The Great Yakima River Fish War
Local leaders are locked in a standoff with the state government over salmon rights during food shortages.
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This paper has not yet reached the stage where it is ready to advise anyone to become a law breaker, but it certainly would not feel inclined to very harshly criticize anyone who went salmon fishing in the Yakima River, regardless of what the present legal restrictions are on that stream. Last spring, the legislature passed a bill providing that the Yakima River shall be opened by the state fish commissioner to salmon fishing. Representative Moores and Senator Morthland fought for this to permit residents to seine salmon for their own use, yet state fish commissioner L. H. Darwin continues to obstruct the process. The Commercial Club has petitioned for regulations, but the commissioner sidesteps the issue, claiming no fish are running when they plainly are. At a time when the government urges us to conserve the nation’s food supply, the farmers' hands are tied by political games. If a farmer puts a cage in his backyard for rabbits, he is doing a patriotic duty, but if he stocks his cellar with fish swimming past his door, he faces a fine. This paper is not going to criticize anyone who exercises their right to eat, and the editor is tempted to join a seining party himself.
“If he has a taste for fish he has the privilege of paying the fisherman’s, the canner’s, the jobber’s, the retailer’s and the carrier’s profit, eating it out of a can, and paying the cost of the can and the label on the outside of it.”
This 1917 dispute over access to natural resources mirrors modern tensions in the Pacific Northwest, where rural communities frequently clash with state management of fishing and hunting rights. The argument that local residents should be able to harvest local food during times of national scarcity remains a central point of civic debate today.
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