May 20 [1996] marks the 15th anniversary of the court ruling that put to rest the 17-year battle between Ojibwe Indians and the state of Wisconsin over off-reservation hunting and fishing rights. On this day in 1991, Attorney General James Doyle (now Wisconsin's governor) and the six Chippewa tribes agreed to abide by a 1983 federal ruling known as the Voigt case that allowed Indians to continue to hunt, fish and gather on off-reservation land.

The controversy began in 1974, when brothers Fred and Mike Tribble from the Lac Courte Oreilles (LCO) Band were arrested while ice fishing on an off-reservation lake. Charged with violating Wisconsin conservation laws, the brothers' arrest prompted the LCO to file a class action lawsuit against the state. A treaty, signed more than a century before in 1854, became the focus of the fight.

In 1837 and 1842, the Ojibwe had signed treaties forfeiting their land titles while retaining their right to hunt and fish on that ceded territory — a guarantee known as "reserved rights." Another treaty, signed in 1854, created reservations for the Ojibwe but did not cancel the rights guaranteed in earlier treaties. Despite this protection, the state consistently denied the Ojibwe these lawfully protected reserved rights in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

So when the brothers were arrested in 1974, the LCO argued that the 1854 treaty guaranteed them their off-reservation hunting and fishing rights. Federal District Court Judge James Doyle (Attorney General Doyle's father) disagreed, however, and ruled in 1978 that the 1854 treaty establishing reservations had canceled any reserved treaty rights. The LCO, along with the five other Ojibwe bands, took the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals.

In 1983 the Court of Appeals overturned Judge Doyle's decision. They held that the treaties of 1837 and 1842 had not been revoked or terminated by the 1854 treaty and that the agreed-upon rights continued to exist. The case, known as LCO v. Voigt, was a landmark victory for the Ojibwe, but it triggered considerable controversy, protest and misunderstanding among Wisconsin's non-Indian population.

In the 1980s, anti-treaty protesters staged demonstrations and used political pressure, legal action and civil disobedience to prevent members of the Ojibwe from spearing walleye. Some of the protesters argued that treaty rights and tribal sovereignty were outdated while others believed rumors that the tribe would harvest all of Wisconsin's fish and game, thereby threatening the tourism industry. Some anti-treaty protesters went so far as to deploy concrete walleye decoys on the bottom of lake beds to damage Ojibwe spears and disrupt off-reservation spearfishing. The tribes also faced a stream of racist abuse that often turned violent and led to media depictions of Wisconsin as the "Mississippi of the North."

The Ojibwe and their supporters, borrowing tactics from the civil rights movement, began to act as "witnesses" at protests, collecting information for police investigations of violent acts and educating the public about the reserved rights guaranteed under treaty law. Partially in response to the controversy over treaty rights, the Great Lakes Fish and Wildlife Commission was formed in 1984 to assist its member tribes to protect their off-reservation treaty rights and to regulate hunting and fishing harvests. The state also began mandating that schools provide instruction in the history, culture and tribal sovereignty of the federally recognized tribes in Wisconsin.

Under Governor Tommy Thompson, the Wisconsin Department of Justice tried to appeal the Voigt decision. When this failed, the state offered the tribes money in exchange for an agreement to end or at least suspend their off-reservation hunting rights. The tribes declined. The violence reached a peak in 1989 and, in an attempt to prevent further fighting, Governor Thompson went to court to plead for an injunction to stop Ojibwe spearfishing. Judge Barbara Crabb refused, stating that the Ojibwe were doing nothing illegal.

Between 1987 and 1991 a series of federal court rulings defined the limits of Ojibwe treaty rights. The rulings split resources between Ojibwe and non-Indians, and denied Ojibwe claims for compensation for the years that their rights were denied. On May 20, 1991, the state of Wisconsin declared that it would no longer attempt to appeal the 1983 Voigt decision, finally ending the 17-year struggle.

Since then the Ojibwe have continued to work with the state to try to reduce tensions and manage fish and game populations in northern Wisconsin.