Treaty Justice

The Northwest Tribes, the Boldt Decision, and the Recognition of Fishing Rights

melissa brown, Charles Wilkinson

• Publisher: University of Washington Press
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9780295752723
• eBook ISBN: 9780295752730
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

In 1974, Judge George Boldt issued a ruling that affirmed the fishing rights and tribal sovereignty of Native nations in Washington State. The Boldt Decision transformed Indigenous law and resource management across the United States and beyond. Like Brown v. Board of Education, the case also brought about far-reaching societal changes, reinforcing tribal sovereignty and remedying decades of injustice. Eminent legal historian and tribal advocate Charles Wilkinson tells the dramatic story of the Boldt Decision against the backdrop of salmon's central place in the cultures and economies of the Pacific Northwest. In the 1960s, Native people reasserted their fishing rights as delineated in nineteenth-century treaties. In response, state officials worked with non-Indian commercial and sport fishing interests to forcefully—and often violently—oppose Native actions. These "fish wars" spurred twenty tribes and the US government to file suit in federal court. Moved by the testimony of tribal leaders and other experts, Boldt pointedly waited until Lincoln's birthday to hand down a decision recognizing the tribes' right to half of the state's fish. The case's long aftermath led from the Supreme Court's affirmation of Boldt's opinion to collaborative management of the harvest of salmon and other marine resources. Expert and compelling, Treaty Justice weaves personalities and local detail into the definitive account of one of the twentieth century's most important civil rights cases.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Advance praise for Treaty Justice: The Northwest Tribes, the Boldt Decision, and the Recognition of Fishing Rights
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Map
• 1. Fury on the Puyallup River: The police: “were all up on the bridge, with rifles, and we could see their rifles kicking, and you could feel the bullets going by; there was nowhere you could go.”
• 2. The Salmon People: “Those Fraser River salmon are like the blood in your veins. It’s part of you.”
• 3. Natives and Europeans Collide: “In this bottle I hold the smallpox safely corked up; I have but to draw the cork and let loose the pestilence to sweep man, woman, and child from the face of the earth.”
• 4. Young Man in a Hurry: “It is almost impossible to do anything without extinguishing [Indian] title and placing them on reservations where they can be cared for and attended to.”
• 5. Treaty Time: “This paper secures your fish.”
• 6. The Long Suppression: “All the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian and save the man.”
• 7. The Tribes Come Forward: “We better win this one or there won’t be another one.”
• 8. The Buildup to the Boldt Decision: “Tribal fishermen were ‘in dire need of a case to end all cases.’”
• 9. The Trial: “Today the Indian fishing right is very much alive, but it is in chains, and we ask this Court to emancipate those fishing rights.…”
• 10. The Boldt Decision: “That judge, he made a decision, he interpreted the treaty, and he gave us a tool to help save the salmon.”
• 11. Rebellion: “It was like a city out there.”
• 12. The Supreme Court Acts: “Except for some desegregation cases, the District Court has faced the most concerted public and private efforts to frustrate a decree of a federal court ever witnessed in this century.”
• 13. Comanagement: Eliminating Overfishing and Preserving Salmon Habitat: “Billy Frank started talking about real conservation, and growing the resource, and I thought he was making a lot of sense.”
• 14. The Boldt Decision at Fifty: “Is there a future for wild Pacific salmon in the Pacific Northwest? There can be, but it is up to all of us concerned about these magnificent animals.…”
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Index
• About the Author