Salmon

Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission

Four sovereign Columbia Basin treaty tribes created CRITFC to pool fisheries science, policy, enforcement, restoration, and fisher services under one-tribe-one-vote unanimity while expressly preserving every member tribe's powers. The design turns reserved fishing rights into operating capacity without making the commission a government above the tribes, but its results remain bounded by depleted fish runs, federal infrastructure, overlapping jurisdictions, and unequal conditions at treaty fishing sites.

How can sovereign tribes pool enough scientific and political capacity to make reserved fishing rights real while keeping each tribe's authority and the fish populations themselves intact?