Federal judge blocks Chippewa night hunt

By The Associated Press

CREATED Dec. 17, 2012

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MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- A federal judge has blocked Wisconsin's Chippewa tribes from hunting deer at night for this season.
  
A commission that administers the bands' off-reservation rights authorized tribal hunters to go after deer at night in November. The move runs counter to the state's ban on the practice, but the commission and the tribes argue they could operate outside that ban because the state allowed wolf hunters to take to the woods at night.
  
But U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb issued an order Monday saying the tribes overstepped their authority when they issued the authorization without state approval.
  
Tribal attorney Colette Routel didn't immediately return telephone and email messages.