BURNT CHURCH, New Brunswick – All was calm on New Brunswick’s Miramichi Bay as Micmac fishermen trapped lobsters Monday with at least the temporary blessing of the federal Fisheries Department.

Fisheries officials issued a communal license early Monday morning to the Micmac reservation at Burnt Church, allowing a limited lobster fishery for food and ceremonial purposes.

Almost every year for the past decade, the band has had such a license but it matters little to the Micmac fishermen who insist they are fishing commercially under their own rules and regulations – not Ottawa’s.

“Regardless of what the federal government says or does, our people are going to fish,” said band member Brian Bartibogue as he came ashore after checking his traps.

“We have a legal right to fish in this country … we will endure, we will continue to fish and hopefully, someday, we’ll prevail.”

Bartibogue admitted there is an equipment shortage on the reservation this year. There were only four fishermen in small boats on the water Monday, setting small numbers of traps.

Federal fisheries officials seized over 4,000 lobster traps in Miramichi Bay last year and about a dozen boats.

That equipment is still being held in federal compounds, pending court decisions that aren’t expected anytime soon.

“The will of the people has not changed and the commitment of the people has not changed,” Bartibogue said.

“However, the resources we have to fish with have changed. They [fisheries officers] have made life very difficult for us over the past three years.”

Some Micmac fishermen are waiting for direction from the newly elected band council, which is expected to meet on Tuesday.

Chief Wilbur Dedam, who has been chief throughout the fishing troubles at the reserve, was re-elected.

Although Dedam didn’t want to be interviewed on Monday, he signaled that there is no change in his position or that of the band council.

“There are no deals in the works,” he said.

Last year, the federal Fisheries Department issued a communal license to Burnt Church allowing for 40,000 pounds of lobster and 40 traps.

Fisheries officers calculated when they thought the band had gone beyond that allowable limit, then moved in to seize traps and stop the unauthorized fishing.

The enforcement action triggered violent confrontations on the bay. Tribal fishermen who tried to protect their traps were seen throwing rocks at officers and the fisheries officials responded by ramming tribal boats.

There were similar confrontations in 1999, shortly after the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Donald Marshall Jr., a Micmac from Nova Scotia, had a treaty right to fish eels. It also said the Micmac, Maliseet and Passamaquoddy bands can hunt, fish and gather to earn a moderate livelihood, within rules set by Ottawa.

Federal negotiators have been trying ever since to set parameters acceptable to First Nations, non-tribal fishermen and other interests.

They are working to strike new deals with 34 Atlantic First Nations to replace one-year interim agreements that expired last March.

To date, eight bands have signed and several others have reached agreements-in-principle.

There have been informal talks between fisheries officials and Burnt Church band members.

Bob Allain, spokesman for the federal Fisheries Department, said he is hoping for a breakthrough this year to end the stalemate.

But Bartibogue said any deal reached with the reservation would be under duress “and with a gun, literally, at our heads,” he said.

“There are no good faith negotiations,” he said.

“Anything signed at this point would be under duress and worthless.”