486 tJ. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



After protracted discussion the sixth clause of the treaty was made to pro- 

 vide that "the right to take fish at their usual and accustomed fishing grounds, 

 together with the right to erect and maintain racks upon the contiguous upland 

 for curing and drying the same, is hereby forever guaranteed to said Indians." 



There were two of those ancient fisheries on the lower Sound — Point Roberts 

 Reef and Village Point. 



The original reef net of the Indians, as described by the first white settlers and by 

 the Indians themselves, was constructed as foUows: 



The natives peeled the bark from the willow and with it spun a twine and tied a 

 net about 25 feet in wadth and 40 feet in length, with a mesh substantially of the 

 dimensions and shape of that used in the now familiar pound net. 



They then went into the swamps and cut cedar withes. After heating rocks and 

 placing them in pools of water they steamed these withes, after which they twisted 

 them into substantial ropes. 



Their reef net operations were confined to the shoal waters over the reefs. The 

 reef net locations were of great value to the Indians, and were considered as 

 property and handed down from father to son. As a rule the Indian families 

 controlling these locations owned an inner and outer location. The reef at Point 

 Roberts is over 1 mile in length. 



Reef net fishing was confined to the flood tide. At the beginning of the flood 

 the outer location was used; after the middle of the flood the nets were shifted to 

 the inner locations. 



The Indians assembled at the reefs in advance of the salmon run and prepared 

 their appliances. 



They first secured heavy boulders or blocks of sandstone from Chuckanut to be 

 used as anchors. They then procured for each net two logs about the length of 

 their canoes. To each end of these logs thej^ tied one of their ropes, about 100 feet 

 in length, the other end of which was fastened to the stone anchor. These logs 

 were anchored over the top of the reef and about 20 feet apart. From the forward 

 end of these logs there was run out at an angle of 45° other ropes to a distance of 

 50 feet, the outward end fastened to a bouy. To these ropes were fastened 

 stalks of kelp, the ends weighted to the bottom with stones. Thus was con- 

 structed a lead operating to concentrate the approaching school of fish between the 

 logs. Then from the front end of these logs there was dropped forward and to the 

 bottom two ropes; from one of these ropes to the other, at intervals of 2 or 3 feet, 

 were fastened cords of wiUow twine. This appliance was called by the Indians a 

 ladder. 



Now in operating the net itself two canoes were lashed on the inside of the logs. 

 Three Indians occupied one canoe and four the other. The net was then sus- 

 pended between the canoes. The Indians in the forward end of the canoes held 

 the ropes fastened to the bottom of the net; those in the back end held the ropes 

 fastened to the top of the net. The tide running against the net caused it to bag, 

 or purse. The fourth Indian in one of the canoes was generally an elderly man and 

 was called the watcher. He discovered the school of salmon as they were carried 

 into the net and at his signal the Indians at the front of the canoes pulled the lower 

 edge of the net, which was kept within 4 feet of the surface, above the water. The 

 Indians at the middle of the canoe reached down and caught the sides of the net, 

 lifting the sides above the surface. These Indians pulled against each other, the 

 long ropes Vjy which the logs were moored giving enough to allow the canoes to be 

 pulled alongside each other. The fish were then dumped into one of the canoes, 

 after which the net was loosened and lowered, and the boats fell back to their 

 original position again. With these appliances the Indians would take up to 

 3,000 salmon on a single run of the tide. 



This Indian appliance affords not only an interesting illustration of native 

 ingenuity, but as a matter of fact was the forerunner of the pound net. John 

 Waller, a Welshman, was one of the earliest settlers at Point Roberts. He 

 observed the operations of the reef net and in the early 60's constructed at Point 

 Roberts the first pound net ever driven on the Pacific coast. The leads duplicated 

 that of the Indians, while he impounded the salmon by means of the tunnel leading 

 into a web pot, instead of lifting them as impounded. 



The reef net marks the humble Siwash as an inventor of some skill, and as a bene- 

 factor of some importance, and the apparatus would be in use to-day were it not for 

 the large number of people required to operate it. 



At one time this was a favorite device of the Puget Sound natives 

 for catching sockeye sahnon. Owing to the large number of men 

 required to work them, and the fact that they can be worked only 



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