Fall 2021
The Fish Wars
The Fish Wars were a series of protests by Indigenous tribes of western Washington during the 1960s and 70s. These protests concerned the lack of protection of their fishing rights and unfair treatment from non-Native fishers. The beginning of the Fish Wars reaches back to 1855, when the Point Elliott Treaty forced the Lummi Indians of Washington onto a small reservation, taking away their homelands. It would not be until over a hundred years later, that Indigenous peoples began to protest against those who would not acknowledge their fishing rights. To protest, Indigenous peoples would participate in non-violent forms of activism such as “fish-ins”, but these were met with heavy resistance from non-Native fishers. Violent retaliation consisted of non-natives who “cut nets, pushed boats into rivers, and stole fish from tribal nets and traps” (Grossman 40). Indigenous tribes of Washington would eventually sue the state in 1973, resulting in the Boldt Decision in 1974 that claimed that native fishers were allowed to catch half of the harvested fish. This did not fix tensions with non-native fishers, as Indigenous fishers were still violently harassed, as “their fishing boats were swamped or rammed by commercial vessels, and their nets sunk with cement blocks” (Boxberger 154). Indigenous fishers were also shot at with snipers and other guns, just like they were before the Boldt Decision.
Image source: Samuel G. Morse, “Native Americans fishing at Neah Bay”, ca. 1887 – 1921. North Olympic Library Digital Collection. University of Washington. Accessed via https://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/digital/collection/nol/id/156. Fair use.
The Fish Wars exhibit yet another example of the U.S. and state governments’ tendency to infringe on the rights that were fairly given to Indigenous peoples through treaties. Indigenous peoples agreed to turn over their homelands to the government, as long as they were still able to use them for fishing and other resources. A recurring issue that we see, is the government’s inability to hold up their end of the bargain, not protecting these treaty rights that Indigenous people were fairly owed. And if the government was not forcefully taking Indigenous land themselves, they were turning their heads away from Native cries for help, allowing non-Native fishers to violate Indigenous fishers.
The Voigt Decision
The Voigt Decision was made by the U.S. Court of Appeals of the 7th Circuit on January 25th, 1983. It ruled that fishing, hunting, and gathering rights were reserved for the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe Tribe of Northern Wisconsin, under treaties between them and the U.S. government. Between 1835 and 1855, the Ojibwe signed four treaties that gave away millions of acres of the Great Lakes region. For this land, the Natives received the right to continue fishing, hunting, and gathering in these areas. But once the region was divided into separate states (Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota), state officials ignored the treaties and began to take authority over Indigenous people. Following the Voigt Decision, Indigenous fishermen were exposed to “logs and rocks blocking their access to boat ramps, nails placed to puncture truck and trailer tires, sand poured in gas tanks, attempted boat swampings, and rifle shots” (Loew and Thannum 163). Non-natives claimed that Indigenous peoples were overfishing the waters and thus they were responsible for an increase in unemployment, a decrease in fish and shoreline, and a decrease in tourism of the area. These statements were proven to be unrelated to Native fishing, as Indigenous peoples continued to fish at the same level they had in the past.
Image source: Jared Enos, “An Ojibwe Native American spearfishing, Minnesota, 1908.” 1908. Accessed via https://www.flickr.com/photos/jenoscolor/15684503972/ CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
The Voigt Decision highlights the idea of race being a critical factor in this battle for fishing rights. In the past, the concept of race may have been seen as only an underlying issue when concerning a dispute between Natives and non-Natives. But this time, racism is front and center, as non-Native protests included speared Native heads and advertised “The First Annual Indian Shoot” (Loew and Thannum 164). Another important piece surrounding the Voigt Decision was how it was portrayed by the media. News coverage made it seem like Indigenous fishers were given an early start and the right to an unlimited number of fish, but this was also untrue. The media made Indigenous peoples’ fight for their guaranteed right to fish even more difficult.
References
Boxberger, Daniel L. 2000. To Fish in Common: The Ethnohistory of Lummi Indian Salmon Fishing. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Calloway, Colin G., ed. 2019. First Peoples: A Documentary Survey of American Indian History. 6th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s.
Grossman, Zoltán, and Winona LaDuke. 2017. Unlikely Alliances: Native and White Communities Join to Defend Rural Lands. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Loew, Patty, and James Thannum. 2011. “After the Storm: Ojibwe Treaty Rights Twenty-Five Years after the Voigt Decision.” American Indian Quarterly 35 (2): 161–89. https://doi.org/10.5250/amerindiquar.35.2.0161.
National Museum of the American Indian. n.d. “The Fish Wars: What Kinds of Actions Can Lead to Justice?” Native Knowledge 360°. Accessed November 17, 2021. https://americanindian.si.edu/nk360/pnw-fish-wars.
Western Washington University. n.d. “1960’s and 70’s Fish Wars.” Bellingham Racial History Timeline. Accessed November 17, 2021. https://wp.wwu.edu/timeline/1970s-violence-against-lummis/.
