A Cannery, a Reef, and the Indians’ Right to Fish

The controversy over the sockeye salmon at Point Roberts again has an answer filed in the United States court. The case is that of the United States, Hillaire Crockett and Captain Jack vs. the Alaska Packers Association. A temporary injunction has been secured restraining the packing company from taking fish on the Point Roberts reef. The government has intervened in the contention that the Indians, whose prescriptive rights are claimed, have been invaded as wards of the United States.

The defendants deny that Crockett is a member of the Lummi, and say that Captain Jack is not a member of the tribe. For time immemorial, the Indians have fished on the reef; they belong to the Samish, as of British Columbia, while the Lummi have had that privilege for only fifteen years. The answer denies also that the Indians sustain toward the government the relationship of wards, but avers that they have severed their tribal relations and have been allotted lands in severalty.

The defendants say they have not placed any obstructions for the purpose of interfering with the run of salmon. The body of the fish has led them on a course from the ocean into the straits, thence northerly through various channels, particularly Rosario Strait, past Lummi Island, and as a general rule to Point White Horn on the east side of the Gulf of Georgia at the south entrance to Birch Bay, thence northwesterly to Point Roberts, and finally westerly and northerly to the mouth of the Fraser, where they enter in innumerable schools. The fish entering the waters off Point Roberts and passing the reef are in vast schools, in numbers beyond computation or comprehension.

The packers’ association denies that the government has secured or guaranteed to the Indians the right to take fish, and says that they have not been ousted. Defendants claim to own the lands under title from the general government, and deny that it was ever subject to any servitude or rights whatever of the Indians. At the time the treaty was made, it is said, Point Roberts was not known to be within the United States, and the boundary was not determined until about four years afterward. Previous to that time, the contention is, all the Indians frequenting Point Roberts were regarded as “King George” or British Columbia Indians.

As soon as Point Roberts was determined to be within the United States, the government set it apart as a military reservation and withheld it from entry until long subsequent to when John Waller and Kate Waller, the defendants, settled upon two lots each in sections 2 and 12, township 40, range 1 west. On August 8, 1902, Kate Waller made final proof, and the lands accordingly were granted to her.

If the temporary injunction issued by the court is permitted to remain in effect it will cause the cannery, defendants say, irreparable loss, and throw out of employment for the season some 130 men. The cannery at Point Roberts was established in 1903 by E. A. Wadhams, and the packing company now operates that establishment in connection with a cannery at Semiahmoo, Whatcom County, erected by D. Drysdale. The quantity of fish taken is said to be infinitesimal as compared with the myriads that swarm by the reef during the fishing season. The cannerymen also contend the Indians are in no wise restrained from exercising whatever privilege they may be entitled to, and that there are many places in that vicinity where they may anchor their canoes and take salmon wholly without interference.