For the U.S. government, the Treaty of Medicine Creek is an important historical document with ongoing legal authority. It’s carefully stored within feet of the U.S. Constitution at the National Archives in Washington D.C.
For Washington tribes, the treaty is a sacred artifact so important that a blessing ceremony was conducted upon its temporary return to Tacoma this month for an exhibit at the Washington State History Museum.
The treaty, signed during a three-day encampment under a towering tree at the Nisqually River Delta in 1854, guaranteed fishing rights to tribal signees. It, in turn, set the stage for a landmark judicial ruling 120 years later that recognized tribal sovereignty and guaranteed half of the state’s salmon catch to tribes.
The treaty is on loan to the museum through July 8. A companion show on that 1974 ruling, “Usual and Accustomed Grounds: The Boldt Decision at 50,” illustrates the 170-year history of native fishing rights in Washington. For the tribes, those rights go back to the beginning of time.