Overview

Formed in 1984, the Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC) is an agency of eleven Ojibwe nations in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, who retain off-reservation treaty rights to hunt, fish, and gather in treaty-ceded lands. It exercises powers delegated by its member tribes. GLIFWC assists its member bands in implementing off-reservation treaty seasons and in the protection of treaty rights and natural resources. GLIFWC provides natural resource management expertise, conservation enforcement, legal and policy analysis, and public information services.

GLIFWC’s member tribes are: the Bay Mills Indian Community, Keweenaw Bay Indian Community and the Lac Vieux Desert Band in Michigan; the Bad River, Red Cliff, Lac du Flambeau, Lac Courte Oreilles, Sokaogon and St. Croix Bands in Wisconsin; the Fond du Lac and Mille Lacs tribes in Minnesota. All member tribes retained hunting, fishing and gathering rights in treaties with the U.S. government, including the 1836, 1837, 1842, and 1854 Treaties.