Sixth Circuit upholds Great Lakes fishing agreement with Native American tribes

(CN) — A Sixth Circuit panel ruled Thursday that a 2023 decree negotiated by the U.S. government and a group of Native American tribes regarding fishing rights on the Great Lakes should be adopted, despite one tribe’s protest that the agreement violates its tribal rights.

The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians was the only party that refused to stipulate to a 2023 Great Lakes Decree that updated an 1836 treaty treaty that reserved Indian tribes’ rights to fish in certain areas of water in Great Lakes areas. The decree included major changes to reporting requirements and updates to which areas of the Great Lakes can be fished by tribal commercial fishers.

In its ruling handed down Thursday, the Cincinnati-based Sixth Circuit panel affirming a Michigan federal court’s decision approving the decree.

“Given the dynamic nature of the resource and the competing interests among numerous user groups, we recognize that protecting the tribes’ treaty-protected fishing rights is not ‘susceptible of facile and simplistic resolution,’” U.S. Circuit Judge Julia Gibbons, a George W. Bush appointee, wrote for the panel.

The appellate panel held that the federal court did not abuse its discretion in exercising its continuing jurisdiction and inherent equitable power to enter the 2023 decree over the Sault Tribe’s objections.

“We conclude that the lack of unanimous consent does not preclude the district court from entering new fishing regulations,” the court said. “Although consensus among the parties is preferable, the overriding priority is protecting the treaty right for all five tribes and preserving the fishery resource for all parties.”

The Sault Ste. Marie tribe had claimed it was removed from tribal negotiations and that the process in which the 2023 decree was approved is improper.

“The 2023 Decree implements a regulatory framework that protects the tribes’ federal treaty rights from the ‘racehorse’ environment in 1973, when the United States first brought suit. The district court did not abuse its discretion because the 2023 Decree remains appropriately ’tailored’ to address the original conditions that offended the tribes’ federal treaty rights in 1973,” Gibbons wrote.

The panel also disagreed with the tribe’s argument that a trial over the issue should have been held and that the parties did not satisfy the legal standards for injunctive relief. The panel noted that the decree was a judicial decree, not a consent decree that would have required the court to follow those standards.

U.S. Circuit Judges Jane Branstetter Stranch, a Barack Obama appointee, and David McKeague, a George W. Bush appointee, joined Gibbons on the panel.

The 2023 decree was the product of over three years of negotiations between the United States, Michigan, the Bay Mills Indian Community, the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, and the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan approved the decree in August 2023.

In its appeal, the tribe argued, among other things, that the federal court lacked jurisdiction to enter the 2023 decree without its consent and failed to evaluate the decree’s tribal fishing regulations based on the standard set out in a 1976 Michigan Supreme Court ruling.

The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians did not respond to a request for comment from Courthouse News Service.

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