BY ANDY WALGAMOTT, NORTHWEST SPORTSMAN MAGAZINE
UPDATED 8:11 P.M., MAY 29, 2026, with comments from Guy Capoeman, QIN president, in the eight and ninth paragraphs
A closed-door meeting today on the Washington Coast to hear about the Quinault Indian Nation’s bid to extend its fisheries to Willapa Bay and the bottom end of the Lower Columbia has ended, but speculation and fears about what it all might mean for recreational, tribal and commercial fishing and crabbing will run rampant in the coming days, months and possibly years.
There’s no way to control that, given the scope of what’s at play, the nature of today’s online world and the sensitive nature of the talks and how they may play out, but WDFW Director Kelly Susewind put out a brief statement after he and members of his staff attended this morning’s “meet and confer” in Taholah, on the Quinault Indian Reservation.
“The meeting was well attended with more than 80 representatives from tribes and state and federal agencies,” said Susewind. “This was preliminary opportunity for us to hear information from the tribe and ask clarifying questions. When and if potential litigation is filed, this will be a multi-year process determined in federal court. We remain committed to transparency with our constituents while fulfilling the responsibilities outlined in US v. Washington.”
“Meet and confer” is a formal term that sprang from that 1974 federal court ruling better known as the Boldt Decision, which split the harvestable catch of salmon and steelhead 50-50 between the state and Western Washington tribes party to the case.
In mid-March, the Quinaults announced to federal, state and tribal parties they would hold such a gathering to make their argument for expanding their usual and accustomed fishing area to include Willapa Bay and its Shoalwater Bay, and the Columbia River up to Oak Point, downstream of Longview, Washington, and Rainier, Oregon, so as “to harvest all species of finfish, shellfish and marine mammals.”
Word about the tribe’s move has been circulating on the downlow the past couple months, but it exploded into public view Thursday with confirmation from WDFW of today’s meeting as well as the release of a four-page letter in which QIN attorneys laid out the tribe’s rationale based on records of historical usage.
They said the Quinaults’ southern treaty fishing boundary has not been adjudicated nor have their treaty rights to those waters been determined in court, and they described today’s meeting as a “compromise settlement negotiation” as part of the meet and confer process.
“This effort is about honoring the promises preserved by our ancestors and ensuring that our history is accurately recognized,” QIN President Guy Capoeman stated in a press release posted on Facebook this evening. “Our people have long understood these waters to be part of the places where Quinault families lived, traveled, and fished. We have a responsibility to protect what was reserved for us and to ensure those rights are preserved for future generations as intended.”
Capoeman called it an “important” and “measured” step, and the release said the nation’s move doesn’t mean any immediate changes to fishery management and that it “remains committed” to government-to-government relationships with tribal, state and federal agencies. Resolution would flow through frameworks created by the Boldt Decision, QIN said.
Initial reaction among several sources I briefly surveyed ranged from probably won’t happen but who knows, to a potentially significant complication for salmon and steelhead management in the Columbia’s estuary, to this is a nuclear bleeping bomb.
Another source worried about a possible domino effect, as the question around the Columbia would inevitably invoke another major fisheries court case, US v. Oregon, which involves five Eastern Washington, Eastern Oregon and Idaho tribes that comanage the river above Bonneville Dam with WDFW, ODFW and IDFG.
Folding in another major player in Columbia fisheries could lead to basin-wide intertribal battles over how the treaty share of upriver fish would be divvied up, suggested one source, who also speculated that the really big prize of an expanded U&A for the Quinaults is the much more lucrative Dungeness crab fishery off Washington’s South Coast.
Online, printable comments on our Facebook post yesterday about this ranged from flat nos, to recriminations about past decisions on Columbia commercial fisheries management and concerns about more nets in an already overtaxed river and bay, to worries WDFW will cave to the Quinaults, to claims it’s all about taking over another tribe’s traditional territory.
For the Chinook Indian Nation, which is based squarely in the fishing grounds in question but not party to Boldt or today’s meet and confer, it indeed has become existential.
“All citizens, tribal and nontribal, of Chinook territory: we stand with you, and we will fight this every step of the way,” the Chinooks posted on social media late last night. “The Quinault Indian Nation has no rightful claim to exercise any fishing and hunting rights in Willapa Bay or on the great Columbia River. This is the Chinook Indian Nation’s homeland. Generations of Chinook fought to remain here with the bones of our ancestors, and we carry that same responsibility and commitment today. We are still here, and we will not allow another nation to usurp our inheritance or speak over our history, identity, and rights in our own homeland.”
The Chinooks, who are currently not recognized by the federal government, also launched a webpage, nativelandcitizenalliance.org, to spread the word and draw support.
Meanwhile, others potentially impacted by the Quinaults’ bold move were far quieter. Requests for comment from spokesmen for the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, which includes the Yakama, Warm Springs, Umatilla and Nez Perce Tribes, and ODFW were not returned.
That did not surprise one of my sources, who suspected everyone would be holding their cards pretty tightly as this fraught situation develops. They also think that if the Quinaults were to establish a U&A in the Lower Columbia, they would possibly have a right to a 50 percent share of the fish headed back to the Willamette and SAFE netpens as well.
Who is to say.
So early on and with so few touch points in all this, it’s easy to go down rabbit holes. A fifth source didn’t want to say anything but still hoped our community would not jump to conclusions.
For more coverage, see the Chinook Observer, whose articles has also been picked up by other Southwest Washington newspapers, including The Daily World of Longview and The Daily Chronicle of Centralia.
