BillyBob,

Generally tribes have the exclusive right to harvest fish ON-reservation, free of state regulation. This is quite different from the Boldt decision allocations, which only deal with OFF-reservation fishing in U&A areas.

An example of this would be the Quinault tribe fishing on the Quinault River. They have a right to 50% of the harvestable portion of the fish that travel through their reservation to the upper river, in addition to the exclusive right to fish which travel only within their reservation. This includes all the Cook Creek fish, and all the fish that spawn in the reservation portions of the Queets, Quinault, and the Salmon Rivers.

A few years back sportfishers were "yahooing" over the Chehalis tribe's failure to achieve Boldt status...but it wasn't really good or bad for us. They get to harvest their fish out of the Chehalis, and their share, being non-treaty, comes out of our share. Had they been recognized as a treaty tribe, they still would have that right, plus the right to partake in the treaty tribes' share off their reservation.

In the long run, this case doesn't make any difference for how many fish non-treaty sportfishermen get to catch or not.

Fish on...

Todd.