Samish Tribe trying to regain treaty rights

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2001

The Samish Tribe of Washington next week will file a lawsuit seeking to have the fishing rights of tribal members reinstated.

After he issued his historic 1974 ruling ordering half of the fish in the state to go to tribes who signed a treaty, U.S. District Judge George Boldt said the Samish were not entitled to any part of the catch. On the day he resigned from the bench in 1976 suffering from Alzheimer's , he said the tribe was no longer federally recognized.

The tribe was later determined to have existed as a sovereign entity but the treaty issue has not been reconsidered. According to a tribal attorney, the Department of Justice won't oppose the tribe's treaty rights so long as the Alzheimer's issue is not raised.

Get the Story:
Voyage to rescue a tribe's history (The Seattle Post-Intelligencer 12/11)