Subproceedings Map & Synopses

This collection includes information about and synopses of the subproceedings in the tribal treaty and fishing rights case U.S. v. Washington. The case was filed in the Western District of Washington in 1970 as case number 70-cv-9213. Following issuance of the court's initial ruling in February 1974 the court retained jurisdiction to hear related matters as they arose.

In 1985, Deputy Court Clerk Darrah Lalich proposed an “experimental plan” to assign “sub-numbers” to each distinct dispute arising out of the main U.S. v. Washington case in an effort to help manage the “substantial flow” of paperwork. The court adopted the proposal and the case’s subproceedings were born. These subproceedings deal with issues ranging from designating a particular tribe’s Usual and Accustomed fishing regions to the right to harvest off-reservation shellfish to requesting the court to order the state to refrain from constructing and maintaining culverts that degrade the fish habitat.

A map showing a visualization of the subproceedings was created and to date includes 90 subproceedings and sub-subproceedings. Some of the subproceedings have no caption other than "TBD" because although reference was found to their existence, no docket or information about the actual matter covered has been identified. Additional information about the creation of this map is available from the Mapping U.S. v. Washington presentation from the 37th Annual Indian Law Symposium

Synopses of the subproceedings will continue to be added here as they are created. Note that these synopses are NOT generated by the court and is only intended to be a research aid.