Mr. Hohwaiian: To you & any other person I may have unwittingly offended by my attempt at humor with my original post, I sincerely appologize! I honestly did not think of Native American sensativity when making a funny take on Oly.Pen river names. Please forgive my oversight. Hey, I'm a party animal myself.- Also, I did not expect to ignite the flames of fishing controversy & even some seeming Indian/Caucation tention over historic matters, on this board. I certainly empathize with the plight of minorities in this country. I also understand the frustrations of Steel.69 about some minority individual's mentality that "you owe us". His take on the history of the conquerers & the conquered are credible. This continent's Native American history is fraught with instigated wars between tribes over land aquisition. I don't recall ever reading about any conquering tribe helping the conquered tribe rebound- and giving them rights to 50% of the buffalo. This makes Solleks question of "who was here first" somewhat hypocritical in that the answer could be the Indian conquered & removed tribes were there first (if the Oly. Pen tribes were an exception, please forgive my insinuation). However, I will NOT judge you by the actions of your ancestors. Please do not judge me by the ignorant actions of my ancestors. The same principal applies to African Americans. The individuals that deserve real respect in this country are the oppressed among the majority & the oppressed among the minorities that rise above the ignorance of blame & baseless hate to do very well in this country. They have my admiration. A cliche' that has total credence is: judge a person as an individual, & by his words & deeds, rather than by his racial ancestory. The reality is that there is always going to be some unfairness for all people groups in any country. Rise above it rather than lay blame on intrinsic human nature.- We must strive to compromise on fishing & all issues. While I do not agree with the Judge Boldt decision to alot 50% of harvestable fish (which I believe should be reduced significantly) for the Olympic Indians, I must also say that Native Americans had for centuries taken better care of the land & it's fish than the white people ever have! - Steve

[This message has been edited by Backbouncer1 (edited 03-03-2000).]