And to any person that would sincerely believe in the "religeous significance" of the salmon to the tribes in all of this I would say..... "Have you ever watched them harvest salmon?"
I guess tossing a salmon 20 feet to bounce on the rocks and then be tossed into the back of a pickup could be confused with ritualistic worship. Maybe I am confused here....
I have known A FEW indians in my life that really did see the salmon as a religeous icon, but they only fished for subsitance (no gillnetting) and probably took no more salmon a year than I do..... I enjoyed participating in those "feasts" and also the rest of the religeous acts that went along with it.
Cultural practices are a beautiful thing, whether it is "The return of the Salmon celebration", Cinco de Mayo", or "Independence Day"..... Abusing a resource and taking advantage under the auspice of "Culture" is a crock of BS and needs to end.

MC