The Cellar - November 17, 2008: Indians

and then there's anadromous fishing rights in the NW...

goldurn injuns get to keep using dip nets while paleface has to stick to rod & reel

Quote:

On the Middle Columbia River, the commercialization of salmon and the resulting crush of newcomers initiated a heated debate among Indians over the nature of treaty rights and the question of who possesses them. The Celilo Fish Committee (CFC), established in 1935, provided an intertribal forum through which Indians tried to reconcile indigenous customs with the terms of the treaties and the demands of a changing world. By examining tensions within the CFC during its first decade, this essay illustrates how contested notions of race and indigenous identity shaped the controversy over Northwest Indian fishing rights. What emerges is not a simple tale of Indians versus whites but an intricate history of shifting alliances among an array of competing users. At Celilo Falls, where an ever-growing gauntlet of nets swept the current, fishing rights became tangled in a confusing web of racial, tribal, and residential affiliations.

+ great historic photos of the weirs and platforms contructed for traditional fishing.