First Americans

While fisheries management in Washington State has undergone a political sea-change in the decades following the 1974 Boldt decision, one thing appears to have stayed the same – mobilizations against treaty-reserved fishing rights still bring out the worst in some of our fellow citizens.

In the wake of the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife’s (WDFW) May 1 closure of the salmon-fishing season in several lakes and the lower reaches of most Puget Sound rivers, and a small federally-approved ceremonial and subsistence fishery by treaty tribes, recreational fishing industry groups organized protests. In the process, one group, the Coastal Conservation Association, distorted facts about tribal fishing and flirted with the “equal rights” language of the organized anti-Indian movement. Online responders to press coverage of the conflict and protests unleashed a torrent of bigotry directed at tribes, ranging from anti-Indian stereotypes; to advocating tribal termination and treaty abrogation; to calls for out-and-out violence against tribal members and illegal interference with treaty-protected fishing rights.