacerbate racial animus towards the state's Native American population.

Mistakes were made - - serious mistakes - - as the Legislature and Governor steam-rolled the mining bill into law without serious and substantive discussions with the Bad River Band and the relationship of their land and water rights with treaty goals and protections.

One legislator, Rep. Jeff Stone, (R-Greenfield), even said it was not the state's job to find a place at the mining legislation table for the Bad River Band - - though access to crafting the mining bill had been provided to the mining company. Whose executives had donated to Walker and others.

Now is the time for leadership, not pandering.

Elected officials should read the treaties carefully and respectfully and use their positions of influence to educate their constituents about the documents' history, validity and significance, and resist the temptation to use their powers as sharp sticks to poke into a hornet's nest.

Update: We need a statewide seminar on the treaties - - a teach-in, if you will, and a day of sermons - - along with lessons about the Public Trust Doctrine and its state constitutional protections for all Wisconsin waters.