In and out of the Labor Force: The Lummi Indians and the Development of the Commercial Salmon Fishery of North Puget Sound, 1880-1900

Abstract

During the developmental phase of the commercial salmon fishery of Puget Sound the Lummi Indians were an important segment of the labor force, both as producers and processors. As the industry developed, however, the Lummi found themselves pushed aside. An attempt is made here to understand how this occurred. Dependency theory is used to discuss the Lummi in their capacity as an internal colony, politically and economically dependent on the dominant society. In i855 the Lummi were party to the Point Elliott Treaty with the United States federal government. Prior to and immediately after treaty negotiations, the Lummi were engaged in a traditional fishery that adequately met their subsistence needs. The traditional Lummi fishery persisted into the i88os despite attempts by the federal government to force the Lummi to become agriculturalists. In the early era of the commercial fishery, they were producing not only enough for their sustenance but a surplus for market. This article will examine the federal policies and economic relationships that affected Lummi use of the salmon resource during the late nineteenth century. It will be demonstrated that the change of patterns in the Lummi use of the resource and the concomitant changes in Lummi society can be seen as the direct result of the domination of the Lummi by the larger Euroamerican society. The Lummi are one of several groups speaking a Coast Salish language who lived on north Puget Sound1 and the Strait of Georgia on the Northwest Coast of North America. Suttles (195ia: 6) has referred to the speakers of the language as Salish, and that term has become conventional. Besides the Lummi, who resided on the San Juan Islands and adjacent mainland, the Straits Salish include the Semiahmoo, in the Boundary Bay, Drayton Harbor, Birch Bay area; the Saanich, on Ethnohistory 35:z (Spring I988). Copyright ? by the American Society for Ethnohistory. ccc 00I4-i8o /88/$ .50. This content downloaded from 207.46.13.111 on Tue, 09 Aug 2016 04:19:28 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms