Lake Erie Fishing Rights Denied For Okla. Tribe
Published: August 18, 2009
CINCINNATI
A claim by the Ottawa Tribe of Oklahoma that it should be given commercial fishing rights on Lake Erie without government restrictions was rejected, a federal appeals court in Ohio said in a ruling released Tuesday.
The tribe gave up its fishing rights when it moved out of northwestern Ohio in the early 1800s, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati said.
The tribe filed a lawsuit four years ago against the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, saying that the state shouldn’t be allowed to regulate or limit the tribe’s fishing rights based on a 200-year-old treaty.
It told the state it wanted Ohio to recognize its fishing rights and intended to use gill net fishing in Lake Erie, a practice that’s illegal in Ohio.
The state argued that the tribe’s complaint was based on a treaty that had nothing to do with Lake Erie or fishing rights.
State officials at the time said they thought the suit and another one brought by the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma were aimed at forcing the state to negotiate over casino gambling.
An attorney for the Ottawa tribe denied that they were planning to use the claim as leverage for a casino. The Ottawas are among at least three tribes that have pursued a casino in Ohio.
There are no federally recognized Indian tribes or lands in Ohio.
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Reader Reactions
Ottawas or Odawa are a patient people they only have been waiting 200 years for the provisions that were outlined in another “as long as the grass is green and the sky” is blue Treaty of Greenville.
The smartest move and least wasteful that the citizens of Ohio could do would be to turn the beautiful City Center complex over to the Odawas for a upscale Casino downtown in exchange for the Treaty Rights which have too long been ignored. This would create a win/win solution for all. There would be a total renewal of Columbus and the State if this were done post haste.
How Ironic “Columbus” evidently some people still are seeing the earth as flat as they did when Columbus set sail.
I know it makes too much sense, bring out the wrecking ball that is progress!
Uhhhh they moved because they were forced to move. Why don’t we work on mending the broken hoop. And there aren’t any federally recognized tribes in Ohio because if they were recognized that would open a whole new can of worms that would have to be dealt with, so if the Federal Govt. doesn’t recognize any tribes - there must not be any, right? ha ha ha and the Trail of Tears goes on and on and on and on and on….
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