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Tribe to test salmon profits with IKSN.Y. Times News ServiceSEATTLE—A test of strength isbuilding between the 3,200-member Lummi Indian Tribe and the Internal Revenue Service over whether the Indian fishermen must pay income taxes on sales of salmon they catch from Puget Sound.While the revenue service takes this as a straightforward proposition, that the Indians have nonexempt taxable income from the salmon fishery, the Indian position is that the fishery is a right granted to them under 19th-century treaties with the United States and that income from it is not taxable.Beyond that, the Lummis say they suspect that the attempt to tax their salmon catch may be a part of a larger plan by the government to establish its right to tax Indian reservations’ natural resources, which now are largely exempt. This would be a first step toward taking control of those resources, said Sam Cagey, 62, secretary of the tribe.“Throughout the years, they have used many devious ways to get what is ours,” said Cagey, referring to non-Indian society. While the Lummis have almost no resource reserves within their 17.000-Senate power not tied to wealthWASHINGTON (AP)-Despite the Senate’s well documented reputation as a millionaire’s club, the senators with the most power arezabeth Dole, is a millionaire based on family wealth.His Democratic counterpart, Senate Minority Leader Robert C.acre reservation near Bellingham, Wash., Cagey said other Indian groups in the West with major holdings of oil, timber and petroleum are concerned with the implications of the tax claims on the salmon fishery in Puget Sound.The Lummis’ salmon fishery income is about $11 million a year, Cagey said. The treaty tribes in thisstate catch about $600 million worth of salmon a year, according to Steve Robinson, spokesman for the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.The conflict with revenue service includes the issue of sovereignty on reservation lands. In two decades Indian control over reservation affairs has grown immensely. This began in the late 1960’s when federal programs established free legal services on reservations alongside Office of Economic Opportunity programs.
Newspaper Details
Fairbanks Daily News Miner
Fairbanks, Alaska, US
Mon, May 19, 1986
Page 11
Full Page
Clipped by
Thomas B.
USA 06 Feb 2020
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