Tribe prevails in court decision

Depending upon interest level, a 39-page federal Court of Appeals decision confirming commercial fishing regulations reads like superfluous mumblejumble or a Bible for the 50-plus-year legal battle over Indian fishing rights.

For Centerville Township attorney Bill Rastetter — who has represented Tribal fishermen throughout those decades — the decision might be best described as vindication.

The opinion by the three-judge U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, issued earlier this month, confirms the strongly held — and now upheld — position of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians (GTB) that it holds sole jurisdiction over Native American commercial fishing in the waters off the Leelanau Peninsula.