"The Ojibways affirm that long before they became aware of the white man's presence on this continent, their coming was prophesied by one of their old men, whose great sanctity and oft-repeated fasts enabled him to commune with spirits and see far into the future. He prophesied that the white spirits would come in numbers like sand on the lake shore, and would sweep the red race from the hunting grounds which the Great Spirit had given It was phrophesied that the consequences of the white man'sappearance would be, to the Anishinabeg, an ending of the world." William W. Warren Ojibway Spear Fishing Ojibway spear fishing was done at night using flaming torches at the the front of a birchbark canoe to attract fish.The Ojibway (Chippewa) reservation of Lac du Flambeau in Northern Wisconsin was named so by early French fur trappers because of the hundreds oftorch-lit canoes spear fishing at night on the lake. This traditional Ojibwayfishing method came under attack in Northern Wisconsin in the 1980s whenthe Wisconsin Chippewa attempted to reassert their treaty rights to fish innon-reservation waters. After numerous legal delays the WisconsinChippewa's right to spear fish in non-reservation waters was upheld by theSupreme Court.The controversy didn't end there however, as white resortowners and sport fisherman began a campaign to harass and physicallyprevent the Wisconsin Chippewa from continuing their centuries oldtradition of spear fishing, despite the court ruling in favor of the Chippewa.Makah filmmaker Sandra Osawa's documentary "Lighting The SeventhFire" accurately exposes the underlying motivation behind the Non-Indianforces working against Northern Wisconsin's Chippewa people, andparticularly those attemp...
