Washington State Indians, in their running battle with state agencies, have a well-publicized champion in Marlon Brando, the actor. Brando and a San Francisco clergyman were arrested by a representative on the State Game Department yesterday after they netted fish in the Puyallup River as a demonstration of support for Indian fishing demands. Some Washington sports fishermen, however, wonder if Brando’s attitude would be the same if that Hollywood resident depended upon finding fish in Washington rivers for his principal recreation. The sports fishermen point out that the Puyallup River would have virtually no fish if the fees they pay had not made it possible for the Game Department to stock the river. Further, the sportsmen say that to allow exceptions to state laws against the use of gill nets in off-reservation rivers could lead to loss of fishing opportunities for everyone, including Indians. The Indians are not impressed by such arguments. They point out that there were plenty of fish in all the rivers before the white man came. Not only Indian fishing rights but other grievance issues such as unemployment and state legal powers in Indian reservations were the focus of attention at today’s Indian demonstration at Olympia. There are no easy answers to the problems that arise when ancient treaty rights clash with laws arising out of today’s vastly changed conditions. There can be no question but that many present-day Washington State Indians live in depressed circumstances. They need sympathy and help. There is a question, however, as to what extent pre-Civil War treaties and the rights or wrongs of that long-ago era should be applicable today.
Category: Prairie Days: The Land, the People, the Newcomers
01 Prairie Days: The Land, the People, the Newcomers
1962 – News Articles
Indians Seeing Red Over River Arrests
Daily Olympian
January 11, 1962
by J.C. Walker
A new installment in the week’s collection of Thurston County Indian incidents Thursday began to take on the hue of a Hollywood melodrama. One more Indian was arrested Wednesday, making it a full half-dozen charged since the Game Department began its round of fish raids last week end. And it was reported the U.S. Army had taken a hand in keeping fish-catching Nisqually tribesmen off the Pierce County side of the boundary Nisqually River. This is flatly denied by the Army. It was Jack Simmons who was collected by Game Department agents Wednesday as he sat beside a riverbank landing with a load of fish. Agents served Simmons with a Pierce County Superior Court warrant charging him with operating a set net capable of taking game fish. Simmons later posted $100 bail in Tacoma and was released pending a hearing. Nisqually tribesmen Thursday were incensed, a feeling they’ve had all week. They say Simmons was doing nothing more than following his customary fishing rights Ð just like the five other Indians arrested last week end on similar charges. The Game Department holds a different viewpoint. Walter Neubrech, chief enforcement officer, said his men have amassed enough evidence over the last three weeks to sustain charge that Simmons caught steelhead along with dog salmon. Since steelhead is a game fish, the Game Department is concerned. As for Wednesday’s alleged incident involving the Army, no arrests were made, no arrests were contemplated, and the Army doesn’t want to get involved. The excitement apparently started when a retired lieutenant colonel, himself an angler, hitched a ride with an MP jeep along the river. The jeep was stopped by an Indian fisherman, who was looking for two nets reportedly cast adrift. The Army, knowing nothing, shrugged its shoulders, then drove on. As far as the military is concerned, treaty rights for fishing are respected unless Indians happen to wander into an area dangerous to life and limb. This is the only time they are stopped. Despite the trouble over arrests, the Nisqually Indians are sticking to their guns in maintaining they have a right to fish where they always have angled for the big, sea-run food fish nosing up the turgid waters of the Nisqually.
Fish Dangers Seen By Biggs
Daily Olympian
January 14, 1962
State Game Director John A. Biggs declares Washington’s sports fishery, particularly steelhead, is in serious danger of being destroyed unless the State Game Department wins its war against Indian net fishing. Biggs said his department will continue its current crackdown against “non-treaty” Indians who catch fish outside the limits of the 23 reservations in the state.
Enforcement action will not be taken, he said, against treaty or non-treaty Indians who fish on the reservations. In addition, Biggs said no action will be taken against treaty Indians who fish outside their reservations in areas which have been specifically found by the courts to have been their ancesting areas within lands ceded by Indian treaty to the federal government. Indians along the Nisqually River, scene of a Game Department raid last weekend, contend they are fishing in ‘usual and accustomed’ areas. “Our people have been fishing and hunting from Puget Sound to Mt. Rainier ever since any can remember” says Mrs. Mildred Ikebe, chairman of the Nisqually Tribal Council.
“These customary fishing grounds are upheld in the Medicine Creek Treaty of 1855,” She contends. “We’re not hurting the fish, but the Game Department has been trying to get us off the river for a long time.” Biggs said “outside-reservation fishing is increasing tremendously.” He said the problem could mushroom until Indians place nets in every stream of the state.
“What this adds up to is a tremendous threat to the fishery resources of the state,” he asserted. “It’s bad for Indians and whites alike.” Reviewing Indian treaties written during the 1800s, Biggs pointed to sociological changes which have occurred since, blurring rights contained in the treaties and changing physical bloodlines of the present-day Indian. He said it was his hope the courts would move quickly on two fronts-determine the rights today’s Indians have under the old treaties and determine exactly who is an Indian.
In this area-hopes for a judicial settlement of the problem-both the Game Department and Indians are agreed. The Nisqually Indians have said they will retain an attorney and test the department’s treaty versus non-treaty stand. The Quinault Indians have already filed a suit designed to assert what they claim are their treaty rights. Despite Indian protests to the contrary. Biggs again charged them with failing to take steps to conserve fish runs. “There is no conservation as such because anyone who thinks he is an Indian is taking the fish-not to eat but to take down to Portland and sell,” he said. The Nisqually Indians and other tribes claim they do practice conservation.
“We limit ourselves to two nets only stretch them one-third the way across, and we pull in their nets every weekend even though we don’t have to.”
Walter Neubrech, chief enforcement officer for the Game Department, warns that serious trouble may be ahead un less the problem is settle quickly through court action. He said there are two known cases where white men have taken the law into their own hands by going out in force and tearing down Indian nets set in a couple of Olympic Peninsula streams. Neubrech said fist fights over fishing rights have broken out among different tribes of Indians along the Puyallup River.
“Some of them are now packing shotguns,” he said.
Indians Back Set-Net Ban
Seattle Times
January 9, 1962
OLYMPIA, Jan. 9-(A.P.)-Treaty Indians don’t want non treaty Indian fishing with set nets in their rivers and are supporting state efforts to stop the practice, the State Game Department said yesterday. Walter Neubrich, the department’s chief enforcement officer, said that “sportsmen and treaty Indians alike have shown apprehension over the possible effects on fish runs caused by over fishing.” Five non treaty Indians were arrested last weekend by Game Department agents on charges of operating set nets in the Nisqually River. The only tribes with treaty rights to fish the Nisqually are the Nisqually, Puyallup, and Squaxin. Neubrich said the arrests were not related to a new state law banning shipments of steelhead outside the state for sale and did not represent a policy change. “The state recognizes the right of treaty Indians while fishing on their reservations or on usual or accustomed fishing grounds,” Neubrich said.
Indians Up in Arms Over Raid
Daily Olympian
January 9, 1962
by C.J. Walker
Daily Olympian
January 9, 1962
by C.J. Walker
Mt. Rainier stood straight and tall Tuesday as rain clouds pulled back to show the old volcano, mirrored white in the rush of the Nisqually River. The omen was enough for the Nisqually Indians to return grimly to their fishing nets under a century old treaty they claim is valid until the same mountain falls, or the green grass withers.As the Indian fishermen continued to net dog salmon and an occasional steelhead from the rain-swollen river, they kept one eye out for agents of the State Game Department, who are not much trusted now after the arrest last week end of five of the Indians brothers. The Game Department maintains the five arrested are non-treaty Indians. The Nisqually say nuts-all five in Thurston County and in an Indian Community. Specifically, the four men and one boy were charged with operating set nets capable of taking game fish. The Nisqually don’t plan to back down without a good fight. But unlike the Indian wars of yesteryear, the latest battle shaping up against the paleface will be conducted in the courts under a system of legal warfare rules originally brought by the white man. The Nisqually Indians plan to retain an attorney, fight the Game Department charges in Tacoma Justice Court, then test this treaty versus non-treaty business before higher state tribunals.
Meantime, the order of the day was to hold tough. One of the strong points Tuesday was a Nisqually River landing just south of the Highway 99 span, a place that doubles in the summer time as a swimming hole and picnic grounds. A fire was blazing on the bank. Children played underfoot. As the men gaffed their fish from canoes, their women stood silently by, occasionally casting suspicious glances at a watching Game Department agent, parked across the river, in his patrol car.
Leader of the group is Mrs. Mildred Ikebe, Nisqually tribal chairman. This matronly head of the Thurston County Indians had plenty to say.
Starting at the top, the Nisquallys already have asked Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall to investigate the arrests. Queried Mrs. Ikebe in a letter to Washington D.C.: “Do we, as Nisqually Indians, have the right to govern our internal affairs? If so, why aren’t our laws respected as the rules and regulations of the Reservation, and the usual and customary fishing grounds?”
Mrs. Ikebe later explained, “Our people have been fishing and hunting from Puget Sound to Mt. Rainier every since anyone can remember. These customary fishing grounds are upheld in the Medicine Creek Treaty of 1855. We’re not hurting the fish. But the Game Department has been trying to get us off the river for a long time.” As a spokesman for the group, Mrs Ikebe explained that the Indians, themselves, police fishing on the river.
” We limit ourselves to two nets per person. We only stretch them one-third the way across. And we pull in the nets every week end, even though we don’t have to.”
The tribal chairman said that she is the one that issues fishing permits to deserving tribesmen, a practice started three years ago over the results of a similar legal squabble over fishing rights. If someone violates the principles of the permit, it is lifted, making it illegal to continue fishing.
She points out that these practices go far toward making Game Department charges look a bit fantastic, since all five Indians arrested also had tribal permits to fish. The men are Ernest Gleason, Melvin Iyal, Raleigh Kover, Al Bridges, and 17 year old Douglas Derickson.
Figuring that one offending state law deserves a counter block, the Nisqually’s met Monday night in the Reservations Grange Hall with two other tribes-the Puyallup and Squaxin- in an Inter-Tribal Council meeting. Angry words pounded out an air drum beat of resolutions.
One had to do with hiring legal counsel. Another closed the Reservation to support fishing and hunting by white men, and guaranteed confiscation of equipment if a paleface is found violating the ruling. A third resolution ordered the setting up of a Tribal Court, complete with clerk and police officer, to arrest and try persons who commit crimes other than those ten major offenses handled by Federal authorities.
Nisqually River Reservation Busy
Daily Olympian
January 9, 1962
by Mike Conant
For forty years, Ernest Gleason, a Chehalis Indian, had fished the same spot in the muddy Nisqually River. As in the Indian custom, he drops the net in Sunday afternoon and pulls it out for the week end on the following Saturday morning. But last Saturday’s routine was broken by state game protectors who jailed the 62- year old man.Why?
His friends in the Nisqually Valley and Gleason’s wife, Cleo, shrug their shoulders when asked this question. They do not seem angry. Perhaps they are used to ever-changing tides in the relationship of the white man and the Indian. But they are ready to fight to preserve what they feel is their inherent right. Mrs. Gleason says that when her husband was arrested on the river bank Saturday, his net held fifteen dog salmon. There were no steel head in the twine trap which is woven especially to let the game fish pass through. The articulate Mrs. Gleason points out her husband also holds a permit from the Tribal Council to fish the river. If he is a law abiding fisherman, she asks, why was he arrested?
* * *
Apparently the whole thing is a mystery to Gleason, too. Picked up in Thurston County, Gleason was transported to jail in the County City building in Pierce County. He posted $100 bail, as did four other Indians arrested on charges that they are “non-treaty” Indians and had no right to fish the Nisqually River.The State Game Department says the so-called treaty Indians are the Nisquallys, Puyallups and Squaxins. Gleason is a Chehalis. His first wife, who died, was a Nisqually. The present Mrs. Gleason is from Oregon.
Is there such a thing as non-treaty Indians? Many living in the Nisqually Valley feel the only members of this unusual breed are the Seminoles, a tribe in Florida’s Everglades. They admit that they may be mistaken.
The crux of the disagreement probably will be resolved when Indians and white men start probing mid-Eighteenth Century treaties regarding fishing in this area. Naturally the redman is apprehensive. For them, there’s a history of falling through loopholes when old laws are unearthed.
Indians Face Fish Charge
The Daily Olympian
February 12, 19
62
TACOMA (AP)-Six Indians arrested Jan. 6 on counts of illegal fishing in the Nisqually River are to be arraigned at 10 a.m. Wednesday.The six are Douglas Jay Derickson, 18, Olympia; Raleigh Kover, 40, Olympia; Ernest Gleason Sr., 62, Nisqually; Melvin Iyall, 31, Tacoma; Alvin J. Bridges, 51, Nisqually; and John Simmons Jr., 51, of Yelm.
Simmons will appear before Judge Floyd Hicks and the others before Justice of the Peace Elizabeth Shackleford.
The State Game Department charges that the Indians do not belong to the Nisqually, Puyallup or Squaxin tribes, which have the right to fish the river under an 1854 treaty.
The Indians’ attorneys and the Nisqually Tribal Council, however, have produced affidavits claiming that five of the Indians are Nisquallys.
Deputy Prosecutor Frohmander said Saturday this is is disputed by Paul Leschi, a member of the Nisqually Tribal Council until 1943, and several other tribal leaders.
Inside on the Outdoors: Indian Fish-Netting Still Cause Celebre
by Enos Bradner
by Enos Bradner
The Game Department regards the Indian netting of steelhead off a reservation, in the manner in which it is now being conducted, as posing the greatest hazard to the conservation of this game fish in the state’s history.On January 15, members of the Upper Skagit Indian tribe started netting the Skagit River in what they term their usual and accustomed fishing grounds. Game protectors have checked, to date, 423 steelhead from the nets of the eight Indians who have been setting them out.
No arrests have been made on the Skagit. Recent court decisions ruled that the Indians have the right to fish off a reservation in their usual grounds.
The Skagit is the state’s greatest steelhead river. It has led in the sports catch eight times in the past 14 years, the take varying from 12,000 to 21,000 fish annually.
THE SKAGIT STEELHEAD RUN is maintained and bolstered by Game Department regulations and hatchery plants supplied by anglers’ license moneys. Ole Eide, Supervisor in Skagit County, estimates that at least two thirds of the sports come directly from hatchery plants of steelhead.
Indian Service documents show a population of 214 members in the Upper Skagit tribe. If or when these and other tribes in the Skagit Valley move onto the Skagit River in force, the migratory runs of the river could be depleted seriously.
The Puyallup River is a prime example of the impact of an unregulated Indian fishery in an anadromous river. Robert Robison, administrative supervisor in the Fisheries Department, said that no Indian fishery existed in the Puyallup between 1900 and 1953.
In 1953 Indians placed two nets off the mouth of the Puyallup. Their fishery increased steadily until in 1961 the Indians had 40 gill nets, 15 set nets and a trap complex at the river mouth.
THE INDIAN CATCH OF CHINOOKS in the Puyallup increased from none in 1953 to 10,200 in 1961. The catch of humpbacked salmon increased from 143 in 1955 to 18,200 in 1961. The silver catch went from 104 in 1953 to 16,200 in ’61. The take of steeled went from 104 in 1953 to about 4,000 in 1961.
This virtually has depleted the Puyallup River of salmon. The Muckleshoot Indians, whose reservation is on a tributary of the Puyallup, caught 12,000 silvers in 1953 and took only 200 in 1961. The run over Mud Mountain Dam, where the salmon get to their spawning grounds, dropped from 10,000 in 1952 to 500 in 1961.
John Biggs, director of game, has asked Congress to regulate this off-reservation Indian fishing on three different levels of legislation.
Biggs asks that Indians fishing or hunting outside a reservation in their accustomed places be required to abide by state conservation laws and that Congress provide for a definite time to terminate their present rights.
BIGGS ALSO ASKS CONGRESS TO define who are Indians and designate the ones who are entitled to benefit from Indian treaties. Biggs recommends that a person must have at least 25 percent Indian blood to be considered under a treaty.
Biggs further asks that persons who have been classed as Indians by this new act of congress be entitled to file compensation claims with the United States Court of Claims to determine what their rights are and to place a value on them. Biggs feels Congress should not take anything away without paying for it.
Walt Neubrech, head of patrol for the Game Department, said that of the 20,000 Indians in Washington, not more than 2 percent are engaged in fishing for migratory fish. He said that in many cases, the fishery is an individual effort and that the money received from the sale of does not go into tribal-council funds.
NISQUALLY’S CLAIM TREATY RIGHTS FOR JAILED MEN
Daily Olympian
February 7, 1962
TACOMA (AP)- Attorneys for the Nisqually Tribal Council claimed Tuesday that five of the six Indians arrested in the State Game Department’s Jan. 6 surprise raid on the Nisqually River are treaty Indians and had a legal right to be fishing.
Daily Olympian
February 7, 1962
TACOMA (AP)- Attorneys for the Nisqually Tribal Council claimed Tuesday that five of the six Indians arrested in the State Game Department’s Jan. 6 surprise raid on the Nisqually River are treaty Indians and had a legal right to be fishing.
Council officials and their Seattle attorneys, Allan Pomeroy and Eugene Zelensky, went to the Pierce county prosecutor with a stack of affidavits to back up their claim.
Pomeroy presented Deputy Prosecutor Fred Frohmader with affidavits signed by Nisqually tribal elders that five of the six arrested Indians are members of the Nisqually tribe.
When 36 State Game Department men swooped down on the Indians Jan. 6, their field commander, Ellsworth O. Sawyer, said all of the arrested Indians were non-treaty Indians.
The Nisquallys, Puyallups and Squaxins were guaranteed the right to fish the Nisqually river in the Medicine Creek treaty of 1855.
All six were charged with illegal gillnetting of game fish (steelhead) by non-treaty Indians. Their arraignments originally were scheduled for Jan. 26 in justice courts here.
At Pomeroy’s request, the arraignments were set over indefinitely to check further into the backgrounds of the Indians.
Frohmader set the meeting here to discuss the state’s position in the cases and look into the backgrounds of the arrested Indians.
After the meeting, Frohmader said his office will investigate the claims made in the affidavits.
The six Indians arrested in the raid were Douglas Jay Derickson, 18, Olympia; Raleigh Kover, 40, Olympia; Ernest Gleason Sr., 62, Nisqually; Melvin Iryall, 31, Tacoma; Alvin J. Bridges, 51, Nisqually; and John Simmons Jr., 51, Yelm. Pomeroy said Gleason is the only one of the six who is not now a tribal member.
However, he said Gleason was married to a Nisqually for many years and had lived on the reservation for 40 years. He said after Gleason’s first wife died, he remarried out of the tribe, but continued to fish the Nisqually.
Indian Tribe Threatens “Wade-In” Over Fishing
The Olympian
April
6, 1962
by Don Hannula
by Don Hannula
A threat that every man, woman and child of the 380-member Muckleshoot Indian Tribe will stage a “wade-in” with nets and spears in the Green River has been leveled in an attempt to bring to the surface fishing problems of the tribe.The Muckleshoot Tribal Council has appealed directly to Sen. Warren G. Magnuson for federal leadership in clarification of the treaty rights of the Muckleshoot.
In brief, the Muckleshoots claim that unrestricted Indian fishing on the Puyallup River has depleted the salmon run in the tributary Stuck (White) River that runs through their reservation. Now the are asking that either action be taken to bring salmon runs back to the Stuck or that they be granted the right to fish the Green River which they claim was the accustomed fishing grounds of their ancestors.
Letter to Magnuson
The Muckleshoots have made their demand for federal leadership in a six-page letter to Sen. Magnuson signed by Bertha McJoe, Annie Garrison, James Moses, Louis Starr and Olive Hungary, all tribal council members.
In part, the letter states:
“Our tribe is planning an organized ‘wade-in’ of Green River in the spirit of sit-ins which have gained recognition for the rights of the Negroes in the South. We do no wish to enter into open conflict with the communities that surround us, but our rights are comparable to those of other expropriated peoples . . . and-if we must-we shall take every man, woman and child of our tribe, together with nets and spears, down to the Green River and invite all the press media of the area to witness the ‘wade-in’.”
Mrs. Garrison told The News Tribune:
“We know their jails won’t hold us all.”
Unfavorable Position
She explained that the Muckleshoots were in an unfavorable position as compared to the other tribes of Western Washington. “There is no salmon run left in the Stuck because the Puyallup Indians catch all the fish before they reach our river.”
The 65-year-old tribal council member pointed out that the Muckleshoots aren’t really Muckleshoots at all. She said that was just a name the white men tabbed them with after the reservation was set up near the site of an old blockhouse called Muckleshoot Fort.
“We are included in the Medicine Creek Treaty of 1855 as the Scopabsh Tribe-the real name of the Muckleshoots,” she said.
Mrs. Garrison said the Scopabsh was a nomadic tribe in early days fishing the Stuck, the Green and even the Puyallup River . . . and that, under the treaty guarantee rights to fish accustomed grounds, the now Muckleshoot should be able to fish the Green River.
To test this theory, three young Muckleshoots placed nets in the Green River and wound up in jail. They were convicted by Justice of the Peace Evans Manolides of illegal net fishing, but an appeal is pending.
A threat that every man, woman and child of the 380-member Muckleshoot Indian Tribe will stage a “wade-in” with nets and spears in the Green River has been leveled in an attempt to bring to the surface fishing problems of the tribe.The Muckleshoot Tribal Council has appealed directly to Sen. Warren G. Magnuson for federal leadership in clarification of the treaty rights of the Muckleshoot.
In brief, the Muckleshoots claim that unrestricted Indian fishing on the Puyallup River has depleted the salmon run in the tributary Stuck (White) River that runs through their reservation. Now the are asking that either action be taken to bring salmon runs back to the Stuck or that they be granted the right to fish the Green River which they claim was the accustomed fishing grounds of their ancestors.
Letter to Magnuson
The Muckleshoots have made their demand for federal leadership in a six-page letter to Sen. Magnuson signed by Bertha McJoe, Annie Garrison, James Moses, Louis Starr and Olive Hungary, all tribal council members.
In part, the letter states:
“Our tribe is planning an organized ‘wade-in’ of Green River in the spirit of sit-ins which have gained recognition for the rights of the Negroes in the South. We do no wish to enter into open conflict with the communities that surround us, but our rights are comparable to those of other expropriated peoples . . . and-if we must-we shall take every man, woman and child of our tribe, together with nets and spears, down to the Green River and invite all the press media of the area to witness the ‘wade-in’.”
Mrs. Garrison told The News Tribune:
“We know their jails won’t hold us all.”
Unfavorable Position
She explained that the Muckleshoots were in an unfavorable position as compared to the other tribes of Western Washington. “There is no salmon run left in the Stuck because the Puyallup Indians catch all the fish before they reach our river.”
The 65-year-old tribal council member pointed out that the Muckleshoots aren’t really Muckleshoots at all. She said that was just a name the white men tabbed them with after the reservation was set up near the site of an old blockhouse called Muckleshoot Fort.
“We are included in the Medicine Creek Treaty of 1855 as the Scopabsh Tribe-the real name of the Muckleshoots,” she said.
Mrs. Garrison said the Scopabsh was a nomadic tribe in early days fishing the Stuck, the Green and even the Puyallup River . . . and that, under the treaty guarantee rights to fish accustomed grounds, the now Muckleshoot should be able to fish the Green River.
To test this theory, three young Muckleshoots placed nets in the Green River and wound up in jail. They were convicted by Justice of the Peace Evans Manolides of illegal net fishing, but an appeal is pending.
Indian Tribe Threatens “Wade-In” Over Fishing
The Olympian
April
The Olympian
April
6, 1962
by Don Hannula
by Don Hannula
A threat that every man, woman and child of the 380-member Muckleshoot Indian Tribe will stage a “wade-in” with nets and spears in the Green River has been leveled in an attempt to bring to the surface fishing problems of the tribe.The Muckleshoot Tribal Council has appealed directly to Sen. Warren G. Magnuson for federal leadership in clarification of the treaty rights of the Muckleshoot.
In brief, the Muckleshoots claim that unrestricted Indian fishing on the Puyallup River has depleted the salmon run in the tributary Stuck (White) River that runs through their reservation. Now the are asking that either action be taken to bring salmon runs back to the Stuck or that they be granted the right to fish the Green River which they claim was the accustomed fishing grounds of their ancestors.
Letter to Magnuson
The Muckleshoots have made their demand for federal leadership in a six-page letter to Sen. Magnuson signed by Bertha McJoe, Annie Garrison, James Moses, Louis Starr and Olive Hungary, all tribal council members.
In part, the letter states:
“Our tribe is planning an organized ‘wade-in’ of Green River in the spirit of sit-ins which have gained recognition for the rights of the Negroes in the South. We do no wish to enter into open conflict with the communities that surround us, but our rights are comparable to those of other expropriated peoples . . . and-if we must-we shall take every man, woman and child of our tribe, together with nets and spears, down to the Green River and invite all the press media of the area to witness the ‘wade-in’.”
Mrs. Garrison told The News Tribune:
“We know their jails won’t hold us all.”
Unfavorable Position
She explained that the Muckleshoots were in an unfavorable position as compared to the other tribes of Western Washington. “There is no salmon run left in the Stuck because the Puyallup Indians catch all the fish before they reach our river.”
The 65-year-old tribal council member pointed out that the Muckleshoots aren’t really Muckleshoots at all. She said that was just a name the white men tabbed them with after the reservation was set up near the site of an old blockhouse called Muckleshoot Fort.
“We are included in the Medicine Creek Treaty of 1855 as the Scopabsh Tribe-the real name of the Muckleshoots,” she said.
Mrs. Garrison said the Scopabsh was a nomadic tribe in early days fishing the Stuck, the Green and even the Puyallup River . . . and that, under the treaty guarantee rights to fish accustomed grounds, the now Muckleshoot should be able to fish the Green River.
To test this theory, three young Muckleshoots placed nets in the Green River and wound up in jail. They were convicted by Justice of the Peace Evans Manolides of illegal net fishing, but an appeal is pending.
A threat that every man, woman and child of the 380-member Muckleshoot Indian Tribe will stage a “wade-in” with nets and spears in the Green River has been leveled in an attempt to bring to the surface fishing problems of the tribe.The Muckleshoot Tribal Council has appealed directly to Sen. Warren G. Magnuson for federal leadership in clarification of the treaty rights of the Muckleshoot.
In brief, the Muckleshoots claim that unrestricted Indian fishing on the Puyallup River has depleted the salmon run in the tributary Stuck (White) River that runs through their reservation. Now the are asking that either action be taken to bring salmon runs back to the Stuck or that they be granted the right to fish the Green River which they claim was the accustomed fishing grounds of their ancestors.
Letter to Magnuson
The Muckleshoots have made their demand for federal leadership in a six-page letter to Sen. Magnuson signed by Bertha McJoe, Annie Garrison, James Moses, Louis Starr and Olive Hungary, all tribal council members.
In part, the letter states:
“Our tribe is planning an organized ‘wade-in’ of Green River in the spirit of sit-ins which have gained recognition for the rights of the Negroes in the South. We do no wish to enter into open conflict with the communities that surround us, but our rights are comparable to those of other expropriated peoples . . . and-if we must-we shall take every man, woman and child of our tribe, together with nets and spears, down to the Green River and invite all the press media of the area to witness the ‘wade-in’.”
Mrs. Garrison told The News Tribune:
“We know their jails won’t hold us all.”
Unfavorable Position
She explained that the Muckleshoots were in an unfavorable position as compared to the other tribes of Western Washington. “There is no salmon run left in the Stuck because the Puyallup Indians catch all the fish before they reach our river.”
The 65-year-old tribal council member pointed out that the Muckleshoots aren’t really Muckleshoots at all. She said that was just a name the white men tabbed them with after the reservation was set up near the site of an old blockhouse called Muckleshoot Fort.
“We are included in the Medicine Creek Treaty of 1855 as the Scopabsh Tribe-the real name of the Muckleshoots,” she said.
Mrs. Garrison said the Scopabsh was a nomadic tribe in early days fishing the Stuck, the Green and even the Puyallup River . . . and that, under the treaty guarantee rights to fish accustomed grounds, the now Muckleshoot should be able to fish the Green River.
To test this theory, three young Muckleshoots placed nets in the Green River and wound up in jail. They were convicted by Justice of the Peace Evans Manolides of illegal net fishing, but an appeal is pending.
The Game Department regards the Indian netting of steelhead off a reservation, in the manner in which it is now being conducted, as posing the greatest hazard to the conservation of this game fish in the state’s history.On January 15, members of the Upper Skagit Indian tribe started netting the Skagit River in what they term their usual and accustomed fishing grounds. Game protectors have checked, to date, 423 steelhead from the nets of the eight Indians who have been setting them out.
No arrests have been made on the Skagit. Recent court decisions ruled that the Indians have the right to fish off a reservation in their usual grounds.
The Skagit is the state’s greatest steelhead river. It has led in the sports catch eight times in the past 14 years, the take varying from 12,000 to 21,000 fish annually.
THE SKAGIT STEELHEAD RUN is maintained and bolstered by Game Department regulations and hatchery plants supplied by anglers’ license moneys. Ole Eide, Supervisor in Skagit County, estimates that at least two thirds of the sports come directly from hatchery plants of steelhead.
Indian Service documents show a population of 214 members in the Upper Skagit tribe. If or when these and other tribes in the Skagit Valley move onto the Skagit River in force, the migratory runs of the river could be depleted seriously.
The Puyallup River is a prime example of the impact of an unregulated Indian fishery in an anadromous river. Robert Robison, administrative supervisor in the Fisheries Department, said that no Indian fishery existed in the Puyallup between 1900 and 1953.
In 1953 Indians placed two nets off the mouth of the Puyallup. Their fishery increased steadily until in 1961 the Indians had 40 gill nets, 15 set nets and a trap complex at the river mouth.
THE INDIAN CATCH OF CHINOOKS in the Puyallup increased from none in 1953 to 10,200 in 1961. The catch of humpbacked salmon increased from 143 in 1955 to 18,200 in 1961. The silver catch went from 104 in 1953 to 16,200 in ’61. The take of steeled went from 104 in 1953 to about 4,000 in 1961.
This virtually has depleted the Puyallup River of salmon. The Muckleshoot Indians, whose reservation is on a tributary of the Puyallup, caught 12,000 silvers in 1953 and took only 200 in 1961. The run over Mud Mountain Dam, where the salmon get to their spawning grounds, dropped from 10,000 in 1952 to 500 in 1961.
John Biggs, director of game, has asked Congress to regulate this off-reservation Indian fishing on three different levels of legislation.
Biggs asks that Indians fishing or hunting outside a reservation in their accustomed places be required to abide by state conservation laws and that Congress provide for a definite time to terminate their present rights.
BIGGS ALSO ASKS CONGRESS TO define who are Indians and designate the ones who are entitled to benefit from Indian treaties. Biggs recommends that a person must have at least 25 percent Indian blood to be considered under a treaty.
Biggs further asks that persons who have been classed as Indians by this new act of congress be entitled to file compensation claims with the United States Court of Claims to determine what their rights are and to place a value on them. Biggs feels Congress should not take anything away without paying for it.
Walt Neubrech, head of patrol for the Game Department, said that of the 20,000 Indians in Washington, not more than 2 percent are engaged in fishing for migratory fish. He said that in many cases, the fishery is an individual effort and that the money received from the sale of does not go into tribal-council funds.
NISQUALLY’S CLAIM TREATY RIGHTS FOR JAILED MEN
Daily Olympian
February 7, 1962
TACOMA (AP)- Attorneys for the Nisqually Tribal Council claimed Tuesday that five of the six Indians arrested in the State Game Department’s Jan. 6 surprise raid on the Nisqually River are treaty Indians and had a legal right to be fishing.
Daily Olympian
February 7, 1962
TACOMA (AP)- Attorneys for the Nisqually Tribal Council claimed Tuesday that five of the six Indians arrested in the State Game Department’s Jan. 6 surprise raid on the Nisqually River are treaty Indians and had a legal right to be fishing.
Council officials and their Seattle attorneys, Allan Pomeroy and Eugene Zelensky, went to the Pierce county prosecutor with a stack of affidavits to back up their claim.
Pomeroy presented Deputy Prosecutor Fred Frohmader with affidavits signed by Nisqually tribal elders that five of the six arrested Indians are members of the Nisqually tribe.
When 36 State Game Department men swooped down on the Indians Jan. 6, their field commander, Ellsworth O. Sawyer, said all of the arrested Indians were non-treaty Indians.
The Nisquallys, Puyallups and Squaxins were guaranteed the right to fish the Nisqually river in the Medicine Creek treaty of 1855.
All six were charged with illegal gillnetting of game fish (steelhead) by non-treaty Indians. Their arraignments originally were scheduled for Jan. 26 in justice courts here.
At Pomeroy’s request, the arraignments were set over indefinitely to check further into the backgrounds of the Indians.
Frohmader set the meeting here to discuss the state’s position in the cases and look into the backgrounds of the arrested Indians.
After the meeting, Frohmader said his office will investigate the claims made in the affidavits.
The six Indians arrested in the raid were Douglas Jay Derickson, 18, Olympia; Raleigh Kover, 40, Olympia; Ernest Gleason Sr., 62, Nisqually; Melvin Iryall, 31, Tacoma; Alvin J. Bridges, 51, Nisqually; and John Simmons Jr., 51, Yelm. Pomeroy said Gleason is the only one of the six who is not now a tribal member.
However, he said Gleason was married to a Nisqually for many years and had lived on the reservation for 40 years. He said after Gleason’s first wife died, he remarried out of the tribe, but continued to fish the Nisqually.
Indian Tribe Threatens “Wade-In” Over Fishing
The Olympian
April
6, 1962
by Don Hannula
by Don Hannula
A threat that every man, woman and child of the 380-member Muckleshoot Indian Tribe will stage a “wade-in” with nets and spears in the Green River has been leveled in an attempt to bring to the surface fishing problems of the tribe.The Muckleshoot Tribal Council has appealed directly to Sen. Warren G. Magnuson for federal leadership in clarification of the treaty rights of the Muckleshoot.
In brief, the Muckleshoots claim that unrestricted Indian fishing on the Puyallup River has depleted the salmon run in the tributary Stuck (White) River that runs through their reservation. Now the are asking that either action be taken to bring salmon runs back to the Stuck or that they be granted the right to fish the Green River which they claim was the accustomed fishing grounds of their ancestors.
Letter to Magnuson
The Muckleshoots have made their demand for federal leadership in a six-page letter to Sen. Magnuson signed by Bertha McJoe, Annie Garrison, James Moses, Louis Starr and Olive Hungary, all tribal council members.
In part, the letter states:
“Our tribe is planning an organized ‘wade-in’ of Green River in the spirit of sit-ins which have gained recognition for the rights of the Negroes in the South. We do no wish to enter into open conflict with the communities that surround us, but our rights are comparable to those of other expropriated peoples . . . and-if we must-we shall take every man, woman and child of our tribe, together with nets and spears, down to the Green River and invite all the press media of the area to witness the ‘wade-in’.”
Mrs. Garrison told The News Tribune:
“We know their jails won’t hold us all.”
Unfavorable Position
She explained that the Muckleshoots were in an unfavorable position as compared to the other tribes of Western Washington. “There is no salmon run left in the Stuck because the Puyallup Indians catch all the fish before they reach our river.”
The 65-year-old tribal council member pointed out that the Muckleshoots aren’t really Muckleshoots at all. She said that was just a name the white men tabbed them with after the reservation was set up near the site of an old blockhouse called Muckleshoot Fort.
“We are included in the Medicine Creek Treaty of 1855 as the Scopabsh Tribe-the real name of the Muckleshoots,” she said.
Mrs. Garrison said the Scopabsh was a nomadic tribe in early days fishing the Stuck, the Green and even the Puyallup River . . . and that, under the treaty guarantee rights to fish accustomed grounds, the now Muckleshoot should be able to fish the Green River.
To test this theory, three young Muckleshoots placed nets in the Green River and wound up in jail. They were convicted by Justice of the Peace Evans Manolides of illegal net fishing, but an appeal is pending.
A threat that every man, woman and child of the 380-member Muckleshoot Indian Tribe will stage a “wade-in” with nets and spears in the Green River has been leveled in an attempt to bring to the surface fishing problems of the tribe.The Muckleshoot Tribal Council has appealed directly to Sen. Warren G. Magnuson for federal leadership in clarification of the treaty rights of the Muckleshoot.
In brief, the Muckleshoots claim that unrestricted Indian fishing on the Puyallup River has depleted the salmon run in the tributary Stuck (White) River that runs through their reservation. Now the are asking that either action be taken to bring salmon runs back to the Stuck or that they be granted the right to fish the Green River which they claim was the accustomed fishing grounds of their ancestors.
Letter to Magnuson
The Muckleshoots have made their demand for federal leadership in a six-page letter to Sen. Magnuson signed by Bertha McJoe, Annie Garrison, James Moses, Louis Starr and Olive Hungary, all tribal council members.
In part, the letter states:
“Our tribe is planning an organized ‘wade-in’ of Green River in the spirit of sit-ins which have gained recognition for the rights of the Negroes in the South. We do no wish to enter into open conflict with the communities that surround us, but our rights are comparable to those of other expropriated peoples . . . and-if we must-we shall take every man, woman and child of our tribe, together with nets and spears, down to the Green River and invite all the press media of the area to witness the ‘wade-in’.”
Mrs. Garrison told The News Tribune:
“We know their jails won’t hold us all.”
Unfavorable Position
She explained that the Muckleshoots were in an unfavorable position as compared to the other tribes of Western Washington. “There is no salmon run left in the Stuck because the Puyallup Indians catch all the fish before they reach our river.”
The 65-year-old tribal council member pointed out that the Muckleshoots aren’t really Muckleshoots at all. She said that was just a name the white men tabbed them with after the reservation was set up near the site of an old blockhouse called Muckleshoot Fort.
“We are included in the Medicine Creek Treaty of 1855 as the Scopabsh Tribe-the real name of the Muckleshoots,” she said.
Mrs. Garrison said the Scopabsh was a nomadic tribe in early days fishing the Stuck, the Green and even the Puyallup River . . . and that, under the treaty guarantee rights to fish accustomed grounds, the now Muckleshoot should be able to fish the Green River.
To test this theory, three young Muckleshoots placed nets in the Green River and wound up in jail. They were convicted by Justice of the Peace Evans Manolides of illegal net fishing, but an appeal is pending.
Indian Tribe Threatens “Wade-In” Over Fishing
The Olympian
April
The Olympian
April
6, 1962
by Don Hannula
by Don Hannula
A threat that every man, woman and child of the 380-member Muckleshoot Indian Tribe will stage a “wade-in” with nets and spears in the Green River has been leveled in an attempt to bring to the surface fishing problems of the tribe.The Muckleshoot Tribal Council has appealed directly to Sen. Warren G. Magnuson for federal leadership in clarification of the treaty rights of the Muckleshoot.
In brief, the Muckleshoots claim that unrestricted Indian fishing on the Puyallup River has depleted the salmon run in the tributary Stuck (White) River that runs through their reservation. Now the are asking that either action be taken to bring salmon runs back to the Stuck or that they be granted the right to fish the Green River which they claim was the accustomed fishing grounds of their ancestors.
Letter to Magnuson
The Muckleshoots have made their demand for federal leadership in a six-page letter to Sen. Magnuson signed by Bertha McJoe, Annie Garrison, James Moses, Louis Starr and Olive Hungary, all tribal council members.
In part, the letter states:
“Our tribe is planning an organized ‘wade-in’ of Green River in the spirit of sit-ins which have gained recognition for the rights of the Negroes in the South. We do no wish to enter into open conflict with the communities that surround us, but our rights are comparable to those of other expropriated peoples . . . and-if we must-we shall take every man, woman and child of our tribe, together with nets and spears, down to the Green River and invite all the press media of the area to witness the ‘wade-in’.”
Mrs. Garrison told The News Tribune:
“We know their jails won’t hold us all.”
Unfavorable Position
She explained that the Muckleshoots were in an unfavorable position as compared to the other tribes of Western Washington. “There is no salmon run left in the Stuck because the Puyallup Indians catch all the fish before they reach our river.”
The 65-year-old tribal council member pointed out that the Muckleshoots aren’t really Muckleshoots at all. She said that was just a name the white men tabbed them with after the reservation was set up near the site of an old blockhouse called Muckleshoot Fort.
“We are included in the Medicine Creek Treaty of 1855 as the Scopabsh Tribe-the real name of the Muckleshoots,” she said.
Mrs. Garrison said the Scopabsh was a nomadic tribe in early days fishing the Stuck, the Green and even the Puyallup River . . . and that, under the treaty guarantee rights to fish accustomed grounds, the now Muckleshoot should be able to fish the Green River.
To test this theory, three young Muckleshoots placed nets in the Green River and wound up in jail. They were convicted by Justice of the Peace Evans Manolides of illegal net fishing, but an appeal is pending.
A threat that every man, woman and child of the 380-member Muckleshoot Indian Tribe will stage a “wade-in” with nets and spears in the Green River has been leveled in an attempt to bring to the surface fishing problems of the tribe.The Muckleshoot Tribal Council has appealed directly to Sen. Warren G. Magnuson for federal leadership in clarification of the treaty rights of the Muckleshoot.
In brief, the Muckleshoots claim that unrestricted Indian fishing on the Puyallup River has depleted the salmon run in the tributary Stuck (White) River that runs through their reservation. Now the are asking that either action be taken to bring salmon runs back to the Stuck or that they be granted the right to fish the Green River which they claim was the accustomed fishing grounds of their ancestors.
Letter to Magnuson
The Muckleshoots have made their demand for federal leadership in a six-page letter to Sen. Magnuson signed by Bertha McJoe, Annie Garrison, James Moses, Louis Starr and Olive Hungary, all tribal council members.
In part, the letter states:
“Our tribe is planning an organized ‘wade-in’ of Green River in the spirit of sit-ins which have gained recognition for the rights of the Negroes in the South. We do no wish to enter into open conflict with the communities that surround us, but our rights are comparable to those of other expropriated peoples . . . and-if we must-we shall take every man, woman and child of our tribe, together with nets and spears, down to the Green River and invite all the press media of the area to witness the ‘wade-in’.”
Mrs. Garrison told The News Tribune:
“We know their jails won’t hold us all.”
Unfavorable Position
She explained that the Muckleshoots were in an unfavorable position as compared to the other tribes of Western Washington. “There is no salmon run left in the Stuck because the Puyallup Indians catch all the fish before they reach our river.”
The 65-year-old tribal council member pointed out that the Muckleshoots aren’t really Muckleshoots at all. She said that was just a name the white men tabbed them with after the reservation was set up near the site of an old blockhouse called Muckleshoot Fort.
“We are included in the Medicine Creek Treaty of 1855 as the Scopabsh Tribe-the real name of the Muckleshoots,” she said.
Mrs. Garrison said the Scopabsh was a nomadic tribe in early days fishing the Stuck, the Green and even the Puyallup River . . . and that, under the treaty guarantee rights to fish accustomed grounds, the now Muckleshoot should be able to fish the Green River.
To test this theory, three young Muckleshoots placed nets in the Green River and wound up in jail. They were convicted by Justice of the Peace Evans Manolides of illegal net fishing, but an appeal is pending.
TACOMA (AP)-Six Indians arrested Jan. 6 on counts of illegal fishing in the Nisqually River are to be arraigned at 10 a.m. Wednesday.The six are Douglas Jay Derickson, 18, Olympia; Raleigh Kover, 40, Olympia; Ernest Gleason Sr., 62, Nisqually; Melvin Iyall, 31, Tacoma; Alvin J. Bridges, 51, Nisqually; and John Simmons Jr., 51, of Yelm.
Simmons will appear before Judge Floyd Hicks and the others before Justice of the Peace Elizabeth Shackleford.
The State Game Department charges that the Indians do not belong to the Nisqually, Puyallup or Squaxin tribes, which have the right to fish the river under an 1854 treaty.
The Indians’ attorneys and the Nisqually Tribal Council, however, have produced affidavits claiming that five of the Indians are Nisquallys.
Deputy Prosecutor Frohmander said Saturday this is is disputed by Paul Leschi, a member of the Nisqually Tribal Council until 1943, and several other tribal leaders.
Inside on the Outdoors: Indian Fish-Netting Still Cause Celebre
by Enos Bradner
by Enos Bradner
The Game Department regards the Indian netting of steelhead off a reservation, in the manner in which it is now being conducted, as posing the greatest hazard to the conservation of this game fish in the state’s history.On January 15, members of the Upper Skagit Indian tribe started netting the Skagit River in what they term their usual and accustomed fishing grounds. Game protectors have checked, to date, 423 steelhead from the nets of the eight Indians who have been setting them out.
No arrests have been made on the Skagit. Recent court decisions ruled that the Indians have the right to fish off a reservation in their usual grounds.
The Skagit is the state’s greatest steelhead river. It has led in the sports catch eight times in the past 14 years, the take varying from 12,000 to 21,000 fish annually.
THE SKAGIT STEELHEAD RUN is maintained and bolstered by Game Department regulations and hatchery plants supplied by anglers’ license moneys. Ole Eide, Supervisor in Skagit County, estimates that at least two thirds of the sports come directly from hatchery plants of steelhead.
Indian Service documents show a population of 214 members in the Upper Skagit tribe. If or when these and other tribes in the Skagit Valley move onto the Skagit River in force, the migratory runs of the river could be depleted seriously.
The Puyallup River is a prime example of the impact of an unregulated Indian fishery in an anadromous river. Robert Robison, administrative supervisor in the Fisheries Department, said that no Indian fishery existed in the Puyallup between 1900 and 1953.
In 1953 Indians placed two nets off the mouth of the Puyallup. Their fishery increased steadily until in 1961 the Indians had 40 gill nets, 15 set nets and a trap complex at the river mouth.
THE INDIAN CATCH OF CHINOOKS in the Puyallup increased from none in 1953 to 10,200 in 1961. The catch of humpbacked salmon increased from 143 in 1955 to 18,200 in 1961. The silver catch went from 104 in 1953 to 16,200 in ’61. The take of steeled went from 104 in 1953 to about 4,000 in 1961.
This virtually has depleted the Puyallup River of salmon. The Muckleshoot Indians, whose reservation is on a tributary of the Puyallup, caught 12,000 silvers in 1953 and took only 200 in 1961. The run over Mud Mountain Dam, where the salmon get to their spawning grounds, dropped from 10,000 in 1952 to 500 in 1961.
John Biggs, director of game, has asked Congress to regulate this off-reservation Indian fishing on three different levels of legislation.
Biggs asks that Indians fishing or hunting outside a reservation in their accustomed places be required to abide by state conservation laws and that Congress provide for a definite time to terminate their present rights.
BIGGS ALSO ASKS CONGRESS TO define who are Indians and designate the ones who are entitled to benefit from Indian treaties. Biggs recommends that a person must have at least 25 percent Indian blood to be considered under a treaty.
Biggs further asks that persons who have been classed as Indians by this new act of congress be entitled to file compensation claims with the United States Court of Claims to determine what their rights are and to place a value on them. Biggs feels Congress should not take anything away without paying for it.
Walt Neubrech, head of patrol for the Game Department, said that of the 20,000 Indians in Washington, not more than 2 percent are engaged in fishing for migratory fish. He said that in many cases, the fishery is an individual effort and that the money received from the sale of does not go into tribal-council funds.
NISQUALLY’S CLAIM TREATY RIGHTS FOR JAILED MEN
Daily Olympian
February 7, 1962
TACOMA (AP)- Attorneys for the Nisqually Tribal Council claimed Tuesday that five of the six Indians arrested in the State Game Department’s Jan. 6 surprise raid on the Nisqually River are treaty Indians and had a legal right to be fishing.
Daily Olympian
February 7, 1962
TACOMA (AP)- Attorneys for the Nisqually Tribal Council claimed Tuesday that five of the six Indians arrested in the State Game Department’s Jan. 6 surprise raid on the Nisqually River are treaty Indians and had a legal right to be fishing.
Council officials and their Seattle attorneys, Allan Pomeroy and Eugene Zelensky, went to the Pierce county prosecutor with a stack of affidavits to back up their claim.
Pomeroy presented Deputy Prosecutor Fred Frohmader with affidavits signed by Nisqually tribal elders that five of the six arrested Indians are members of the Nisqually tribe.
When 36 State Game Department men swooped down on the Indians Jan. 6, their field commander, Ellsworth O. Sawyer, said all of the arrested Indians were non-treaty Indians.
The Nisquallys, Puyallups and Squaxins were guaranteed the right to fish the Nisqually river in the Medicine Creek treaty of 1855.
All six were charged with illegal gillnetting of game fish (steelhead) by non-treaty Indians. Their arraignments originally were scheduled for Jan. 26 in justice courts here.
At Pomeroy’s request, the arraignments were set over indefinitely to check further into the backgrounds of the Indians.
Frohmader set the meeting here to discuss the state’s position in the cases and look into the backgrounds of the arrested Indians.
After the meeting, Frohmader said his office will investigate the claims made in the affidavits.
The six Indians arrested in the raid were Douglas Jay Derickson, 18, Olympia; Raleigh Kover, 40, Olympia; Ernest Gleason Sr., 62, Nisqually; Melvin Iryall, 31, Tacoma; Alvin J. Bridges, 51, Nisqually; and John Simmons Jr., 51, Yelm. Pomeroy said Gleason is the only one of the six who is not now a tribal member.
However, he said Gleason was married to a Nisqually for many years and had lived on the reservation for 40 years. He said after Gleason’s first wife died, he remarried out of the tribe, but continued to fish the Nisqually.
Indian Tribe Threatens “Wade-In” Over Fishing
The Olympian
April
6, 1962
by Don Hannula
by Don Hannula
A threat that every man, woman and child of the 380-member Muckleshoot Indian Tribe will stage a “wade-in” with nets and spears in the Green River has been leveled in an attempt to bring to the surface fishing problems of the tribe.The Muckleshoot Tribal Council has appealed directly to Sen. Warren G. Magnuson for federal leadership in clarification of the treaty rights of the Muckleshoot.
In brief, the Muckleshoots claim that unrestricted Indian fishing on the Puyallup River has depleted the salmon run in the tributary Stuck (White) River that runs through their reservation. Now the are asking that either action be taken to bring salmon runs back to the Stuck or that they be granted the right to fish the Green River which they claim was the accustomed fishing grounds of their ancestors.
Letter to Magnuson
The Muckleshoots have made their demand for federal leadership in a six-page letter to Sen. Magnuson signed by Bertha McJoe, Annie Garrison, James Moses, Louis Starr and Olive Hungary, all tribal council members.
In part, the letter states:
“Our tribe is planning an organized ‘wade-in’ of Green River in the spirit of sit-ins which have gained recognition for the rights of the Negroes in the South. We do no wish to enter into open conflict with the communities that surround us, but our rights are comparable to those of other expropriated peoples . . . and-if we must-we shall take every man, woman and child of our tribe, together with nets and spears, down to the Green River and invite all the press media of the area to witness the ‘wade-in’.”
Mrs. Garrison told The News Tribune:
“We know their jails won’t hold us all.”
Unfavorable Position
She explained that the Muckleshoots were in an unfavorable position as compared to the other tribes of Western Washington. “There is no salmon run left in the Stuck because the Puyallup Indians catch all the fish before they reach our river.”
The 65-year-old tribal council member pointed out that the Muckleshoots aren’t really Muckleshoots at all. She said that was just a name the white men tabbed them with after the reservation was set up near the site of an old blockhouse called Muckleshoot Fort.
“We are included in the Medicine Creek Treaty of 1855 as the Scopabsh Tribe-the real name of the Muckleshoots,” she said.
Mrs. Garrison said the Scopabsh was a nomadic tribe in early days fishing the Stuck, the Green and even the Puyallup River . . . and that, under the treaty guarantee rights to fish accustomed grounds, the now Muckleshoot should be able to fish the Green River.
To test this theory, three young Muckleshoots placed nets in the Green River and wound up in jail. They were convicted by Justice of the Peace Evans Manolides of illegal net fishing, but an appeal is pending.
A threat that every man, woman and child of the 380-member Muckleshoot Indian Tribe will stage a “wade-in” with nets and spears in the Green River has been leveled in an attempt to bring to the surface fishing problems of the tribe.The Muckleshoot Tribal Council has appealed directly to Sen. Warren G. Magnuson for federal leadership in clarification of the treaty rights of the Muckleshoot.
In brief, the Muckleshoots claim that unrestricted Indian fishing on the Puyallup River has depleted the salmon run in the tributary Stuck (White) River that runs through their reservation. Now the are asking that either action be taken to bring salmon runs back to the Stuck or that they be granted the right to fish the Green River which they claim was the accustomed fishing grounds of their ancestors.
Letter to Magnuson
The Muckleshoots have made their demand for federal leadership in a six-page letter to Sen. Magnuson signed by Bertha McJoe, Annie Garrison, James Moses, Louis Starr and Olive Hungary, all tribal council members.
In part, the letter states:
“Our tribe is planning an organized ‘wade-in’ of Green River in the spirit of sit-ins which have gained recognition for the rights of the Negroes in the South. We do no wish to enter into open conflict with the communities that surround us, but our rights are comparable to those of other expropriated peoples . . . and-if we must-we shall take every man, woman and child of our tribe, together with nets and spears, down to the Green River and invite all the press media of the area to witness the ‘wade-in’.”
Mrs. Garrison told The News Tribune:
“We know their jails won’t hold us all.”
Unfavorable Position
She explained that the Muckleshoots were in an unfavorable position as compared to the other tribes of Western Washington. “There is no salmon run left in the Stuck because the Puyallup Indians catch all the fish before they reach our river.”
The 65-year-old tribal council member pointed out that the Muckleshoots aren’t really Muckleshoots at all. She said that was just a name the white men tabbed them with after the reservation was set up near the site of an old blockhouse called Muckleshoot Fort.
“We are included in the Medicine Creek Treaty of 1855 as the Scopabsh Tribe-the real name of the Muckleshoots,” she said.
Mrs. Garrison said the Scopabsh was a nomadic tribe in early days fishing the Stuck, the Green and even the Puyallup River . . . and that, under the treaty guarantee rights to fish accustomed grounds, the now Muckleshoot should be able to fish the Green River.
To test this theory, three young Muckleshoots placed nets in the Green River and wound up in jail. They were convicted by Justice of the Peace Evans Manolides of illegal net fishing, but an appeal is pending.
Indian Tribe Threatens “Wade-In” Over Fishing
The Olympian
April
The Olympian
April
6, 1962
by Don Hannula
by Don Hannula
A threat that every man, woman and child of the 380-member Muckleshoot Indian Tribe will stage a “wade-in” with nets and spears in the Green River has been leveled in an attempt to bring to the surface fishing problems of the tribe.The Muckleshoot Tribal Council has appealed directly to Sen. Warren G. Magnuson for federal leadership in clarification of the treaty rights of the Muckleshoot.
In brief, the Muckleshoots claim that unrestricted Indian fishing on the Puyallup River has depleted the salmon run in the tributary Stuck (White) River that runs through their reservation. Now the are asking that either action be taken to bring salmon runs back to the Stuck or that they be granted the right to fish the Green River which they claim was the accustomed fishing grounds of their ancestors.
Letter to Magnuson
The Muckleshoots have made their demand for federal leadership in a six-page letter to Sen. Magnuson signed by Bertha McJoe, Annie Garrison, James Moses, Louis Starr and Olive Hungary, all tribal council members.
In part, the letter states:
“Our tribe is planning an organized ‘wade-in’ of Green River in the spirit of sit-ins which have gained recognition for the rights of the Negroes in the South. We do no wish to enter into open conflict with the communities that surround us, but our rights are comparable to those of other expropriated peoples . . . and-if we must-we shall take every man, woman and child of our tribe, together with nets and spears, down to the Green River and invite all the press media of the area to witness the ‘wade-in’.”
Mrs. Garrison told The News Tribune:
“We know their jails won’t hold us all.”
Unfavorable Position
She explained that the Muckleshoots were in an unfavorable position as compared to the other tribes of Western Washington. “There is no salmon run left in the Stuck because the Puyallup Indians catch all the fish before they reach our river.”
The 65-year-old tribal council member pointed out that the Muckleshoots aren’t really Muckleshoots at all. She said that was just a name the white men tabbed them with after the reservation was set up near the site of an old blockhouse called Muckleshoot Fort.
“We are included in the Medicine Creek Treaty of 1855 as the Scopabsh Tribe-the real name of the Muckleshoots,” she said.
Mrs. Garrison said the Scopabsh was a nomadic tribe in early days fishing the Stuck, the Green and even the Puyallup River . . . and that, under the treaty guarantee rights to fish accustomed grounds, the now Muckleshoot should be able to fish the Green River.
To test this theory, three young Muckleshoots placed nets in the Green River and wound up in jail. They were convicted by Justice of the Peace Evans Manolides of illegal net fishing, but an appeal is pending.
A threat that every man, woman and child of the 380-member Muckleshoot Indian Tribe will stage a “wade-in” with nets and spears in the Green River has been leveled in an attempt to bring to the surface fishing problems of the tribe.The Muckleshoot Tribal Council has appealed directly to Sen. Warren G. Magnuson for federal leadership in clarification of the treaty rights of the Muckleshoot.
In brief, the Muckleshoots claim that unrestricted Indian fishing on the Puyallup River has depleted the salmon run in the tributary Stuck (White) River that runs through their reservation. Now the are asking that either action be taken to bring salmon runs back to the Stuck or that they be granted the right to fish the Green River which they claim was the accustomed fishing grounds of their ancestors.
Letter to Magnuson
The Muckleshoots have made their demand for federal leadership in a six-page letter to Sen. Magnuson signed by Bertha McJoe, Annie Garrison, James Moses, Louis Starr and Olive Hungary, all tribal council members.
In part, the letter states:
“Our tribe is planning an organized ‘wade-in’ of Green River in the spirit of sit-ins which have gained recognition for the rights of the Negroes in the South. We do no wish to enter into open conflict with the communities that surround us, but our rights are comparable to those of other expropriated peoples . . . and-if we must-we shall take every man, woman and child of our tribe, together with nets and spears, down to the Green River and invite all the press media of the area to witness the ‘wade-in’.”
Mrs. Garrison told The News Tribune:
“We know their jails won’t hold us all.”
Unfavorable Position
She explained that the Muckleshoots were in an unfavorable position as compared to the other tribes of Western Washington. “There is no salmon run left in the Stuck because the Puyallup Indians catch all the fish before they reach our river.”
The 65-year-old tribal council member pointed out that the Muckleshoots aren’t really Muckleshoots at all. She said that was just a name the white men tabbed them with after the reservation was set up near the site of an old blockhouse called Muckleshoot Fort.
“We are included in the Medicine Creek Treaty of 1855 as the Scopabsh Tribe-the real name of the Muckleshoots,” she said.
Mrs. Garrison said the Scopabsh was a nomadic tribe in early days fishing the Stuck, the Green and even the Puyallup River . . . and that, under the treaty guarantee rights to fish accustomed grounds, the now Muckleshoot should be able to fish the Green River.
To test this theory, three young Muckleshoots placed nets in the Green River and wound up in jail. They were convicted by Justice of the Peace Evans Manolides of illegal net fishing, but an appeal is pending.
The Game Department regards the Indian netting of steelhead off a reservation, in the manner in which it is now being conducted, as posing the greatest hazard to the conservation of this game fish in the state’s history.On January 15, members of the Upper Skagit Indian tribe started netting the Skagit River in what they term their usual and accustomed fishing grounds. Game protectors have checked, to date, 423 steelhead from the nets of the eight Indians who have been setting them out.
No arrests have been made on the Skagit. Recent court decisions ruled that the Indians have the right to fish off a reservation in their usual grounds.
The Skagit is the state’s greatest steelhead river. It has led in the sports catch eight times in the past 14 years, the take varying from 12,000 to 21,000 fish annually.
THE SKAGIT STEELHEAD RUN is maintained and bolstered by Game Department regulations and hatchery plants supplied by anglers’ license moneys. Ole Eide, Supervisor in Skagit County, estimates that at least two thirds of the sports come directly from hatchery plants of steelhead.
Indian Service documents show a population of 214 members in the Upper Skagit tribe. If or when these and other tribes in the Skagit Valley move onto the Skagit River in force, the migratory runs of the river could be depleted seriously.
The Puyallup River is a prime example of the impact of an unregulated Indian fishery in an anadromous river. Robert Robison, administrative supervisor in the Fisheries Department, said that no Indian fishery existed in the Puyallup between 1900 and 1953.
In 1953 Indians placed two nets off the mouth of the Puyallup. Their fishery increased steadily until in 1961 the Indians had 40 gill nets, 15 set nets and a trap complex at the river mouth.
THE INDIAN CATCH OF CHINOOKS in the Puyallup increased from none in 1953 to 10,200 in 1961. The catch of humpbacked salmon increased from 143 in 1955 to 18,200 in 1961. The silver catch went from 104 in 1953 to 16,200 in ’61. The take of steeled went from 104 in 1953 to about 4,000 in 1961.
This virtually has depleted the Puyallup River of salmon. The Muckleshoot Indians, whose reservation is on a tributary of the Puyallup, caught 12,000 silvers in 1953 and took only 200 in 1961. The run over Mud Mountain Dam, where the salmon get to their spawning grounds, dropped from 10,000 in 1952 to 500 in 1961.
John Biggs, director of game, has asked Congress to regulate this off-reservation Indian fishing on three different levels of legislation.
Biggs asks that Indians fishing or hunting outside a reservation in their accustomed places be required to abide by state conservation laws and that Congress provide for a definite time to terminate their present rights.
BIGGS ALSO ASKS CONGRESS TO define who are Indians and designate the ones who are entitled to benefit from Indian treaties. Biggs recommends that a person must have at least 25 percent Indian blood to be considered under a treaty.
Biggs further asks that persons who have been classed as Indians by this new act of congress be entitled to file compensation claims with the United States Court of Claims to determine what their rights are and to place a value on them. Biggs feels Congress should not take anything away without paying for it.
Walt Neubrech, head of patrol for the Game Department, said that of the 20,000 Indians in Washington, not more than 2 percent are engaged in fishing for migratory fish. He said that in many cases, the fishery is an individual effort and that the money received from the sale of does not go into tribal-council funds.
NISQUALLY’S CLAIM TREATY RIGHTS FOR JAILED MEN
Daily Olympian
February 7, 1962
TACOMA (AP)- Attorneys for the Nisqually Tribal Council claimed Tuesday that five of the six Indians arrested in the State Game Department’s Jan. 6 surprise raid on the Nisqually River are treaty Indians and had a legal right to be fishing.
Daily Olympian
February 7, 1962
TACOMA (AP)- Attorneys for the Nisqually Tribal Council claimed Tuesday that five of the six Indians arrested in the State Game Department’s Jan. 6 surprise raid on the Nisqually River are treaty Indians and had a legal right to be fishing.
Council officials and their Seattle attorneys, Allan Pomeroy and Eugene Zelensky, went to the Pierce county prosecutor with a stack of affidavits to back up their claim.
Pomeroy presented Deputy Prosecutor Fred Frohmader with affidavits signed by Nisqually tribal elders that five of the six arrested Indians are members of the Nisqually tribe.
When 36 State Game Department men swooped down on the Indians Jan. 6, their field commander, Ellsworth O. Sawyer, said all of the arrested Indians were non-treaty Indians.
The Nisquallys, Puyallups and Squaxins were guaranteed the right to fish the Nisqually river in the Medicine Creek treaty of 1855.
All six were charged with illegal gillnetting of game fish (steelhead) by non-treaty Indians. Their arraignments originally were scheduled for Jan. 26 in justice courts here.
At Pomeroy’s request, the arraignments were set over indefinitely to check further into the backgrounds of the Indians.
Frohmader set the meeting here to discuss the state’s position in the cases and look into the backgrounds of the arrested Indians.
After the meeting, Frohmader said his office will investigate the claims made in the affidavits.
The six Indians arrested in the raid were Douglas Jay Derickson, 18, Olympia; Raleigh Kover, 40, Olympia; Ernest Gleason Sr., 62, Nisqually; Melvin Iryall, 31, Tacoma; Alvin J. Bridges, 51, Nisqually; and John Simmons Jr., 51, Yelm. Pomeroy said Gleason is the only one of the six who is not now a tribal member.
However, he said Gleason was married to a Nisqually for many years and had lived on the reservation for 40 years. He said after Gleason’s first wife died, he remarried out of the tribe, but continued to fish the Nisqually.
Indian Tribe Threatens “Wade-In” Over Fishing
The Olympian
April
6, 1962
by Don Hannula
by Don Hannula
A threat that every man, woman and child of the 380-member Muckleshoot Indian Tribe will stage a “wade-in” with nets and spears in the Green River has been leveled in an attempt to bring to the surface fishing problems of the tribe.The Muckleshoot Tribal Council has appealed directly to Sen. Warren G. Magnuson for federal leadership in clarification of the treaty rights of the Muckleshoot.
In brief, the Muckleshoots claim that unrestricted Indian fishing on the Puyallup River has depleted the salmon run in the tributary Stuck (White) River that runs through their reservation. Now the are asking that either action be taken to bring salmon runs back to the Stuck or that they be granted the right to fish the Green River which they claim was the accustomed fishing grounds of their ancestors.
Letter to Magnuson
The Muckleshoots have made their demand for federal leadership in a six-page letter to Sen. Magnuson signed by Bertha McJoe, Annie Garrison, James Moses, Louis Starr and Olive Hungary, all tribal council members.
In part, the letter states:
“Our tribe is planning an organized ‘wade-in’ of Green River in the spirit of sit-ins which have gained recognition for the rights of the Negroes in the South. We do no wish to enter into open conflict with the communities that surround us, but our rights are comparable to those of other expropriated peoples . . . and-if we must-we shall take every man, woman and child of our tribe, together with nets and spears, down to the Green River and invite all the press media of the area to witness the ‘wade-in’.”
Mrs. Garrison told The News Tribune:
“We know their jails won’t hold us all.”
Unfavorable Position
She explained that the Muckleshoots were in an unfavorable position as compared to the other tribes of Western Washington. “There is no salmon run left in the Stuck because the Puyallup Indians catch all the fish before they reach our river.”
The 65-year-old tribal council member pointed out that the Muckleshoots aren’t really Muckleshoots at all. She said that was just a name the white men tabbed them with after the reservation was set up near the site of an old blockhouse called Muckleshoot Fort.
“We are included in the Medicine Creek Treaty of 1855 as the Scopabsh Tribe-the real name of the Muckleshoots,” she said.
Mrs. Garrison said the Scopabsh was a nomadic tribe in early days fishing the Stuck, the Green and even the Puyallup River . . . and that, under the treaty guarantee rights to fish accustomed grounds, the now Muckleshoot should be able to fish the Green River.
To test this theory, three young Muckleshoots placed nets in the Green River and wound up in jail. They were convicted by Justice of the Peace Evans Manolides of illegal net fishing, but an appeal is pending.
A threat that every man, woman and child of the 380-member Muckleshoot Indian Tribe will stage a “wade-in” with nets and spears in the Green River has been leveled in an attempt to bring to the surface fishing problems of the tribe.The Muckleshoot Tribal Council has appealed directly to Sen. Warren G. Magnuson for federal leadership in clarification of the treaty rights of the Muckleshoot.
In brief, the Muckleshoots claim that unrestricted Indian fishing on the Puyallup River has depleted the salmon run in the tributary Stuck (White) River that runs through their reservation. Now the are asking that either action be taken to bring salmon runs back to the Stuck or that they be granted the right to fish the Green River which they claim was the accustomed fishing grounds of their ancestors.
Letter to Magnuson
The Muckleshoots have made their demand for federal leadership in a six-page letter to Sen. Magnuson signed by Bertha McJoe, Annie Garrison, James Moses, Louis Starr and Olive Hungary, all tribal council members.
In part, the letter states:
“Our tribe is planning an organized ‘wade-in’ of Green River in the spirit of sit-ins which have gained recognition for the rights of the Negroes in the South. We do no wish to enter into open conflict with the communities that surround us, but our rights are comparable to those of other expropriated peoples . . . and-if we must-we shall take every man, woman and child of our tribe, together with nets and spears, down to the Green River and invite all the press media of the area to witness the ‘wade-in’.”
Mrs. Garrison told The News Tribune:
“We know their jails won’t hold us all.”
Unfavorable Position
She explained that the Muckleshoots were in an unfavorable position as compared to the other tribes of Western Washington. “There is no salmon run left in the Stuck because the Puyallup Indians catch all the fish before they reach our river.”
The 65-year-old tribal council member pointed out that the Muckleshoots aren’t really Muckleshoots at all. She said that was just a name the white men tabbed them with after the reservation was set up near the site of an old blockhouse called Muckleshoot Fort.
“We are included in the Medicine Creek Treaty of 1855 as the Scopabsh Tribe-the real name of the Muckleshoots,” she said.
Mrs. Garrison said the Scopabsh was a nomadic tribe in early days fishing the Stuck, the Green and even the Puyallup River . . . and that, under the treaty guarantee rights to fish accustomed grounds, the now Muckleshoot should be able to fish the Green River.
To test this theory, three young Muckleshoots placed nets in the Green River and wound up in jail. They were convicted by Justice of the Peace Evans Manolides of illegal net fishing, but an appeal is pending.
Indian Tribe Threatens “Wade-In” Over Fishing
The Olympian
April
The Olympian
April
6, 1962
by Don Hannula
by Don Hannula
A threat that every man, woman and child of the 380-member Muckleshoot Indian Tribe will stage a “wade-in” with nets and spears in the Green River has been leveled in an attempt to bring to the surface fishing problems of the tribe.The Muckleshoot Tribal Council has appealed directly to Sen. Warren G. Magnuson for federal leadership in clarification of the treaty rights of the Muckleshoot.
In brief, the Muckleshoots claim that unrestricted Indian fishing on the Puyallup River has depleted the salmon run in the tributary Stuck (White) River that runs through their reservation. Now the are asking that either action be taken to bring salmon runs back to the Stuck or that they be granted the right to fish the Green River which they claim was the accustomed fishing grounds of their ancestors.
Letter to Magnuson
The Muckleshoots have made their demand for federal leadership in a six-page letter to Sen. Magnuson signed by Bertha McJoe, Annie Garrison, James Moses, Louis Starr and Olive Hungary, all tribal council members.
In part, the letter states:
“Our tribe is planning an organized ‘wade-in’ of Green River in the spirit of sit-ins which have gained recognition for the rights of the Negroes in the South. We do no wish to enter into open conflict with the communities that surround us, but our rights are comparable to those of other expropriated peoples . . . and-if we must-we shall take every man, woman and child of our tribe, together with nets and spears, down to the Green River and invite all the press media of the area to witness the ‘wade-in’.”
Mrs. Garrison told The News Tribune:
“We know their jails won’t hold us all.”
Unfavorable Position
She explained that the Muckleshoots were in an unfavorable position as compared to the other tribes of Western Washington. “There is no salmon run left in the Stuck because the Puyallup Indians catch all the fish before they reach our river.”
The 65-year-old tribal council member pointed out that the Muckleshoots aren’t really Muckleshoots at all. She said that was just a name the white men tabbed them with after the reservation was set up near the site of an old blockhouse called Muckleshoot Fort.
“We are included in the Medicine Creek Treaty of 1855 as the Scopabsh Tribe-the real name of the Muckleshoots,” she said.
Mrs. Garrison said the Scopabsh was a nomadic tribe in early days fishing the Stuck, the Green and even the Puyallup River . . . and that, under the treaty guarantee rights to fish accustomed grounds, the now Muckleshoot should be able to fish the Green River.
To test this theory, three young Muckleshoots placed nets in the Green River and wound up in jail. They were convicted by Justice of the Peace Evans Manolides of illegal net fishing, but an appeal is pending.
A threat that every man, woman and child of the 380-member Muckleshoot Indian Tribe will stage a “wade-in” with nets and spears in the Green River has been leveled in an attempt to bring to the surface fishing problems of the tribe.The Muckleshoot Tribal Council has appealed directly to Sen. Warren G. Magnuson for federal leadership in clarification of the treaty rights of the Muckleshoot.
In brief, the Muckleshoots claim that unrestricted Indian fishing on the Puyallup River has depleted the salmon run in the tributary Stuck (White) River that runs through their reservation. Now the are asking that either action be taken to bring salmon runs back to the Stuck or that they be granted the right to fish the Green River which they claim was the accustomed fishing grounds of their ancestors.
Letter to Magnuson
The Muckleshoots have made their demand for federal leadership in a six-page letter to Sen. Magnuson signed by Bertha McJoe, Annie Garrison, James Moses, Louis Starr and Olive Hungary, all tribal council members.
In part, the letter states:
“Our tribe is planning an organized ‘wade-in’ of Green River in the spirit of sit-ins which have gained recognition for the rights of the Negroes in the South. We do no wish to enter into open conflict with the communities that surround us, but our rights are comparable to those of other expropriated peoples . . . and-if we must-we shall take every man, woman and child of our tribe, together with nets and spears, down to the Green River and invite all the press media of the area to witness the ‘wade-in’.”
Mrs. Garrison told The News Tribune:
“We know their jails won’t hold us all.”
Unfavorable Position
She explained that the Muckleshoots were in an unfavorable position as compared to the other tribes of Western Washington. “There is no salmon run left in the Stuck because the Puyallup Indians catch all the fish before they reach our river.”
The 65-year-old tribal council member pointed out that the Muckleshoots aren’t really Muckleshoots at all. She said that was just a name the white men tabbed them with after the reservation was set up near the site of an old blockhouse called Muckleshoot Fort.
“We are included in the Medicine Creek Treaty of 1855 as the Scopabsh Tribe-the real name of the Muckleshoots,” she said.
Mrs. Garrison said the Scopabsh was a nomadic tribe in early days fishing the Stuck, the Green and even the Puyallup River . . . and that, under the treaty guarantee rights to fish accustomed grounds, the now Muckleshoot should be able to fish the Green River.
To test this theory, three young Muckleshoots placed nets in the Green River and wound up in jail. They were convicted by Justice of the Peace Evans Manolides of illegal net fishing, but an appeal is pending.
Unfavorable Position
She explained that the Muckleshoots were in an unfavorable position as compared to the other tribes of Western Washington. “There is no salmon run left in the Stuck because the Puyallup Indians catch all the fish before they reach our river.”
The 65-year-old tribal council member pointed out that the Muckleshoots aren’t really Muckleshoots at all. She said that was just a name the white men tabbed them with after the reservation was set up near the site of an old blockhouse called Muckleshoot Fort.
“We are included in the Medicine Creek Treaty of 1855 as the Scopabsh Tribe-the real name of the Muckleshoots,” she said.
Mrs. Garrison said the Scopabsh was a nomadic tribe in early days fishing the Stuck, the Green and even the Puyallup River . . . and that, under the treaty guarantee rights to fish accustomed grounds, the now Muckleshoot should be able to fish the Green River.
To test this theory, three young Muckleshoots placed nets in the Green River and wound up in jail. They were convicted by Justice of the Peace Evans Manolides of illegal net fishing, but an appeal is pending.
Claim Frictions
In a letter to Sen. Magnuson, the Muckleshoots claim:
“Frictions between our community and that represented by the sportsmen through their governmental agency, the Washington State Game department, have intensified in the past few months to where the sportsmen are threatening Indians with bloodshed in resolutions passed by their body.
“Our young men look about them, and they see the Nooksack, the Skagit, the Nisqually and the tribes of their brothers enjoying the rights promised our ancestors in the Stevens treaties of 1855.
” We, as Indian council members cannot explain to our young men why they too should not enjoy the same privileges.”
As an alternative to the appeal of the Green River fishing case, the Muckleshoots have offered to:
- Abandon the court appeal if the federal government and the State of Washington will make definite commitments to help rehabilitate stuck River, a tributary of the Puyallup.
- Join forces with the federal government, the state and the State Sportsman’s Council in any legal actions necessary to clear up the fishing problem on the Puyallup River to establish a fair quota system and fish-conservation program on the Puyallup and Stuck Rivers.
Mrs. Garrison said the Muckleshoots are hopeful they will get some satisfaction from their letter to Sen. Magnuson.If they don’t, they vow to go through the wade-in. When?
“It’ll probably be in June or July when the spring salmon run starts,” Mrs. Garrison said. ” . . . and when the weather warms up. We don’t all have boots.”
In Olympia Friday, State Game Director John A. Biggs indicated the Muckleshoots would be arrested if they carry out their threat.
“We arrested them before and we will continue to,” Biggs said.
He said it is the Game Department’s contention the Muckleshoots do not have fishing rights on the Green River.