Fond du Lac Treaty Case
Citizens Allowed to Protect Their Rights

    On December 2, 1996 the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit granted two citizens intervention into the Fond Du Lac Indian treaty rights lawsuit to protect the interests of private citizens, sportsmen and landowners in the case. This decision by the second highest court in the land, reverses previous District Court rulings which denied their attempts to protect our rights.
    The Fond Du Lac Band of Chippewa has filed suit against the citizens of Minnesota for the right to hunt, fish and gather without regard for State conservation laws. The band is claiming this right under an 1854 treaty covering millions of acres of land and water which make up the entire Arrowhead Region of Minnesota and under an 1837 treaty covering all or parts of twelve counties in East-central Minnesota. The Landowners are our (sportsmen, property owners, small business owners and taxpayers) representatives in this lawsuit.
    According to the same 8th Circuit Court in a previous ruling setting the precedence for this decision, the Landowners have legally protectable interests in these cases. Their property rights and values may be affected by the outcome. Even if band members are allowed to harvest fish and game on public land only, the property values of citizens in the treaty area may be impacted. Furthermore the Appellate Court recognized that the State of Minnesota could not defend the rights of private citizens in these cases.
    As full parties to the lawsuit, these two Landowners can now raise key defenses to limit the extent to which non-band members will be harmed by the exercise of the treaty right in the 1837 treaty area. They will also appeal other flawed District Court rulings which reinvented the treaty rights in both the 1837 and 1854 treaty areas.
    The Landowners are being financially supported by PERM ( Proper Economic Resource Management, Inc. ) a non-profit volunteer conservation organization with several hundred members, and several thousand contributors, who are fighting to guarantee the interests of private citizens are represented in these cases. They wish to conserve our natural resources, so that those who enjoy and depend upon them can continue to do so.
    Donations are tax deductible, and according to PERM spokesman and former Minnesota Vikings Head Coach Bud Grant, "We have to save our natural resources, save the sports of hunting and fishing, save the tourism industry, save taxes, save property values and SAVE MINNESOTA."