wallyhntr1 wrote:

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Just saying this because I havent a clue- Natives do have harvest rights but isn't it simply a 'privelage' for all other Americans?

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All citizens of Minnesota can apply for a fishing license and YES, just like a driver's license it is a privilege that can be revolked or suspended.

There is on-going controversy as to whether or not native netting is a "right" or a "privilege". Here's a little background on that for you to make up your own mind.

 “The privilege of hunting, fishing, and gathering the wild rice, upon the lands, the rivers and the lakes included in the territory ceded, is guarantied to the Indians, during the pleasure of the President of the United States. ”On 13 August 1990 members of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe filed a lawsuit against the State of Minnesota for interfering with the hunting, fishing, and gathering rights that had been guaranteed to them in an 1837 treaty with the United States. In order to interpret the treaty the courts had to consider historical circumstances, the intentions of the parties, and the treaty's implementation. The Mille Lacs Band faced a mammoth challenge. How does one argue the Native side of the case when all historical documentation was written by non- Natives? The Mille Lacs selected six scholars to testify for them. Published here for the first time, Charles Cleland, James McClurken, Helen Tanner, John Nichols, Thomas Lund, and Bruce White discuss the circumstances under which the treaty was written, the personalities involved in the negotiations and the legal rhetoric of the times, as well as analyze related legal conflicts between Natives and non- Natives. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor delivered the 1999 Opinion of the [United States Supreme] Court.

http://www.citizensalliance.org/links/pages/articles/Making_It_Simple.html