Timeline

Food in abundance—clams, oysters, mussels, crab, whale, steelhead trout, salmon, halibut, smelt, candlefish, camas root, berries, native vegetables, hops, deer, elk, bear, mountain goat, etc. Diverse harvesting and food preservation technologies: i.e. spear fishing, gill netting, weir fishing, reef-netting, whaling, jacklighting. Complex regional trade system: “Because the food and other trade items were so plentiful, people had to become specialists in order to produce goods for trade. One could not simply smoke salmon because everyone did. Rather, the different villages had to develop specialty items that would be coveted by other tribes in order to participate in the trade.” – Vine Deloria, Jr.

Smallpox plague sweeps through Puget Sound. Disease strikes twice more by 1850, reducing native populations by nearly 80%

“I was received at my landing by an old chief who conducted me with Mr. Smith [another officer] to his house; seated us by a good fire; offered us to eat and drink of the best the house afforded; which was dried fish of various sorts, roasted clams and mussels. Water was our drink, handed in a wooden box with a large sea clam shell to drink out of; the chief’s son attended me, opened my clams, roasted my fish, and did various other kinds of offices in which he was pleased to engage. After this entertainment we were greeted with two songs, in which was frequently repeated words, ‘Wakush Tiyee a winna’ or ‘Welcome traveling chief.’” – John Hoskins, Officer on the Gray expedition

Unfortunately, while the chief was busy entertaining the officers of the ship, a crewman killed a tribesman and the then ship fled the area.

Islands, straits and mountains are given the names they are currently known by.

Fur trade increases in the region.

Citizens of either country could settle in what was then known as the 'Oregon Territory'.

He establishes a mission in the Willamette Valley near the Oregon coast.

Tribes brace for onslaught of new immigrants.

Governor Isaac Stevens insists on using an old Chinook trade jargon to explain the provisions of treaties. The jargon consisted of fewer than 300 words, including Indian words, some English, and some French. “I could talk the Indian languages, but Stevens did not seem to want anyone to interpret in their own tongue, and had that done in Chinook. Of course it was utterly impossible to explain the treaties to them in Chinook. Stevens wanted me to go into the war but I wouldn’t do it. I know it was his bad management that brought on the war, and I wouldn’t raise a gun against those people who had always been so kind to us when we were weak and needy.” – Owen Bush, treaty session attendee

“Governor Stevens was intoxicated and unfit for transacting business while making these treaties” – Ezra Meeker, Author

Unlawful land grabs result in the displacement of several Native villages by squatters.

Conflicts ensue over the next three years, in which Stevens encourages the fight against the Indians by organizing “volunteer” companies which were groups of bandits that raided tribal villages.

Such policies were meant to ensure the acceptance of white ways by the Indians. “The land on the Tulalip, Madison, and Swinomish is of such a poor quality that it affords but little encouragement to the Indians to follow farming as a business, for with the exception of a few small sails or marshes it is high and gravelly, and thickly covered with a dense growth of fir, cedars, and spruce. It requires an immense amount of labor to clear a few acres and even when in a fit condition for planting the yield is so small that it is truly discouraging, and would tax the continuity of a more industrious and determined people.”— From an annual report by the Indian agent at Tulalip (1879)

By the mid 1880s nearly every reservation has its own council, police force, and a system of tribal courts.

Washington is admitted as a state. Immediate questions of jurisdiction over tribal lands and resources are raised between the state and federal government.

In a case brought against a Makah Whaler, Judge Hanford makes a ruling reversing the provision of treaty rights which have been upheld for over 40 years.

He uses the same arguments used in deciding the Makah case.

Judge Hanford is given the case and rules against the provisions of treaty rights for the third time in five years.

“From 1905 on, Indians would be in court almost continuously trying to defend their fishing rights against the intrusions of white fishermen.” – Vine Deloria, Jr., Author

Lummi wins the case, but the outraged commissioner announces that he will continue to arrest Lummi fishermen. Lummi instructs their lawyer to seek a permanent injunction against the state fish commissioner, to forbid continued arrests. He escaped the injunction and persisted in the harassment of Lummi Fishers.

Word reaches the Oval Office. The president, wishing to avoid international conflict instructs that the state fish commissioner cease harassment of Lummi fishers, but antagonism resumes in decades to follow.

The suit was filed when outraged tribes banded together against the federal government for failure to fulfill treaty requirements, mainly in regard to fishing rights which were being denied while the fish harvesting practices of non-natives went unchecked. “At the headwaters of a short creek emptying into the Puyallup river, which in turn in a few miles poured its accumulated water into the tide water of the Puget Sound, I have seen the salmon so numerous on the shoal water of the channel as to literally touch each other. It was utterly impossible to wade across without touching the fish. At certain seasons I have sent my team accompanied by two armed met with pitchforks, to load up from the riffle for fertilizing the hop fields.” – Puyallup Valley Farmer (non-tribal)

But due to the cost of equipment, many Indians are unable to compete in the lucrative deep water fishery, and many return to their canoes and nets along the rivers, harvesting fish for their tables.

Tension among non-treaty commercial fishermen rise as fish stocks dwindle. Tribal poachers are tried in the media as the culprits responsible for disappearing salmon. The practice of fish and game wardens arresting treaty fishermen resumes. The cases are overturned in federal court, and the state devises a strategy to stop Indian fishing by confiscating nets and boats, upon arrest. By the time the case goes through the state courts, and is finally overturned by the federal courts, fishing season is over. Concurrent with these activities, non-tribal commercial fishermen begin the practice of shooting resident orcas, who they also see as competition for their profits.

They carried signs that read “No salmon – No santa.” After hearing their complaints Governor Rosellini, dismissed them, saying, “Nice to hear your problems. Come back again.”

Marlon Brando joins the cause. A Nisqually fisher and Brando paddle out into the center of the river and lower a net in plain sight of a fish warden. Brando is let go on a technicality in order to not draw attention to the case.

"4,500 non-Indian commercial fishermen take an estimated 80% of the salmon in the sound before the runs return to the rivers where the Indians fish." These numbers cause a shift in public opinion.

More than 600 officers participate in a bust in which several Indians are badly beaten. A bystander captures several photographs, and airs them for a full half-hour on the Dick Cavett Show. Public outcry urges the Nixon administration to file a lawsuit to protect the treaty fishing rights. The state attorney takes the case after being gassed at a tribal encampment during a fish-in.

The sportsman called out, “This will teach you damn Indians,” upon firing the gun. Hank survived, but was briefly accused of shooting himself and asked to take a lie detector test. When he requested that outside witnesses be present to hear the results the request was relinquished.

In 1974 the total harvested by treaty fishers was only 12%, while state departments deliberately oversold the number of licenses increasing purse-seine licenses by 32% and gil-net licenses by 53%.

In retaliation against the Boldt decision several treaty fishers are targets of aggression and intimidation from non-treaty commercial fishers. Tribal students experience increased violence and mistreatment in public schools.

The grant application cited, “What is occurring is more than an economic dislocation. It is also part of a cultural dislocation that began over 150 years ago. In 2002 it is finally possible to foresee a Lummi Nation where a majority of its members are not involved in fishing for their basic livelihood. This means both economic and cultural changes that have been effectively resisted for nearly 200 years must finally be addressed…”

The order is upheld in the Ninth Circuit in 2016, and the ruling is affirmed by the Supreme Court in 2018.

Lummi challenges his claim and the courts rule in Lummi’s favor.

Again, the ruling is made in Lummi’s favor, referring to the presidential order that established the reservation and gave the shoreline to the tribe, and not the individual.

Boynton argued that the shifting shoreline had given him a section of beach because the water had intruded on his property lines. The court again ruled in Lummi’s favor.

Lummi rejects the plan and proposes an aquaculture, with use of their tidelands as shellfish beds.

At present it produces 100 million seed oysters a year.