Lummi Fishermen Fight for Their Reefs
Prominent Lummi leaders seek an injunction against salmon canning companies to protect their traditional fishing grounds from industrial traps.
Judge Hanford has issued an injunction restraining the Alaska Packers Association from building traps in the vicinity of Point Roberts and other points in the county, for the purpose of capturing salmon, in a suit filed by the Alaska Packers Association from the Lummi Indians. Brinker & Co. filed the bill in equity last Saturday afternoon in behalf of Capt. Jack and Silver Crockett, prominent Indians of the Lummi tribe, who have occupied a village on the Lummi reservation in Whatcom county. The Indians allege in the bills in equity that for a number of years they have fished for salmon off the reefs in question and that the two companies intend to build traps that will shut them off entirely. The Indians state that they have made offers to the companies to allow them to place their traps at such points as will give all a fair show, but the companies refused.
“The Indians state that they have made offers to the companies to allow them to place their traps at such points as will give all a fair show, but the companies refused.”
This case highlights the long-standing struggle of the Lummi Nation to protect their treaty-protected fishing rights against industrial encroachment—a battle that continues in the courts and the Salish Sea today.
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