Excellent article. Small clarification: David was represented in federal court in LA by Federal Public Defender Tom Hillier, where he was convicted of selling 317 salmon and found not guilty of leading the massive “Salmonscam” that implicated dozens of tribal fishers, over three seasons in 1981 and 1982. I represented him in the Yakama Tribal Court retrial dubbed “Tradition on Trial” that was the longest criminal trial in court history in which the true jury of his peers found him not guilty based on entrapment with a special finding that the regulations sought to be imposed on him had interfered with the free exercise of his traditional religion. Somewhere, Smohalla was smiling!
I really liked your juxtraposition of 'we are the salmon people' against 'we are the coal people' etc etc. It shows which way of life is connected to life on earth.
Thanks Patrick, for this interesting story of a man and a court case I knew nothing about. Unfortunately, blaming the natives is a common historical narrative. As for what enduring sustenance we can call out, when our civilization is exhausting the very roots of sustenance? "We are the algorithm" doesn't quite measure up to "we are the salmon."
I know this is a response to my CounterPunch article published today. I will be publishing it here as well. So perhaps that might be the better place to post this comment, since most people won’t realize the connection. Please consider deleting this and posting it to that article.
Excellent article. Small clarification: David was represented in federal court in LA by Federal Public Defender Tom Hillier, where he was convicted of selling 317 salmon and found not guilty of leading the massive “Salmonscam” that implicated dozens of tribal fishers, over three seasons in 1981 and 1982. I represented him in the Yakama Tribal Court retrial dubbed “Tradition on Trial” that was the longest criminal trial in court history in which the true jury of his peers found him not guilty based on entrapment with a special finding that the regulations sought to be imposed on him had interfered with the free exercise of his traditional religion. Somewhere, Smohalla was smiling!
Thanks. Will make that addition.
I really liked your juxtraposition of 'we are the salmon people' against 'we are the coal people' etc etc. It shows which way of life is connected to life on earth.
Thanks Patrick, for this interesting story of a man and a court case I knew nothing about. Unfortunately, blaming the natives is a common historical narrative. As for what enduring sustenance we can call out, when our civilization is exhausting the very roots of sustenance? "We are the algorithm" doesn't quite measure up to "we are the salmon."
I know this is a response to my CounterPunch article published today. I will be publishing it here as well. So perhaps that might be the better place to post this comment, since most people won’t realize the connection. Please consider deleting this and posting it to that article.