In Common With: The Fish Wars, the Boldt Decision, and the Fight to Save Salmon in the Pacific Northwest

In the 1960s and '70s, the waters of Washington State boiled with conflict. Because of state actions and policies, Washington Tribes had long been denied their fair share of the salmon harvest granted by treaties adopted by the US government and the Tribes in 1854. Tribal members staged "fish-ins" and other demonstrations, and ultimately pursued a federal lawsuit against the state. Decided in 1974 by US district court judge George H. Boldt, the landmark ruling gave Tribes an equal share of fish, meaning yields for non-Native fishermen plummeted. As a result, many non-Native commercial fishing businesses closed, and chaos and legal disputes continued into the 1980s. All the while, the number of salmon available for harvest steadily declined. During this post-Boldt period, a group of Tribal and government leaders collectively decided change was sorely needed. Through collaboration, they forged major, seemingly unattainable agreements to cooperatively manage fisheries, all while protecti