Dan M--

The indians have been catching salmon for a REALLY long time, true. But up until the last 50 years they did it with spears, canoes made of hollowed out trees, dip nets, and yes, nets(made out of woven bark) that they put out fairly close to shore. Now, indians have boats made by Alumaweld, nets made of monofilament, and cases upon cases of beer. Their nets are hundreds of yards long, and placed in the river just hundreds of feet apart for miles(at least on the lower Columbia). Tradition? MY ASS!! Subsistence? WHAT A JOKE!! If indians want to continue to rape the resource in this manner, fine. But, call a spade a spade. The excuses they use for what they do are a joke. At least hold a press conference for all the media to see, and admit the real reasons they do what they do. Indians use to catch lots of fish and smoke it to feed their families thru the winter. Now, they catch thousands of fish(salmon and steelhead), gut them for their eggs(because they get a great price for them), and leave the carcasses in huge piles along the river. They sell them for 2 bucks a pound along every major highway, for what? Give me a break! Indians should have the right to do what they have done for thousands of years, I agree. What indians do now is not what they did for thousands of years. I'm sure many a tribal elder from hundreds of years ago have rolled over and over in their sacred burial ground watching what today's indians do. So don't defend today's indian by saying it is their right from the past.