Superfly,
There are sportfishing groups out there that recognize the importance of unity not only among sportsmen but a bond with native americans. The thing is though that this is a long slow process to gain trust. Lets face it there is not much trust between the two groups right now. But you are right it would be a strong group united. There are many conservation groups that are non sport fishing related that work well with the tribes. We as sportsmen hopefully will do the same.
Another interesting concept would be to find away to find some comon territory with the commercials. We all have one thing in comon and that's great numbers of fish along our shores and in our rivers. Commercial fishing will never be as it was in the old days and I think the average guy that commercial fishes knows that even if we ever get healthy runs of salmon back. I think a lot of the problem is the organizations that they are just about forced to belong to such as the gilnetters assoc. I'm not so sure if groups like that really rep the fishermen anymore but it's the only thing they have to cling to in desperate times. I would like to see us work with the commercials if there is a way and I'm sure if we try hard enough we will find away for sportsmen, tribes and commercials to work together against over developement of our watershed and destuction of our habitat. The 3 groups would really be a powerful force together.