Leech Lake, White Earth bands declare closures for teal hunters on wild-rice waters

The Leech Lake and White Earth bands of Chippewa have declared their reservations' wild-rice waters off limits to hunters during the state's experimental five-day teal-hunting season, which begins Saturday.

The bands said the action, which surprised Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) managers, was taken to protect wild rice harvesters.

For the same reason, the Leech Lake band is prohibiting over-water goose hunting during the state's 16-day early Canada goose season, which also begins Saturday.

DNR attorneys are reviewing the bands' closures to determine whether hunting on the waters is controlled by the state or the bands, DNR Commissioner Sarah Strommen said Tuesday.

"We believe these closures may be in conflict with agreements between the state and the tribes,'' Strommen said. "However, due to complexity of these agreements, we are not going to resolve the legal issues before the season opens. Therefore, we are advising hunters to be aware there may be tribal restrictions on hunting wild rice lakes within the boundaries of the White Earth and Leech Lake reservations and to avoid putting themselves in situations of potential conflict.''

A DNR conservation officer who asked not to be identified because he didn't speak for the department was more definitive.

"The bands have no authority over non-band hunters on reservation waters,'' the officer said, and the state will have to make a decision one way or another because DNR conservation officers will be patrolling the affected waters during the teal season.

Included in the bands' closures are some of Minnesota's best north-central Minnesota duck hunting areas, among them all or portions of Winnibigoshish, Leech, Bowstring, Cass and Upper Rice lakes, as well as portions of the Mississippi River.

Some bays of these and other affected waters, as well as adjoining shallow lakes and marshes, contain bountiful wild rice beds and beginning Saturday were expected to attract thousands of waterfowlers, said Steve Cordts, DNR waterfowl specialist stationed in Bemidji.

Richard Robinson, director of the Leech Lake Reservation Division of Resource Management, said in an interview Tuesday that Minnesota DNR managers were notified this summer the tribal council might close its wild rice waters to teal hunting and over-water goose hunting.

"At the time, we didn't say we were going to close the rice beds, just what our concerns were,'' Robinson said. "Our decision to close them was made last week.''

But DNR officials didn't learn of the Leech Lake closure until Monday morning, when Enforcement Division Director Rodmen Smith called DNR Fish and Wildlife Division Director Dave Olfelt to tell him the Leech Lake band had posted a map of affected waters on its website (llojibwe.org/drm/).

Robinson said his band's attorney reviewed a 1973 agreement between the Leech Lake Band and the state that says the band reserves management over reservation rice waters.

The historic pact, which followed a suit in 1969 by the Leech Lake band against the state claiming band members were exempt from state game and fish laws within the reservation, grants largely unfettered hunting and fishing rights to non-band members on the Leech Lake Reservation in exchange for a percentage of receipts from state hunting and fishing license sales.

Last year the DNR payment to the Leech Lake band was $3.3 million.

Earlier this year in preparation for the teal hunt, the DNR had reached out to Minnesota's Native American communities seeking feedback. The Leech Lake band cited the ricing issue, Olfelt said, but because the band wasn't definitive its response it was considered "with the other responses we received,'' and the agency ultimately approved the teal season.

"And we didn't hear from the White Earth band until Tuesday, when Sarah [Strommen] received a letter saying it also was closing its wild rice waters to the teal hunt,'' Olfelt said.

Relations between the state and some northern Minnesota Chippewa tribes have been strained in recent months by the Enbridge Line 3 Pipeline Replacement Project. The White Earth Band in August filed a lawsuit in its tribal court, citing wild rice itself as lead plaintiff. The DNR went to federal court to block the suit.