The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians has asked to join five Midwestern states in a lawsuit that is seeking to close the waterways in Chicago to stop the migration of the invasive Asian carp to the Great Lakes.

Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin are suing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago for refusing to close the locks and gates in Chicago to block the carp. The first hearing on the lawsuit was scheduled to take place Tuesday, September 7, and Wednesday, September 8, in Chicago.

The motion filed by the tribe Thursday, September 2, that the tribe first serve as an observer, and, if the case advances beyond the preliminary injunction stage, to serve as a full participant.

The tribe's brief for the case, filed by Matthew Fletcher, a Michigan State University professor, and Bill Rastetter, a Traverse City attorney, states: “Historically, fishing played a central role in the spiritual and cultural framework of the Native American life. Not only are the Great Lakes fish culturally important to the tribes, these communities depend on fisheries for their livelihoods.”

According to the U.S. Constitution, Native American tribes have fishing rights in the vast portion of the Great Lakes, said Tribal Chairman Derek Bailey, who championed the effort to join the lawsuit.

“We all share the same goal, and that's the preservation of our Great Lakes ecosystem, and to preserve it for our children,” he said.

Mr. Bailey added that, according to samplings conducted in the Great Lakes, the presence of Asian carp has been well-documented.

“We need to shut the locks down,” he said. This is not a question of whether there are carp, it's how many.”

Biologists fear that if the Asian carp, which for the past decade have been migrating north from southern rivers, reach the Great Lakes, they could eventually demolish the fishing industry by eating plankton, an important element in the food chain that other fish depend on.

An electronic barrier at the waterways in Chicago is designed to prevent the carp from crossing, but DNA from the carp has been detected past the barriers, and a 20-pound carp found in one of the waterways in June.

Those opposing closing the waterways include the state of Illinois and federal government. They claim that closing waterways would harm the local economy without any certainty of safeguarding the Great Lakes from the carp.