Treaty Justice The Northwest Tribes the Boldt Decision & the Recognition of Fishing Rights

In 1974, Judge George Boldt issued a ruling that affirmed the fishing rights and tribal sovereignty of Native nations in Washington State. The Boldt Decision transformed Indigenous law and resource management across the United States and beyond. Like Brown v. Board of Education, the case also brought about far-reaching societal changes, reinforcing tribal sovereignty and remedying decades of injustice.

Eminent legal historian and tribal advocate Charles Wilkinson tells the dramatic story of the Boldt Decision against the backdrop of salmon’s central place in the cultures and economies of the Pacific Northwest. In the 1960s, Native people reasserted their fishing rights as delineated in nineteenth-century treaties. In response, state officials worked with non-Indian commercial and sport fishing interests to forcefully—and often violently—oppose Native actions. These “fish wars” spurred twenty tribes and the US government to file suit in federal court. Moved by the testimony of tribal leaders and other experts, Boldt pointedly waited until Lincoln’s birthday to hand down a decision recognizing the tribes’ right to half of the state’s fish. The case’s long aftermath led from the Supreme Court’s affirmation of Boldt’s opinion to collaborative management of the harvest of salmon and other marine resources.

Expert and compelling, Treaty Justice weaves personalities and local detail into the definitive account of one of the twentieth century’s most important civil rights cases.

"The first comprehensive, book-length account of all that led up to the landmark 1974 case, United States v. Washington, commonly known as "the Boldt Decision". . . There is probably no author better suited to recount this history than [Charles] Wilkinson." -High Country News

"In time for the 50th anniversary of the landmark Boldt Decision, Wilkinson unlocks a unique view into the players and actions behind the fight for civil rights for tribes in the Pacific Northwest and the lasting significance of the decision which set a new legal precedent for the relationship between tribes, the federal government, and the states." -Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard

"Charles Wilkinson not only aptly provides the larger historical context for what is arguably one of the most important court decisions of the twentieth century regarding rights but, more importantly, also conveys the human element. . . This is a book that can easily be used in a college classroom, demonstrating a case study of how legal decisions are made and why they matter. But it has real-world applications outside of academia for tribal governments, for environmentalists, and for anyone interested in the interplay between culture and treaty rights." -H-Net Reviews

Charles Wilkinson is the Moses Lasky Professor of Law Emeritus at the University of Colorado. His fourteen books on law, history, and society in the American West include the standard law casebooks on Indian Law and Federal Public Land Law; The Eagle Bird: Mapping A New West (Pantheon Books, 1992); Fire on the Plateau: Conquest and Endurance in the American Southwest (Island Press, 1999); Messages from Frank’s Landing: A Story of Salmon, Treaties, and the Indian Way (University of Washington Press, 2000); Blood Struggle: The Rise of Modern Indian Nations (W.W. Norton & Co., 2005); and The People Are Dancing Again: The History of the Siletz Tribe of Western Oregon (University of Washington Press, 2010).