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Protecting The Tribal Harvest: The Right To Catch And Consume Fish, Catherine O’Neill

Faculty Articles

This article transcribes a presentation delivered by Professor O’Neill at the EPA-Tribal Leaders Summit, hosted by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, August 21-25, 2006. This article maintains that the call to protect tribal harvests—to ensure healthy and robust fisheries—is at the core of the sovereign compact between the United States and the various Native nations. The United States is, in fact, legally obligated to uphold this compact, manifested prominently in the treaties. The United States and the states are also legally bound to remedy a long history of attempts to assimilate and discriminate against Native peoples and …