150 



Mr. Faleomavaega. I want to also extend £in invitation to all of 

 you to come to our humble islands in the South Pacific. Now the 

 only problem is that I can't pay for your tickets, but you have an 

 open invitation to come and visit us down there too. 



We might share a few things in common. 



Mr. Frank. Okay. 



We have villages in the northwest that are over 10,000 years old, 

 and we've been managing the resource for many many thousands 

 of years, like your people. 



And our treaties of 1854 and 1855, have been signed, ratified, 

 and been interpreted by the United States Supreme Court in 1979, 

 on our fishing rights, and a lot of principles come out of that as 

 co-managers, along with the State of Washington. 



And very, very important principles were laid out in that deci- 

 sion. 



And we have to come to Congress to get our money. We don't 

 come with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and sit here and ask for 

 our money. We come and ask for money. 



We also try to get money over there. But it does not fit our needs 

 of fiinding. 



We need money to manage. We need infrastructure. We need ca- 

 pability of sitting down with the State of Washington. 



They get federal money. How come we don't get federal money? 

 Money for to meet our needs in our homelands to manage our re- 

 source. And make sure that that resource is going to be there for 

 everybody from now on, the quality of life that we enjoy on our res- 

 ervations and off of our reservations. 



We have a lot of problems from the society now that has moved 

 here, and dumped garbage, poisons, poison in our water, poison in 

 our animals, poison in our salmon. 



We have to start the healing in this country now. And the Indian 

 tribes axe the only ones that can do that, the only ones that can 

 do that. 



The State of Washington for over a hundred years has been man- 

 aging that resource, mismanaging it. And we come to that manage- 

 ment in 1974. The Judge heard the Indian speak, made a decision 

 confirmed by the United States Supreme Court in U.S. vs. Wash- 

 ington, made us co-managers in the Northwest, very unique. 



But the management has to be continually throughout the whole 

 nation. And it has to be recognized by the United States Congress 

 through legislation of government to government, of self-govern- 

 ance, of funding. 



It should be written very simple and very easy to coordinate with 

 the United States. Senate and House legislation is needed in fish 

 and wildlife management, so we don't have to run here every time 

 we turn around to tell you we need more money. 



In the international treaty in the northwest, the salmon treaty, 

 our salmon leave our homeland and travel clean over to Japan and 

 in Russia. All those waters out there, jurisdiction after jurisdiction, 

 clean up in the cold water in Alaska. All over there. 



And then our salmon comes home when it's adult, after seven 

 years. And it comes back to our homeland, right to our rivers, right 

 to our watersheds. 



