Court Backs Tribes’ Right to Shellfish

In a victory for Washington tribes, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday affirmed their right to harvest shellfish on private beaches. The decision stunned private property owners.

The court rejected without comment an appeal of a lower-court ruling that upheld the tribes’ shellfish rights. State officials, shellfish growers and private property owners had challenged the decision, contending that Indians’ 19th-century treaties give them no legal claim to shellfish on private property.

“Once again, the Supreme Court has made it clear that the tribes’ treaty-reserved rights to natural resources in western Washington are as valid today as the day the treaties were signed,” said Billy Frank Jr., chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

“We’re just stunned that this could happen in America, that our property rights and our privacy rights could be trampled,” said Barbara Lindsay, a spokeswoman for United Property Owners of Washington, most of whom own shellfish-bearing beach lands in the Puget Sound region.

“No tribes anywhere else in America have a treaty right to enter private property as they do here,” said Lindsay, one of thousands of property owners affected by the ruling.