How did the petition for recognition begin?

We were fighting for fishing rights and we naïvely believed that we were going to get recognized and get our fishing rights given back. That was the whole point of us getting into this process.

I became involved in 1975, when I was elected chair. You didn't know what you were supposed to be doing, but I was bright enough to say 'Let's just ask the tribal members' we came back with a survey and sent it to all of the tribal members we could get a hold of, on top of the list was acknowledgment and recognition. The idea was we would get all of our rights returned to us from the treaties to include fishing rights, land rights, a land base or reservation – and a bucket of gold in the rainbow.

How does it feel to have gone through all of this?

It is disgusting to me. I always say now when I go around speaking, and I have done this for about 35 years for the tribe, I just don't understand why any Native American tribe has to prove who they are. If you know anything about this country, we have invited everybody to come in here – but are they standing at the line having to prove who they are?