Officials of Washington State claim that, under the police powers granted by ti? Constitution, the State can regulate fishing and hunting regardless of any provisions in the 1855 treaty. At numerous places along the Columbia, Indians have been arrested and jailed for not possessing licences, Where they have demanded jury trials they generally have been turned loose, because the people appear to favour their case.
Many newspapers have urged the State to exempt the Indian tribes from the game and license fees. "It would be the decent thing to do," said the Seattle "Argus,"
One tribe of Indians went on a hunger strike rather than buy licences, and residents in their area went to the State Capitol at Olympia with a petition on their behalf.
The principal Indian fishing ground on the Columbia River is at Celilo Falls, 110 miles upstream from Portland. It is between the two States. Tribesmen at Celilo catch about 5,000 tons of Chinook salmon a year, The commercial value of this haul would be about $400,000, The Indians smoke and dry a large portion of the catch and sell the rest to canneries, railroads The annual haul of the Indians used to amount to more than 9,000 tons. Some of the red fishermen, who catch the salmon with both dip nets and spears, complain that Bonneville and Grand Coulee Dams are cutting down the number of fish in the river. Members of the Yakima tribe have threatened to sue the Federal Government for damages because of the harm they contend the dams have done to the salmon runs,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.