I find myself reaching for something in the past that would help me put things into perspective, regarding Indian fishing and the Boldt Decision.

Forty years ago, the Boldt Decision became one of the most sweeping documents of cultural, social and economic reform among the Indian nations of the Northwest.

The act itself fostered rights to self-government and protection of those rights. It also transformed sovereignty into new forms of interaction between state and tribal officials. The rights of Indian people were first determined as aboriginal rights.

Federal Judge George Boldt ruled that Indian tribes had the right to regulate the fishing of the members, independent of state laws and regulations, because of said aboriginal rights.

This decision also elevated the legal status of the treaty and gave concrete evidence that the Indian nations could preserve their Indian treaty rights to fish.

Article I of the Treaty of 1855 stipulates the exclusive right of taking fish in the streams running through and bordering said reservation is hereby secured to said Indians, and at all other usual and accustomed stations in common with citizens of the United States. It further enforced co-management of the state and tribes fishing resources off the reservation.

The state(s) have an obligation to protect the harvest and habitat of the fish; this will ensure the rights of tribes to fish in perpetuity.