Updated

Updated · The New York Times · Jul 15

Supreme Court Rejects Chinook Nation Recognition Bid, Leaving 400 Tribes Outside Federal System

Updated

Updated · The New York Times · Jul 15

Supreme Court Rejects Chinook Nation Recognition Bid, Leaving 400 Tribes Outside Federal System

Q: Why is a neighboring tribe attempting to block the Chinook Nation’s long fight for federal acknowledgment?

A neighboring tribe, the Quinault Indian Nation, is trying to block the Chinook’s recognition largely because federal acknowledgment could strengthen Chinook claims to fishing rights and control in the same waters the Quinault are seeking to dominate. The dispute is centered on Willapa Bay and the lower Columbia River, areas the Chinook regard as their ancestral territory. The Quinault have been pursuing expanded treaty fishing rights there, including access to valuable salmon and Dungeness crab fisheries. If the Chinook won federal recognition, they would be in a much stronger position to assert their own treaty-based or federally protected rights in those waters, creating a direct conflict with Quinault interests. That is why the fight over recognition is not just symbolic. Federal acknowledgment would give the Chinook a government-to-government relationship with the United States and access to legal, political and economic tools they do not now have. For the Quinault, a recognized Chinook Nation could become a competing sovereign in a region where fishing access, territorial authority and resource management carry major financial and cultural stakes. Reporting and related material indicate the Quinault have opposed Chinook recognition behind the scenes for years. The broader evidence suggests the motive is strategic: keeping the Chinook unrecognized helps prevent them from gaining leverage over fisheries and territory that the Quinault are also claiming.

3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jul 15

The Supreme Court this spring declined to hear the Chinook Indian Nation’s petition for federal recognition, closing off its latest legal route to a formal government-to-government relationship.
Federal recognition would unlock money for health care, education and housing, and in some states gambling rights—benefits Chinook leaders say mean everything even as they reject the idea that Washington defines their identity.
The setback underscores how recognition has become more political than legal or administrative for small tribes that lack the influence of federally recognized Native nations.
The Chinook, based near Bay Center, Washington, are among a handful of Northwest tribes and perhaps 400 Native groups nationwide still outside the federal recognition system.