From The Daily World
Posted February 17, 2015 - 8:32am
Lake was never given to the tribe
In response to the Quinault Tribe owning Lake Quinault, there needs to be more research done by government entities. I have been researching Native American history for almost 30 years and have been nationally recognized for my research. Thanks to the Internet anyone can access documents pertaining to Lake Quinault and the reservation boundaries. Washington State University early map collections will show you the original agreed-upon allotments and survey from 1911.
Apparently this map was not presented to the court in the 1945 court case along with the agreed-upon survey of the reservation from 1902. The Quinault Reservation was created for the seven fish eating tribes on the Pacific coast, not just the Quinaults. The Executive Order never included water, only land for agriculture. There are court cases that even cite the Quinault Reservation is at the west end of the lake. U.S. attorneys prepared and presented that information in the United States v. Washington case (the Bolt decision). The Bolt decision stated that any fish that escape from the nets into Quinault Lake can be harvested by non-tribal members.
Anyone with a home computer can access these and thousands of other documents for their own research by searching for: Surveys, Executive Orders, Presidential Proclamations, Indian Agent reports to Congress, and the Treaties, Forest Reserve, Forest Service, National Park Service, and the Solicitor General’s Office in Portland.
The Quinault Tribe always states they “own” the lake. No tribe owns the Federal Trust Land they use and occupy, it belongs to the people. The Doctrine of Discovery and Conquest from the 1400’s European Law, and the Discovery Doctrine from which President Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark to claim the Northwest from England in 1804 does not give the indigenous people any ownership rights, only use and occupancy. To the conqueror go the spoils and the conqueror is the ruling government. Prior to Statehood England and the United States owned the Pacific Northwest until their Treaty of 1846. The U.S. Government owned all of the Northwest and still does. The tribes are known as dependent domestic nations of the United States. The government owns the Federal Trust Land that the tribes reside on not the tribe.
The Quinaults cannot own the lake. There is a document that states the Quinaults went to Congress in 1938 asking for the lake and they were refused. Neither the House nor the Senate would bring this issue to the floor due to so much opposition.
Chief Justice Rehnquist stated in a Montana case, “if it wasn’t given in the Treaty then it wasn’t given.” His comment stated that if the Treaty had been brought before the Supreme Court, the court would have read the letter of the treaty.
The U.S. government, the State of Washington and Grays Harbor County seem to have forgotten the rights of their citizens by not researching the Quinault Lake historical documents more thoroughly. There is no document from Congress giving the lake to the Quinaults. The Solicitor General does not have the power or right to give land or a lake in the State of Washington to a tribe. The opinion is only an opinion not law.
I invite everyone to search the Internet for confirmation on their own and then they will believe the written history instead of oral history.
Guy Boudia
Tumwater
- See more at:
http://thedailyworld.com/opinion/letters/lake-was-never-given-tribe#sthash.p2MqLgpL.dpuf