Why are questions such as, "Haven't white men done equally bad things in the past?" being asked? No offense to whoever wrote that. This shouldn't be an issue on the past or trying to make up for mistakes 100 years ago. The problem is in the present, and the solution is in the present and the future. The only history that needs to be looked at is the history of overfishing on the westcoast. It's happened from California to Alaska, and still continues today. I understand the importance of heritage and family, but my god! The net stretches all the way across the river and there's another one 20 yards away! That's insane, if I wanted to pass on my love for hunting to my children, I'd take them out and respect the bag limits and hunting seasons that are in effect at the time which we go. I'd do that because wildlife and fishes are a sustainable resource if managed properly. There's no need to go out and shoot 100 deer in order to get a kid hooked on hunting, and I don't understand why there's a need to put gillnets all the way across a river just to show a kid the way his ancestors used to fish and sustain themselves.
It's just completely asinine, people are taking a supreme court ruling from the past and exploiting the hell out of it. It's the same as buying a corvette, just because it can go 100+ miles an hour doesn't mean that it's safe or good for society as a whole to drive it like that. I see these nets as the same thing, just because a tribe is allowed to put nets in a river doesn't mean they have to cut off an entire run of fish. That'd would be like driving your corvette through a preschool and running over kids. You have the tool to do it, but that by NO means is a valid excuse to go and do it. Exactly the same as having the right to fish a river shouldn't be exploited into the right to push an entire run into extinction. Everyone needs to step back and look at the issue from a long term prospective. There are many conflicting view points, some want to teach their children the ways of their ancestors, some want to sell eggs to japan. No society should ever be treated as a whole like this. Some Americans want to bear arms to hunt for birds, other Americans want to bear arms to hold up liqour stores. Checks and balances are key to making any society function properly. The nets just don't have enough laws and regulations to keep them in balance, and they've gotten out of control. In the end, all anyone, native american, white, whatever, will have to look at is a river void of fish. What then? Everybody lost, and those natural runs will never come back. Never.