Šu·yu·ł Borderlands: a Transnational Kin Study of Makah-Fish relations of ƛ̓ušu·ʔa· & łułubałid

Abstract

For thousands of years the fishing banks of ƛ̓ušu·ʔa· (Swiftsure) and łułubałid (40 Mile or La Perouse) have sustained the multi-species relationships of Makah peoples, especially with šu·yu·ł (“shoo-yoolth”) or Pacific halibut (Hippoglossus stenolepis). As key subsistence and commercial fisheries, both ƛušu·ʔa· and łułubałid have contributed to Makah food sovereignty, conservation practices, and geo-political connectivity. Despite thousands of years of Indigenous borderland protocols and fishery self-governance, international agreements and laws establishing national marine borders of the U.S. and Canada have displaced Makah peoples from Swiftsure and 40 mile banks. Today, these imperial border formations over-determine the management of marine spaces through mechanisms such as the extension of the international border through exclusive economic zones (EEZs). Since the early 1900s, the Makah Tribe has strategically utilized the court and political system to regain recognition of many of their treaty-reserved fishing rights. However, efforts to regain ƛ̓ušu·ʔa· and łułubałid, have been blocked by the US and Canadian governments by enclosing the banks for exclusive non-native sportfishing uses, conservation, and other practices of settler border enforcement. Informed by critical Indigenous and border studies, this thesis crafts a “kin study” of the human-fish relations, knitting together ethnography, semi-structured interviews, historical archival data, publicly available government reports, policy and law to document the history of Makah efforts to restore access to Pacific halibut fishing and the significance of ƛ̓ušu·ʔa· (Swiftsure) and łułubałid (40 Mile or La Perouse).