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168the politics of salmonAccording to a report by the nwifc, a pattern had developed tocontrol allocation and put more salmon in the hands of non-Indians:“The State would announce a predicted run size for an expected runof fish and establish the number representing one-half of the harvestablefish which would be the entitlement of the non-Indianfishermen under the formula of U.S. v. Washington. But again andagain, after the season had commenced and non-Indian fishermenhad taken the number of fish assigned to them under that formula,the State would announce that its earlier predictions had been toooptimistic—that there were not enough fish left for the Indians toachieve their share.”When the United States Commission on Civil Rights met in Seattlein October 1977, tension was palpable. For hours it heard testimonyon the fishing rights struggle and Native problems with white society.“There’s a new breed of people that wants to run us out of thecountry,” charged Forest Kinley, a Lummi Indian.“[Whites] talk about the Panama Treaty and these other treatiesall over the world,” Billy said in exasperation. “They don’t know thatin their backyard there’s a treaty right there that’s being violated. . . .Your neighbor right down there is an Indian. He’s got a treaty andhe’s a human being.”Among the first to testify was Slade Gorton. “Why are wehere? Why are you here?” Gorton demanded. The Commission neverbothered to include a single representative from the non-Indiancommercial or sports fishing industry, Gorton pointed out. In itsattempt to improve the lives of Native Americans, Gorton says, thestate was simply “substituting one form of discrimination for another.”In his own testimony before the Commission, Billy was outspokenand direct. He characterized the evolving proposed fisheries settlementas a document that “isn’t worth the powder to blow it to hell.And that’s really my feeling about it.” “One of the things in that lastreport of the task force—and all it is is a political document—is thatit takes our enforcement,” Billy continued. “It takes away our