BY ANDY WALGAMOTT, NORTHWEST SPORTSMAN MAGAZINE
A federal judge in Seattle yesterday denied the Quinault Indian Nation’s motion to reconsider their request to begin proceedings to include the Lower Columbia and Willapa Bay as part of their usual and accustomed fishing grounds.
The Quinaults claimed that US District Court Judge Ricardo S. Martinez had “committed a manifest error of law or fact” in his quick dismissal of their original motion last week, saying it had been underlain by a “mistaken understanding of the court’s role” under US v. Washington, aka the Boldt Decision, and that the subproceedings he cited hadn’t actually adjudicated their southern fishing boundary.
They argued those subproceedings had actually been filed by the Makah Indian Tribe, and that it was meant to address the Quileute Tribe and QIN’s western boundary but not the latter’s southern boundary. They said that the line Martinez referred to in his ruling connecting southwest and southeast points on a map “was simply used to close a polygon created by the western boundary.”
In his Tuesday ruling on reconsideration, however, Martinez dismissed the Quinaults’ procedural and jurisdictional claims, and he said that they had not demonstrated incorrect facts or legal conclusions from the subproceedings.
“At no point does the Court misquote itself. The scope of subproceeding 09-01 is clear, even if it exists beyond the original issue presented by the tribe that initiated it,” wrote Martinez, who added that the rest of the Quinaults’ claims “run up against the doctrine of issue preclusion.”
He explained that the doctrine is meant to prevent “successive litigation” of something already resolved in court. As an example, he noted that the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe’s U&A had been established in subproceedings initiated by the Puyallup Tribe and that MIT couldn’t relitigate that.
“The same ruling would apply here if leave were granted. The Court is unconvinced that the southern boundary [of QIN fishing grounds] was not actually litigated and resolved, and it was essential to the prior judgment. All of this is clear from the record,” Martinez stated before denying the motion for reconsideration.
In the wake of Tuesday’s ruling, Quinault officials vowed continued legal challenges, as well as blasted another tribal leader based near the Lower Columbia and Willapa Bay.
A letter posted on social media this afternoon by the Desk of the Quinault President and addressed to Chinook Council Chairman Anthony Johnson Jr. lashes out at the federally unrecognized tribe for “misrepresentations” about QIN efforts to access what they say are fishing grounds historically visited by their fishermen.
“Your misleading words and actions may have irreparably harmed an opportunity for our communities to come together and establish a path forward for a federally recognized Chinook Nation. Until you recant these false claims against tribal treaty rights, publicly support Quinault Indian Nation’s lawful right to adjudicate our Southern Fishing Boundary under United States v. Washington, and adopt a recognition framework removing any legal ramifications lending itself to reopening previously failed treaty making and harming the Quinault Indian Nation, the Quinault Indian Nation will oppose your attempt for federal recognition,” stated the three-page letter from the Quinault Indian Nation Business Committee.
“Regardless, the Quinault Indian Nation will continue to fiercely pursue the recognition of our southern usual and accustomed territories, and we will exhaust every legal avenue availed to us until we prevail,” it added.
The letter was cc’ed to members of Washington’s congressional delegation and Governor Bob Ferguson.
A QIN U&A at the mouth of the Columbia and what it would mean for salmon and steelhead fisheries would inevitably involve US v. Oregon, involving said state, Washington, five Columbia Basin tribes and others.
