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Before White settlers arrived in the Northwest, Native fishermen relied on nets, fishing weirs, traps and spears to capture salmon. Over-fishing was never a problem, partly because the technology didn't allow for it, and partly because it was unfeasible for the semi-nomadic lifestyle of the Northwest people. It was generally not a cultural value to over-consume a sacred creature like the salmon. The lives of the Native people and the salmon changed when White settlers, encouraged by the U.S. government's promises of "free" land for homesteaders, streamed into the Northwest during the mid-19th century. Isaac Stevens, appointed governor of the Washington Territory and superintendent of Indian affairs, was charged with negotiating treaties with the Native nations, overseeing the settlement of the area by Whites, and completing a survey of the land for potential railroad routes. Stevens was able to deliver six major treaties which covered the western half of the state of Washington. Through these agreements, the tribes lost millions of acres of land, but the treaties did reserve Northwest Indians' right to fish and hunt, which was central to their culture. In treaties written between December 1854 and July 1855, the language guaranteed the Native people "The right of taking fish at usual and accustomed grounds and stations ... in common with all citizens of the United States." At that time, the Indians fished for both their own subsistence and for trade with the non-Native settlers, and it was understood that this commercial enterprise would be protected. Problems came about with the depletion of fish runs. The first decline of the salmon runs began approximately 10 years after the treaties were signed, with the formation of canneries in the Northwest. Over the next 100 years other powers threatened the salmon. These powers included: commercial over-fishing, an explosion of sports fishing, the damming of rivers for electrical power, logging and pollution. The shortage of fish became the motivator behind a series of legal battles between Natives and Whites as they found themselves competing for the same resource. The earliest settlement of a fishing dispute in court took place in 1887, when the Yakama Indians challenged a homesteader named Frank Taylor for building a fence along the Columbia River that blocked the Yakamas' access to fish in a "usual and accustomed" place. The Washington Territory court ruled in favor of the Yakamas and ordered the fence to be removed. Eventually the courts gradually granted states the right to regulate fishing in the form of requiring licenses. Native people challenged the licensing claiming their fishing rights had been guaranteed by the U.S. government in exchange for large tracts of land. State governments did not have the power to restrict these federal promises written in 1854 and 1855. The U.S. Supreme Court supported this argument in 1941, when it overturned a state court ruling that convicted a Yakama man of fishing without a license. The justices ruled that the state could not require Indians with treaty rights to stand by state regulations except for the purpose of conservation, but this ruling was widely ignored by state fish and game authorities and they began to arrest tribal fishers who didn't have licenses. Gradually the fishing rights battle shifted to the rivers and streams of Washington and Oregon. Motivated by the "sit-ins" organized by African Americans in the 1950s and '60s to end segregation in the South, Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest began to organize "fish-ins" along the rivers of the Puget Sound. They defied state regulations and continued to fish in their "usual and accustomed" places, determined to exercise their treaty rights. In the fall of 1970, the battle over treaty rights reached a climax. On September 9, some 100 law enforcement agents descended on a fishing camp. Shots rang out and a full-scale riot erupted. Police arrested 55 adults and five youth and forced the rest of the protesters to abandon the site. This confrontation was a turning point in the fishing wars. On September 18, 1970, nine days after the battle on the Puyallup River, the U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit against the State of Washington for interfering with tribal fishing rights. Fourteen Northwest tribes were named as co-plaintiffs in the suit. District Judge George Boldt was assigned the case. At the time of the 1854 treaties, fishing "in common with" meant "sharing equally" in the catch. In his ruling of February 12, 1974 -- known as the "Boldt Decision" -- the judge stated that Indians were entitled to 50 percent of the fish that came to "usual and accustomed places." He ruled that the tribes could manage their own fisheries. He said that the state's earlier restrictions on Indian fishing were unlawful and questioned the idea that the Indian fishing threatened the resources for sportsmen. Boldt's ruling was met with much opposition but the decision prevailed, and in 1979 the Supreme Court affirmed Boldt's ruling. This ruling was a victory for Native people not just in the Northwest but around the nation. The Northwest tribes' accomplishment generated a wave of Indian activism in other parts of the country, as Native peoples continued to request recognition of long-ignored treaty rights. The court ruling affirmed tribal fishing rights and established Indians as co-managers with state and federal agencies of this resource. As a direct result of the Boldt Decision, Billy Frank Jr. became the first chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission in 1974. The NWIFC is a coalition of Northwest Tribes that work with government organizations to oversee the continued protection of Native hunting and fishing rights by actively protecting both wildlife and fish and restoring habitat in which they live. State and tribal agencies are combining their resources to properly manage the natural resources that all people depend on.

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