re: #89 William Lewis

My wife is Ojibwe. I remember going up to the rez pre-casino days. So much racism from Woodruff it’d make you sick. After the casino (which makes little money BTW, when the entire collective workforce makes ~$10 an hour there isn’t much left for gambling), it got a little better. Now all the racists complain about how rich all the indians are (not my wifes tribe among many others, but facts don’t permeate). Here’s a piece of history with some good ol’ Wisconsin racism.

Wisconsin Walleye War

Edit to add:

During the spring walleye spawning seasons of 1989, 1990 and 1991, the task force deployed hundreds of police officers from around the state to help local sheriffs maintain order at lakes where Chippewa members began exercising their newly reaffirmed rights. Hundreds of protesters lined boat landings to make their case that tribal members enjoyed “special rights” under Crabb’s decision. They shouted offensive slogans and sometimes threw rocks at the tribal fishers and the protection officials. To disrupt the fishing, protesters launched boats and circled the fishers at high speed, trying to upend the Chippewa fishers, who were standing in boats to spear fish by lamplight. Other protesters joined mass arrests, at least one of which degraded into a melee when police moved to seize sound amplification devices from protest leaders.