Opinion ID: 751395
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Stevens Treaties

Text: 6 The record contains extensive persuasive evidence concerning the Tribes' reliance on fish and shellfish for commercial, subsistence, and ceremonial purposes. Fishing was not much less necessary to the existence of the Indians than the atmosphere they breathed. United States v. Winans, 198 U.S. 371, 381, 25 S.Ct. 662, 664, 49 L.Ed. 1089 (1905). The United States Treaty negotiators, under the leadership of Governor Isaac Stevens, were well aware of the Tribes' use and reliance on a wide variety of fish, including shellfish. The United States' primary purpose [in entering the Treaties] was to extinguish the Indians' title to the lands in Western Washington, thereby clearing the way for settlement by Europeans. United States v. Washington, 873 F.Supp. 1422, 1436 (W.D.Wash.1994) [hereinafter Shellfish I ]. Because of the Tribes' extensive reliance on fish, however, [t]he United States was aware that ... it was clearly necessary to preserve the Indians' fishing rights. Id. Whatever land concessions [the Tribes] made, the Indians viewed a guarantee of permanent fishing rights as an absolute predicate to entering into a treaty with the United States. Id. at 1437. 7 At the time of the Treaties, a shellfish-cultivation industry had begun to develop at Shoalwater Bay in the Washington Territory. The United States treaty negotiators were familiar with the practices of that industry, which was modeled after the larger, older, and more developed shellfish industry on the East Coast of the United States. Id. at 1434. Shellfish farmers created cultivated beds (ones on which shellfish spawn would not naturally set) by removing oysters from their natural beds to areas where they could grow more rapidly, or by placing shells or other material to harden the bottom and thereby facilitate the setting of the oysters. In addition to creating cultivated beds, shellfish farmers frequently staked beds of shellfish by storing market-sized shellfish removed from other beds until they could be shipped to market. These staked beds did not naturally contain shellfish of the type being stored, and their boundaries were marked for identification purposes with stakes extending above the surface of the water at high tide. Id. at 1432-37. 8 Fish, including shellfish, were exceptionally abundant and considered inexhaustible at treaty time. Id. at 1438. Hence, the United States negotiators believed that preserving Indian fishing rights would not interfere with the rights of citizens. The negotiators were aware of the thriving shellfish industry in fully-developed East Coast cities, and likely assumed based on those examples that development in the Puget Sound and on the western shore would not interfere with the Indians' exercise of their treaty fishing rights. Id. 9 In light of the above, the United States negotiated five treaties with Indian Tribes of the Western Washington Territory in 1854 and 1855. 2 Through each of these Treaties, in substantially identical language, the Tribes secured their preexisting right to take fish: 10 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, and of erecting temporary houses for the purpose of curing, together with the privilege of hunting, gathering roots and berries, and pasturing their horses on open and unclaimed lands: Provided, however, That they shall not take shell fish from any beds staked or cultivated by citizens.... 11 Treaty of Medicine Creek, supra, Art. III.