Conversation

Notices

1. Embed this notice
   Toastie (toastie@journa.host)'s status on Tuesday, 16-Jan-2024 15:00:29 JST Toastie

   In the 1960s and '70s, cops were brutalizing #Indigenous people in the #PNW ...for fishing.

   But fishing is a treaty-protected right. People stood up for it. Elders call this era the Fish Wars.

   In 1974 the issue went to the Supreme Court. After 3 years of discovery and pretrial, Judge George Boldt heard the case and ruled that the state of #Washington must respect the Indigenous right to fish.

   The Boldt decision changed the landscape. It turns 50 next month.

   https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/how-the-boldt-decision-50-years-ago-remade-pacific-northwest-fishing/

   • Embed this notice
     Toastie (toastie@journa.host)'s status on Tuesday, 16-Jan-2024 15:00:33 JST Toastie

     in reply to

     The Boldt decision isn't perfect --- it says Natives only have a right to 50% of salmon in the water.

     And that half is dwindling, because industrialization, habitat loss and degradation, climate change and other factors are pushing salmon towards extinction.

     So as Boldt turns fifty, it's a good time to think about what other changes need to be made to ensure the future of Indigenous cultures, foodways, treaty rights, salmon, and ecosystems.

     Paul Cantrell repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Toastie (toastie@journa.host)'s status on Tuesday, 16-Jan-2024 15:00:33 JST Toastie

     in reply to

     And lest anyone think the era of racist hostility towards Indigenous people is over, the editors remind us of how current this all still is:

   • Embed this notice
     Toastie (toastie@journa.host)'s status on Tuesday, 16-Jan-2024 15:00:34 JST Toastie

     in reply to

     Fishing is important for sustenance, but it's also critical for preserving culture. Destruction of Indigenous foodways forces assimilation into capitalism, and attacks the physical health of communities. Keeping these foodways intact is one way Native people stay Native.

   • Embed this notice
     Toastie (toastie@journa.host)'s status on Tuesday, 16-Jan-2024 15:00:35 JST Toastie

     in reply to

     “This one of them pointed a gun at me and the barrel was like that big,” Bennett said shaping her hands to a wide circle. “And pulled the trigger. And I thought I was dead. And there was a [expletive] gas canister and it just hit me and bounced around to the ground, and I kicked it back and pulled his gas mask. And that started a wonderful game of kick the canister, because once I did it, everybody started doing it.”

     Absolute legend. You simply cannot win against Indigenous women. Don't try.

   • Embed this notice
     Toastie (toastie@journa.host)'s status on Tuesday, 16-Jan-2024 15:00:35 JST Toastie

     in reply to

     Like other treaty rights, the right to fish is not GIVEN by the United States. It's a right the tribes already have, and have always had. It's one of the rights that the US has promised not to take away. It's a debt.

   • Embed this notice
     Toastie (toastie@journa.host)'s status on Tuesday, 16-Jan-2024 15:00:36 JST Toastie

     in reply to

     The decision pissed off white fishermen, who wanted all the salmon for themselves.

     And they behaved as you might expect:

   • Embed this notice
     Toastie (toastie@journa.host)'s status on Tuesday, 16-Jan-2024 15:00:36 JST Toastie

     in reply to

     Before the Boldt decision, Native fisherpeople had to fish at night and hide their catches. Some were jailed more than 50 times.

     Ramona Bennett, a Puyallup tribal elder and former council member and chairwoman who's now 85, jumped at a cop who was trying to arrest her and sent him rolling down the levee into the river.

     This is Bennett getting arrested during the fish wars: