ABSTRACT
Before describing how the Nisga’a coped with the colonial system, a description of their success in fisheries shows how resilient they were. In 1992, as they worked negotiating a modern treaty, the Nisga’a Tribal Council established a fisheries program. They found outside funding and cooperation from the governments with whom they were nearing an agreement. This meant that, after more than a century of trying to obtain recognition for their importance in the Nass valley, the Nisga’a had obtained a foothold in formal management of the fishery that they had used for millennia. Early work in the fisheries program quickly showed that the Nisga’a intended to contribute to understanding the resource itself, beginning with accurate measurement of the numbers of fish returning to spawn.
