Lummi Nation Fights Salmon Trap Incursion
The U.S. government intervenes on behalf of the Lummi people to stop commercial fishing interests from blocking their treaty-guaranteed fishing grounds.
A restraining order issued by Judge Hanford, of the United States circuit court, was served yesterday morning forbidding the Alaska Packing Association and Kase Walter and the Chicago Fishing Company to drive piles and locate salmon traps at Point Roberts or Village Point reef on the west side of Lummi Island, in Whatcom County. The injunction suit is brought by the United States as the guardians of its Indians, with Hillaire Crockett and Capt. Jack as presenting witnesses for the Lummi Indians, who claim that the right to fish on the reef in common with all other citizens, unhampered by restrictions, was guaranteed them by the treaty with the United States many years ago. The defendants have thirty days in which to make answer.
“The right to fish on the reef in common with all other citizens, unhampered by restrictions, was guaranteed them by the treaty.”
This case reflects the long, ongoing struggle for Indigenous treaty rights in the Pacific Northwest. The tension between commercial resource extraction and protected tribal fishing rights remains a central theme in Washington State's legal and environmental landscape.
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