Our only remaining source of revenue is
salmon fishing and by the ruthless, unfair
and discriminatory policy of the Depart
ment of Commerce we are now shut out
from equitable participation in that busi
ness, and our wives and children must suf
fer thereby.
We are a ftshmg people; our rood rrom
generation to generation has been the sal
mon that once swarmed in our streams.
Our right to catch salmon in the many bays
and rivers of Alaska was first exercised by
our ancestors. Today our fishing rights are
ignored and we have been ordered out of
the bays where our forefathers fished and
from favorable places for fishing with the
form of fishing gear to which we are ac
customed while the large cannery interests
are permitted to fish unrestrictedly in the
places that are favorable to the use of their
mammoth fishing machines. The salmon
that are not caught by these large machines
are migrating to our fishing grounds but we
are forbidden to take them by the Secretary
of Commerce.
l he Secretary or commerce says that this
unjust policy is in the interest of conserva
tion. We claim that this policy imposes the
entire burden of conservation upon us and
the few independent white fishermen who
use our method of fishing by nets and seines.
The people who are least able to bear the
burden of conservation are compelled to
bear it a!!.
Our race occupies all the coastal territory
of North America from Bering Sea to the
Straits of Juan De Fuca. When Russia
ceded Alaska to the United States an imag
inary dividing line was established on the
North shore of Dixons Entrance, and those
of our people who lived South of that line
went under British sovereignty. Under this
monarchical government of British Colum
bia the common right of fishery has always
been recognized, and under just and equit
able laws the native people of British Co
lumbia have always and do today enjoy
equal fishing privileges with the white resi
dents.