Washington (State). Dept. of Fisheries. Indian Affairs Office.

The Territorial Legislature first established closed seasons for taking salmon in 1877 and during the same year created the position of Territorial Fish Commissioner to enforce statutory regulations. In 1881 the position was abolished, but was re-established as the office of State Fish Commissioner by the first State Legislature of 1889. In 1889 the Fish Commissioner also became ex-officio State Game Warden. The Administrative Code of 1921 further consolidated the two functions under the Dept. of Fish and Game, which existed until 1933, when it was replaced by the Dept. of Fisheries and the Dept. of Game. The primary mission of the Dept. of Fisheries is to regulate commercial fishing and to conserve food fish. The Department operates numerous salmon hatcheries, licenses commercial fishing and associated activities, undertakes engineering and construction activities, approves hydraulic applications, issues regulations regarding fish and fishing, enforces these regulations through a patrol section, and conducts research projects relative to fish conservation. In 1994 the Dept. of Fisheries was merged with the Dept. of Game to become the Dept. of Fish and Wildlife.

In 1854 and 1855 Isaac I. Stevens, Washington's first territorial governor, negotiated a series of treaties with the Indians which set up Indian reservations and reserved Indians the right to hunt and fish in their usual and accustomed places. At the time it was thought that after a few generations the Indians would be assimilated into the growing white community and that their traditional hunting and fishing economy would disappear. After the 1850s, as the white population grew, the Indians were often forced out of their old fishing grounds, and as fishing became increasingly industrialized, the question of fishing rights for both Indians and whites and the need to conserve the fish runs became a matter of great controversy. In the midst of this difficult situation was the State Department of Fisheries, which attempted to manage the declining fish resources to the benefit of all citizens. The landmark decision of U.S. District Court Judge Boldt finally set guidelines on the allocation of fish between Indians and non-Indians in 1974. The files which are listed here document the policies and activities of the Fisheries Department as it attempted to resolve the problems involved in Indian fishing.

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