By BRIAN MULHERIN, Daily News Staff Writer, Posted: 2-11-2005 bmulherin@ludingtondailynews.com, 843-1122, ext. 348
Pere Marquette Township officials are at their wits’ end over the situation that has arisen at the Pere Marquette Memorial boat launch.
Several commercial fishing boats licensed by the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians have moored more-or-less permanently at the end of homemade docks at the site.
“We have a boat launch there, and for whatever reason we now have about six — it varies every day — commercial fishing (boat crews) who have built their own docks and have taken over,” said P.M. Township Supervisor Gene Jorissen. “My read of the treaty that they have, they are supposed to have a permit, and that is not a permitted activity, but I can’t get anybody to deal with it for me.”
Jorissen said he has dealt with conservation officers from the Little River Band, commercial fisheries enforcement personnel from the Michigan DNR, state Sen. Gerald Van Woerkom’s office, U.S. Senator Carl Levin’s office, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Coast Guard, but has had no satisfaction in resolving the issue.
“There’s nothing they can do,” Jorissen said. “Everybody says, I don’t know what we can do.”
Jorrisen said he believes the commercial fishermen’s actions are illegal based upon a section of the 1836 treaty between the federal government and the Chippewa and Ottawa people.
“I read the 1836 treaty and (part of it) deals with access,” Jorissen said. “We are a unit of the State of Michigan and they need to get a permit. There are certain things they cannot do.”
Little River Band of Ottawa Indians spokesman Glenn Zaring said he believes the treaty Jorissen is referring to deals only with property owned by the state and federal governments.
“Our treaty is not with him,” Zaring said. “Our treaty only applies to DNR sites. We don’t negotiate a treaty with townships in this instance. I think he missed some of the application of who is working with whom.”
Zaring said tribal officials have scheduled a meeting to discuss the issues with township officials.
But Zaring said the actions of the fishermen licensed by the tribe should not be viewed as actions sanctioned by the tribe.
“The tribal fishermen are independent contractors, that point seems to keep being missed,” Zaring said. “We don’t control their actions. In their practice as their trade as commercial fishermen, they function independently.”
The problem could be partially alleviated later this year.
Tommy Battice, who owns the licenses used for several of the boats, announced in January his operations would move to Manistee because of ease of access and its proximity to where he hopes to set his nets. Other boats docked at the site operate under the licenses owned by Levi Stone.
Jorissen simply wants the site to be used for its intended purpose of launching and retrieving boats and vehicles used for ice fishing.
“No one seems to feel that they can get them to move,” Jorissen said. “They take up squatters’ rights there. They’re blocking the boat launch; they’re breaking the ice for the ice fishermen that like to go out there.”
Jorissen said in addition to phone calls placed to several officials, he’s also sent letters to State Rep. David Palsrok, R-Manistee, and U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Holland, but has not yet received a response.
“I’m at a loss, do I take it to circuit court, where do I take it?” Jorissen said.
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Re:P.M. officials at odds with Tribe over launch s
Rick: Are they bringing 6 boats to Manistee?? Where are they going to put them??? Are we going to have 6 pond nets setting across the bank??? There's enough problems dodging nets around the bears, without having them north of Gurney Creek too
Dave
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Re:P.M. officials at odds with Tribe over launch s
Dave , I was told they were bringing 2 boats to Manistee and setting at least 1 net operation north of the point towards Gurney Creek. They have promised to mark the nets in excess of the min. standards , that is the shore side will have a double flag on a 5 or 6 foot staff and the lake side will have 1 flag on staff and the wings will be marked. This was told to over one hundred people in Ludington at the Sea Grant and Charter Boat Association meeting in Jan. by the chief of the tribe and one of the fisherman , hopefully they will do as they have promised to do and we will have no problems this year. These net operations are for Whitefish only , any salmon or steelhead caught must be returned to the water and they are only allowed 100 pounds of lake trout but can not sell the trout , personal use only. If the nets are marked properly and we as fisherman educate ourselves on the net placement and markings we should be able to keep out of them and still fish around them , afterall they do act as structure and I have done well around nets in the past.
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Re:P.M. officials at odds with Tribe over launch s
Rick, Sounds like the indians are becoming proficient at typical political doublespeak.....
The following is from the article in the Ludington paper: "But Zaring said the actions of the fishermen licensed by the tribe should not be viewed as actions sanctioned by the tribe." (Zaring is the tribal spokesman) “The tribal fishermen are independent contractors, that point seems to keep being missed,” Zaring said. “We don’t control their actions. In their practice as their trade as commercial fishermen, they function independently.”
They tell you at the meeting:
"They have promised to mark the nets in excess of the min. standards , that is the shore side will have a double flag on a 5 or 6 foot staff and the lake side will have 1 flag on staff and the wings will be marked. This was told to over one hundred people in Ludington at the Sea Grant and Charter Boat Association meeting in Jan. by the chief of the tribe and one of the fisherman , hopefully they will do as they have promised to do and we will have no problems this year."
Post edited by: tales2spin, at: 2005/02/12 19:48
Post edited by: tales2spin, at: 2005/02/12 19:49
Post edited by: tales2spin, at: 2005/02/12 19:52
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Re:P.M. officials at odds with Tribe over launch s
Posted: 2-17-2005 PM Twp, Tribe reach some middle ground on access site
By BRIAN MULHERIN Daily News Staff Writer
PERE MARQUETTE TOWNSHIP — Representatives of the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians and Pere Marquette Township reached some middle ground Wednesday in a dispute over the use of the Pere Marquette Memorial Boat Launch on Pere Marquette Lake.
Township officials, who hosted the meeting, believe the six commercial fishing boats that have moored at the site — four of which are licensed by the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians — are docked illegally at a site not designed for permanent dockage. Little River Band Ogema Lee Sprague did not address that concern directly, but stated that federal courts have found that the right to fish Great Lakes waters inherently includes the right to access those waters. He presented a federal court ruling from 1995 as evidence.
While he didn’t offer to ask the fishermen to move their boats, Sprague did express concerns over the way the site was being used by the tribal fisherman after seeing photos of a boat blocking both sides of the boat ramp, photos of what appeared to be fish being cleaned on-site and photos of a fuel drum left on the site.
“We want to do whatever we can do to help regulate the site,” Sprague said while looking at the photos. “Something like this should never happen.”
Sprague and Little River Band Conservation Officer Art DeBres said the tribe was currently working on regulations of its own and that its representatives were working with Chippewa-Ottawa Resource Authority officials to establish rules regarding “inactive” boats and the use of public facilities.
Sprague clarified that the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians does not license all of the boats at that have been moored at the site. He said four boats at the site are licensed by the tribe: Tommy Battice operates a chub boat and a trap-net boat, Levi Stone operates a trap-net boat and Jeff Battice is now licensed to operate a chub boat. The other two boats on the site are owned by a fisherman licensed by the Sault Band and are considered “inactive” while in the waters where the Little River Band requires a license.
Sprague said that while Tommy Battice has stated an interest in moving his operation to Manistee and the possibility exists that other operations may join him, there are still two licenses available for the waters under the Little River Band’s oversight, so he wanted access issues resolved as soon as possible.
Sprague said the docks at the site appeared to be of a temporary nature, more like gangplanks. He said he could see the potential safety hazard of those being left in place, along with unmarked mooring lines anchored to the shore at the access site.
See TRIBE, page A2
TRIBE
Continued from page A1
Pere Marquette Township Supervisor Gene Jorissen said he would like to see all of the boats removed from the site, but short of that, he’d like to see the docks and lines removed from the land at the site.
Sprague said he would try to have rules in place by April 15 requiring the fishermen to store their gangplanks or access docks on their boats or trucks when the boats were not being loaded or unloaded and would attempt to draft a rule requiring that mooring lines attached to land by anchors or claws be well-marked for safety reasons.
Sprague also told Jorissen that the boats “should not be anywhere near your launch ramp,” while on the site.
As to the concerns of ice anglers who would like to access Pere Marquette Lake from the site, Sprague said he would try to arrange for the boats to use only one side of the access site, so that solid ice would be left in place on the other side of the site.
Sprague also said that if weather permits, the boat on site that has been partially submerged will be removed Friday by Seng’s Marina of Manistee.
The use of a publicly funded facility by tribal commercial operations is not unprecedented. The casework Sprague presented Wednesday was from a 1995 suit in which the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa Indians sued the director of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, the Township of Leland and the Village of Northport over denying tribal boats access to existing marina facilities. The tribe provided the township and the Ludington Daily News printed copies of the case, which was ruled on by U.S. District Court Judge Richard Enslen, who also decided in the mid-1980s that the tribes had the right to commercial fishing on the Great Lakes.
Enslen ruled that the Grand Traverse Band’s boats could not be denied transient mooring in slips or off docks at the marina facilities in Northport and Leland.
The Pere Marquette Memorial Boat Launch was built in 2000 using funds from a Department of Natural Resources Waterways Commission grant.
bmulherin@ludingtondailynews.com
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