Federal courts affirm native fishing rights amid violence against Lummi fishers.
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The Point Elliott Treaty, signed in 1855, forced Lummi off their traditional lands and onto a small reservation, but guaranteed them fishing rights. Over time, however, the Lummi (and other native tribes) were excluded by the state of Washington from the commercial fishery.
In the 1960s, native peoples engaged in civil disobedience, protests, “fish-ins“, and other forms of nonviolent activism to reclaim their fishing rights. These efforts were met with “an intense and often violent backlash among non-Native fishers, who cut nets, pushed boats into rivers, and stole fish from tribal nets and traps”; and “Native fishers often came under sniper fire or were threatened with firearms” (Grossman, p. 40).
In 1973, thirteen western Washington tribes, including the Lummi, sued the state to restore their fishing rights. By 1974, federal district court judge George Boldt decided that the original treaties should be interpreted to mean the tribes were entitled to half of the harvestable fish catch.
The “Boldt decision” angered non-native fishers who lashed out against native fishers all along the Washington coast. Native fishers were harassed, often violently. Their fishing boats were swamped or rammed by commercial vessels, and their nets sunk with cement blocks. Lummi fishers experienced some of the worst violence in the state. Snipers shot at Lummi fishers on at least three occasions, and one of the targets was only fourteen years old (Boxberger, p. 154).
For more information, see
Daniel Boxberger, To Fish in Common (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1989).
Zoltan Grossman, Unlikely Alliances (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2017).
Lisa Cook Captstone Presentation – Time Immemorial
The Fish-in Protests at Franks Landing
Looking Back at the Fish Wars 50 Years Later
The Unintended Consequences of the Boldt Decision
Boldt ruling to let Natives manage fisheries is still vastly influential, 40 years later