There is so little real documentation of what happened in the 1960s and 1970’s known as the “fish wars” in the Pacific Northwest. Now a new documentary is out that I highly recommend. The Boldt Decision was perhaps one of the most important legal decisions of the 20th century. It re-established Treaty Rights in a totally new way that impacted tribes across the country and influenced indigenous leaders around the world.
The award-winning documentary FISH WAR, tells the story of tribes’ fight to secure their fishing rights — and the monumental Boldt decision that reaffirmed those rights — is available to buy. You can find the feature-length film on Amazon, Vimeo, Google Play, Apple TV+ and Fandango at Home here.
Filed under: Environmental Law, First Nations, Olympic Peninsula | Tagged: boldt decision, Puget Sound, tribes |
Thanks Al. Many people on the Olympic Peninsula and elsewhere in Washington have no idea about the long history of the denial and neglect of Tribal Treaty Rights by Washington State. This film helps to explain the history of the NW Tribes to gain what had been promised to them so many years before.
when my wife and I watched it on YouTube, she was really surprised at first of all how good the film actually was, as she’s not a great fan of documentaries, and also she grew up in Washington and Walla Walla, and really didn’t have any idea about much of this history.
I approached the northwest Indian fisheries and some of the tribes back in 2012 about putting together just such a film. I traveled down to Olympia and talked to a number of people there. They pretty much became clear that they wanted the tribes to be totally in charge of it and they were going to pick a filmmaker or film crew that probably had native ties. The film company that ended up doing the film is out of Wenatchee I believe and they’re really good group of younger filmmakers. I think they did an outstanding job. I don’t think I could’ve done a better job.