Criminal Indictment for Fish-in at Sheridan Lake

APNewsNow.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) American Indian activist and actor Russell Means has gone to court over a Black Hills fishing protest.

Prosecutors charged Means for fishing without a license after an August protest at Sheridan Lake. Means responded by filing a federal lawsuit, asking for a preliminary injunction. He argues that the charge is a violation of the 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty.

Means makes the same argument about his January citation for driving with a suspended license in Tripp County. Under the treaty, Means says the Sioux did not surrender their hunting, fishing and traveling privileges in western South Dakota to the federal government.

Information from: Argus Leader, http://www.argusleader.com (Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) APNP 10-15-08

Ignoring decades of fishing rights cases AND the Treaty of 1868, Larry Long, South Dakota Attorney General, has indicted Russell for his non-violent act of fishing at Sheridan Lake in August. This is an outrageous and desperate attempt to usurp the jurisdiction of the Federal Government in Treaty Issues.

Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868,

‘The exclusive right of taking fish in all the streams, where running through or bordering said reservation, is further secured to said confederated tribes and bands of Indians, as also the right of taking fish at all usual and accustomed places, in common with citizens of the Territory, and of erecting temporary buildings for curing them; together with the privilege of hunting, gathering roots and berries, and pasturing their horses and cattle upon open and unclaimed land.’

1942 United States Supreme Court Ruling, “Viewing the treaty in this light we are of the opinion that the state is without power to charge the Yakimas a fee for fishing.”