Fifty years on, a case to uphold Indigenous rights resonates in the US
Al Jazeera
The 1974 Boldt decision was the culmination of the ‘fish wars’, which saw Indigenous leaders fight for fishing rights.
First, she heard a ping, then the sound of something hitting her boat.
It was 1975, and Norma Cagey, only 18 years old at the time, was alone with her husband on the calm waters of the Hood Canal, a tree-lined fjord in Washington state.
A member of the Skokomish Indigenous nation, Cagey was using nets to catch Coho salmon when a series of strange noises interrupted the tranquil: whirs, pings and thuds. That’s when the couple realised they were being shot at.
Cagey’s husband quickly turned on the boat motor, and the pair sped off. But the memory lingers with Cagey to this day.
“We were scared. It took a few days for us to get back out there. We needed the money,” Cagey told Al Jazeera.
