No nighttime deer shining allowed for Wisconsin's six Chippewa tribes

Her ruling took longer than many people expected, or hoped, but Federal Court Judge Barbara Crabb did file a ruling the night of Friday, Dec. 13 that favored the state in a case in which the state’s six Chippewa tribes sought the ability shine and shoot deer at night in the ceded territory.

Crabb filed her ruling just before close of business on Friday night. In it, she said that the shining of deer at night by the tribes is not a treaty right. We were not able to obtain a copy of her ruling at the time. A copy of Crabb’s ruling was not available to Wisconsin Outdoor News on Dec. 13 to learn if she made other comments about the tribes’ deer shining idea.

Tom Dosch and Diane Milligan of the Department of Justice argued the case for the state. Quinn Williams, a DNR attorney, supported Dosch and Milligan in preparing their arguments. Dosch had retired, but the DOJ hired him back on a limited basis for this case because of Dosch’s success in winning the third and fourth phases of the treaty rights case back in the early 1990s. Dosch won the forest products “gathering” phase of the case with the help of the Wisconsin

County Forests Assocation, and he also won the natural resource management phase of the trial in which Crabb declared the DNR the final decision maker on all natural resource issues.