Water uses designated herein shall be protected and water quality and quantity shall be maintained at present and/or natural conditions in order to protect and maintain designated, existing, and other beneficial uses of tribal waters. Criteria listed in Article V shall be used as standards to protect water quality, drinking water sources, fish, wildlife and aquatic life, human health, cultural, ceremonial, religious, and spiritual uses, habitat and natural food chain maintenance, and other consumptive and nonconsumptive designated, existing, and other beneficial uses. All waters of the Reservation will be protected to support the following designated uses:
A.
Fish, wildlife and aquatic life use. All waters of the Reservation are designated to provide for the protection and propagation of balanced ecosystems for indigenous fish (as well as rainbow trout and kokanee salmon), wildlife and aquatic life, including wild rice (Zizania aquatica), lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens), and other plants and animals, and the protection of human health from disease related to consumption of fish, wildlife, and aquatic life, as well as the protection of these organisms from disease. All streams and rivers of the Reservation are further designated to provide a self-sustaining trout fishery, in addition to certain lakes marked with a "(T)" in Article III. The following ecosystems and their associated uses shall be protected:
(1)
Cold water ecosystems. These ecosystems include surface waters capable of supporting a community of cold water fish and other aquatic life, or serving as a spawning area and or overwintering area for cold water fish species, including trout (Salmonidae), sculpins (Cottidae), and certain minnow (Cyprinidae) species. This category shall apply to all streams and rivers of the Reservation, except (lower) portions of the Wolf River as noted in Subsection A(2) below, and to lakes that are marked with a "(T)" in Article III.
(2)
Warm water ecosystems. These ecosystems include surface waters capable of supporting a community of warm water sport fish or that serve as spawning areas for warm water sport fish. This designation shall apply to all lakes of the Reservation, with the exception of lakes that are marked with a "(T)" in Article III, and portions of the Wolf River during certain times of year because the river will support both warm and cold water fish.
B.
Recreation use. All waters of the Reservation are
designated for full-body recreational use, which necessitates primary
contact with the water, including underwater swimming and incidental
ingestion of water through participation in the recreational activity.
Recreational uses also include white water rafting, canoeing, fishing,
and wading, and other uses.
C.
Ceremonial, religious and spiritual use. All waters
of the Reservation are used for ceremonial and spiritual purposes
by tribal members (and descendants). The Tribe holds water sacred,
and our historic past epitomizes this statement. The original five
clans of the Menominee, consisting of the Bear, Eagle, Wolf, Crane,
and Moose, depended on water to sustain life and used water to perform
their ceremonial responsibilities. Additional historic and modern
ceremonial uses of water include, but are not limited to, uses in
the annual Sturgeon Ceremony, wild rice harvest, and the harvesting
of medicinal plants from waters of the Reservation. Traditional religious
use of water in Big Drum Ceremonies, the sweat lodge, and other ceremonies
is (still) practiced today. These uses may involve, among other things,
primary direct contact, drinking and inhalation of water. Recognizing
the ceremonial and traditional use of water and its life-giving properties
is important for the spiritual significance of the Menominee people.
D.
Cultural use. All waters of the Reservation, and aquatic
natural resources, are designated for historic, traditional, and cultural
uses. Cultural water uses encompass all ethnohydrological uses of
water associated with unique Menominee ways of life. These uses include,
but are not limited to, the ethnobotanical harvest and medicinal use
of numerous plants associated with aquatic, wetland, and riparian
habitats, as well as basic socioeconomic uses of waters of the Reservation
for sustenance. Aquatic plants that grow in waters of the Reservation
are vital to continuation of Menominee culture through the use of
those plants for medicinal purposes by Menominee people.
(1)
All living things on the Menominee Reservation in
some way use the waters of the Reservation to sustain life. People,
animals, birds, plants, trees, and insects use water and have their
place in Menominee culture.
(2)
Waters of the Reservation shall be maintained and
protected in such an ecological condition that will allow (traditional)
Menominee educational uses associated with waters of the Reservation
to continue perpetually.
(3)
Cultural educational uses shall include, but not be
limited to, ethnohydrological learning experiences that are passed
from one generation to the next regarding the harvest of plants and
animals. Culturally, to the Menominee people, waters of the Reservation
are as significant as the forest ecosystem and will continue to be
regarded with the same deference. The Tribe protects the forest ecosystem
with sustained yield forestry management practices; this same (everlasting)
treatment shall be afforded waters of the Reservation, for it is the
very essence of sustaining life which is critical to maintaining the
culture of the Menominee people. Cultural uses are very significant
to the Tribe, indigenous forest-dwelling people that have for more
than five millennia relied upon the water in the Tribe's historic
range to sustain unique Menominee ways of life.
E.
Fish and wildlife habitat and natural food chain maintenance
use.
(1)
All waters, and aquatic and riparian ecosystems, of
the Reservation are designated for wildlife habitat and natural food
chain maintenance. Naturally occurring food chains/webs shall be maintained,
including but not limited to predator-prey relationships, browsing
and grazing strategies, and symbiotic relationships related to food
acquisition. The Tribe realizes direct benefits from this usage, including
specific and general ecological benefits, consumptive and nonconsumptive
environmental and natural resource uses, including but not limited
to the taking of fish, furbearers, waterfowl, wild rice, and other
aquatic life for human consumption, and cultural, spiritual, and religious
benefits and aesthetic and other legitimate benefits and uses. Menominee
cultural beliefs indicate that humans fit into the natural food chain;
therefore, natural food chain maintenance associated with aquatic
and riparian areas must be protected and/or restored.
(2)
Waters of the Reservation shall also be protected
in order to provide continued ecological support for a number of rare,
threatened, endangered, and culturally significant species, including
but not limited to the bald eagle (Haliaeetus luecocephalus), osprey
(Pandion haliaetus), red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus), slippershell
mussel (Alasmidonta viridis), blandings turtle (Emydoidea blandingii),
pine marten (Martes americana), lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens),
sandhill crane (Grus canadensis), timber wolf (Canis lupus), common
loon (Gavia immer), pygmy snaketail dragonfly (Ophiogomphus howeii),
Karner blue butterfly (Lycaeides melissa samuelis), Phlox moth (Schinia
indiana), Missouri rock cress (Arabis missouriensis var deamii), Indian
cucumber root (Medeola virginiana), pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea),
and cranberries, among others.
F.
Navigation use. All navigable waters of the Reservation
are designated for navigational uses for tribal purposes.
G.
Forestry use. All waters of the Reservation are designated
to support a healthy forest ecosystem and to provide adequate water
conditions for propagation of native tree species that are subject
to Menominee sustained yield forestry management and for other agricultural
purposes that befit the Tribe.
I.
Industrial water supply use. All waters of the Reservation
shall be available for regulated industrial use(s), except those waters
that are designated outstanding national resource waters.
