Tribal group asserts wild rice treaty rights

NISSWA, Minn. – The new battlefront for Minnesota's Ojibwe bands is clean water, and a tribal group is asserting wild rice harvesting rights on public waters.

A confederation of Native American leaders, known as 1855 Treaty Authority, plans to engage the Minnesota Dept. of Natural Resources in a legal tussle to test the limits of that treaty.

"When the Ojibwe signed over millions of acres of land in that treaty of 1855, they never ceded or gave up the right to hunt, fish and gather," Sandy Skinaway, the chair of the Sandy Lake Band of Ojibwe, told KARE.

http://www.kare11.com/story/news/local/minnesota/2015/08/28/tribal-group-wild-rice-treaty-rights/71289748/