Tribal leaders say they’re unimpressed by the brief the state’s lawyers filed the other day in the case against 13 unlicensed Passamaquoddy Indian saltwater fishermen.

Those tribal leaders are being kind. The state’s argument doesn’t merely fail to impress, it offends.

Boiled down to the essentials, the state’s case consists of these points: Some Passamaquoddy fishermen have obtained state fishing licenses in the past, ergo, the entire tribe admits its obligation to do so; the state has a regulatory and enforcement structure in place, ergo, it must regulate and enforce; neither the federal 1980 Maine Indian Land Claims Settlement or the accompanying state implementing act mention saltwater fishing rights, ergo, any rights not specifically reserved to the tribe must belong to the state.

Students of logic will recognize the first two points as textbook fallacies, with a non sequitur and a vicious cycle thrown in for good measure. Students of the Constitution (United States or Maine) will recognize the third as repulsive.

What makes the state’s zeal to prosecute these 13 especially rank is that the state and the tribe had been negotiating a settlement to the saltwater fishing issue for nearly two years. An agreement was close at hand; the tribe, in return for the authority to issue its own licenses (in order to retain sovereignty over a practice that has sustained it for centuries), had agreed to enforce rules at least as stringent as the state’s. The state then suddenly decided to start busting folks. If this clumsy tactic was intended to push the tribe into making a last few concessions, it has had the opposite effect. If the tribe’s position has hardened, it’s with good reason. No one likes negotiating with a gun to the head.

Now the tribe’s lawyers get their turn to respond to the state’s arguments. Here’s a couple of points they’re sure to make: by negotiating at such length on saltwater fishing, the state essentially acknowledged that there was something to be negotiated; everyone — that’s everyone — who was involved in the Land Claims Settlement agrees that saltwater fishing was not addressed; the settlement was for land claims only. Saltwater fishing was to be taken up later in a separate agreement and never was.

From Augusta, this no doubt appears to be case of needing to assert authority, of not wanting to set a dangerous precedent. From everywhere else, it looks like the state is wasting a lot of muscle to work over the state’s most impoverished, chronically unemployed — and original — residents.

The tribe is not seeking the authority to issue its own driving permits, to license its own pharmacists or to take control of any other modern-day concern of government. It merely wants to ensure its very small membership that saltwater fishing, a defining part of Passamaquoddy heritage, will always be available to those willing to engage in the difficult and often dangerous work. The state should drop the charges, rethink its position and restart the negotiations.