Associated Press
SEATTLE — The Samish Indian Nation has filed a motion in federal court to reopen a landmark federal decision on Indian treaty rights and gain fishing rights for its members.
A landmark 1974 decision by U.S. District Court Judge George Boldt established treaty rights of 14 Puget Sound-area tribes to half of the fishing catch.
The Samish say they were cut out of the deal, however, because of a bureaucratic blunder and subsequent stonewalling by the U.S. government, according to the tribe’s motion filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle.
Ken Hansen, Samish tribal chairman, said the tribe has thoroughly documented its traditional fishing areas throughout the San Juan Islands as well as areas in southern Whatcom, western Skagit and northern Island counties.
Other Puget Sound-area tribes already have treaty claims to some of the same fishing grounds.
"We are sure there will be some tribes that try to oppose us, and that saddens us," Hansen said. "But we will try to accommodate the neighboring tribes. We don’t want to hurt their fishermen."
The Samish had been recognized by the federal government as a tribe with treaty rights since 1855, but the nation was effectively extinguished by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1969 when it was dropped from the government’s list of tribal nations.
"They lost a whole tribe," Hansen said.
That error forced the tribe into court. Although federal recognition was regained in the 1990s, the tribe still lacks treaty rights lost in the 1970s.
The motion filed Friday is the first step in regaining those rights.
If the court allows a reopening of the Boldt decision, a series of hearings and conferences would be held before a final decision would be made.
The tribe, in its 106-page legal brief, exhaustively detailed the wrongs it believes were committed against it by the government.
In earlier court proceedings, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Zilly wrote, "The Samish People’s quest for federal recognition has a protracted and tortured history, and their long journey for recognition has been made more difficult by excessive delays and governmental misconduct."
The BIA is providing some money to help pay for the tribe’s court fight this time around, Hansen said.
The U.S. Department of Justice also has indicated it will not fight the tribe in court, said Craig Dorsay, the tribe’s attorney in Portland.
The 899-member tribe has no reservation. Its aboriginal lands included parts of western Skagit and southern Whatcom counties and northern Island and San Juan counties.
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