Hi all- I read with interest the article by Rick on this issue. I felt it was an interesting and balanced report about what is happening in Minnesota with the Chippewa tribe, the State government and the federal court case. I am not at all familiar with what is going on there with Tribes and fishing but I have lots of experience with how things are in Washington State.

I am a fisheries biologist. I have been involved in management of the salmon and steelhead populations on the coast of Washington State for 23 years. Twenty of those years I have been employed by treaty fishing Indian Tribes. I am non-Indian but I am employed by a Tribe. I am part of a group of professional fisheries technicians and biologists, Indian and non-Indian alike, that work hard to give the best technical advise they can to the Tribes they work for.

My main purpose is to describe, for those that are not aware, how it works when a treaty Tribe has fishing rights and how those rights are exercised in the same rivers where hook and line fisheries also exist. The treaty Tribes in Washington State co-manage the fisheries resources, in their respective areas, with the State of Washington. They have been doing so for 24 years. Some would say this co-management system has failed. Others feel we, Indians and non-Indians would not have a resource to fish today had this cooperation not been formed following federal court decisions in 1974. I fall into the second group.

Treaty Tribes here reserved their rights to fish in their usual areas when they signed treaties in the 1850's. Federal court decisions described the authorities treaty Tribes have. What is often not discussed, however, is that a huge responsibility came with that authority. Tribes have responsibility, with the State of Washington, for the resource they benefit from. This means that conservation of the resource is first and foremost in management plans and harvest decisions; its also the law. Fishing only occurs if there are harvestable fish. Wise use decisions regarding the harvest rate and sharing of these harvestable fish are often at the center of disputes between cooperating fisheries management agencies. It happens at the international level (e.g., between Canada and the U.S.), the intranational level (e.g., between States that share a lake or a river) and, yes, it happens between Tribal agencies and non-Indian agencies. This does not change the cooperation that co-managers must have when sharing the responsibility for proper management of the resource.

The tribe I work for, for example, employs professionals that accomplish a tremendous amount of field work associated with assessment of the salmon and steelhead populations throughout the region. In some rivers we are the only agency collecting data about the fish. Our agency produces several million steelhead, coho and chinook, annually, at two major fish culture facilities located on two river systems. One river here is known for producing some of the best fishing for winter steelhead in the Pacific Northwest. The hatchery run has consistently produced annual harvests of between 10 and 20 thousand steelhead, commercial and sport-caught. This river is also one of the few places left in the region where wild steelhead can be caught and retained... it's a very healthy population. Most of this river runs through an Indian reservation. How can this be? Its quite simple really. The Tribe managing this river has a vested interest in seeing the populations, hatchery and wild, sustained over the long haul.

There are no simple answers to the question of treaty fishing rights. Here in Washington I think we have developed a way that the resource can be managed successfully through cooperation. It's not always smooth. Sometimes it doesn't feel like cooperation. But if cooperators maintain the same basic principles the outcome is cooperative management.

Thanks for letting me share a perspective. Scott

Check out the iFish Online Home Page for more fishing fun.

Sign up for iFishOnline Group
Click Here

Join the iFishOnline.COM Club
Click Here

iFishOnline.COM Bulletin Board
Click Here

iFishOnline.COM Picture Page
Click Here

FREE PAGE
If You Would Like to have a page on this site and you fit in one of the categories on the left, submit a monthly fishing related article below.