Twenty-five years ago a "perfect storm" of economic, environmental, and social conditions swirled in northern Wisconsin and battered attempts by the Ojibwe to exercise their treaty-based fishing rights. This article examines the socioeconomic, political, and cultural factors that contributed to the spearfishing crisis twenty-five years…

Wisconsin encompasses an astonishingly representative illustration of the total historical development of federal Indian policy and Indian reactions to it. Wisconsin's Indian population (at least 25,000 people) is the third largest east of the Mississippi River and offers great diversity (3 major linguistic stocks, 6 broad tribal affiliations, and…