United States v. Washington (Boldt decision)

What happened

In September 1970 the United States, on its own behalf and as trustee for several western Washington Indian tribes, sued the State of Washington. More tribes later joined as plaintiffs. The State Department of Fisheries, the State Game Commission and the Washington Reef Net Owners Association were added as defendants. The tribes asked for a declaration of their off-reservation treaty fishing rights in the area west of the Cascade Mountains and north of the Columbia River drainage, including Puget Sound and the Olympic Peninsula.

The treaties, signed in the 1850s, each contained wording substantially identical to the Treaty of Medicine Creek: "The right of taking fish, at all usual and accustomed grounds and stations, is further secured to said Indians, in common with all citizens of the territory." The case went to trial on August 27, 1973, with nearly 50 witnesses.

Judge George Boldt ruled that "in common with" means "sharing equally the opportunity to take fish at 'usual and accustomed grounds and stations'." Non-treaty fishermen, he wrote, "shall have the opportunity to take up to 50% of the harvestable number of fish," and treaty fishermen "shall have the opportunity to take up to the same percentage."

He also wrote that off-reservation fishing by other citizens is "not a right but merely a privilege," and that the tribes cannot rescind the agreement or limit non-Indian fishing under it. The opinion recognized that "precise mathematical equality must give way to more practical means of determining and allocating the harvestable resource."

Summarized with AI assistance from 3 sources and checked against their words; not yet reviewed by historians or by the nations. Report an error