Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians v. Wisconsin

OPINION AND ORDER

CRABB, Chief Judge.

This seventeen year old Chippewa treaty rights case is before the court following a lengthy court trial on the extent to which the state and counties can regulate Indian harvesting of commercial timber. The regulation of timber harvesting has turned out to be the last subphase of the last phase of the litigation. Originally, three phases were contemplated. The first phase, the declaratory phase, would determine the activities the tribes were engaged in at the time of the treaties, their present day usu-fructuary rights and whether there is any basis for any…