Setting the scene
The Tsimshian community of Metlakatla built a new home on the Annette Islands in Southeast Alaska and turned salmon into sustenance, wages, and civic life. Law eventually had to catch up with geography. In 1918, the United States Supreme Court recognized that the Annette Islands Reserve included not only uplands but also essential surrounding waters. That recognition made a singular place in the American West: a reservation at sea.
From Metlakahtla to Metlakatla, 1887–1891
Tsimshian families moved from British Columbia to the Annette Islands in 1887 with federal encouragement. The community quickly organized a town site, church, school, and small industries, including a cannery. Congress responded on March 3, 1891, by setting the islands aside as a federal reservation for the Metlakatla people and other Alaska Natives who might join them, under rules of the Secretary of the Interior. That unusual delegation of regulatory power framed everything that followed.
Fish traps and a 3,000‑foot belt, 1915–1916
By 1915 Interior Department regulations recognized a local council and permitted salmon traps to supply a community cannery. Competition soon arrived. In 1916, after a private company began building a trap near the islands, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed a 3,000‑foot belt of surrounding waters as part of the reserve to protect Metlakatla’s fishery for the cannery. The proclamation underscored that fish were the town’s lifeline.
The 1918 decision
Two years later, the Supreme Court decided Alaska Pacific Fisheries v. United States (1918). The justices held that Congress intended the reservation to include adjacent waters and submerged lands because fishing was indispensable to the community’s survival and development. The ruling affirmed Metlakatla’s authority to exclude non‑members from those waters. It also clarified that the 1891 statute’s grant of regulatory power to Interior extended to the sea, not only the shore.
Myth and record
Many readers assume “reservation” means land alone. The Annette Islands show that Congress and the courts sometimes recognized waters as integral to a reservation when a people’s sustenance required it. That logic connects to other fisheries cases in the West; for a mainland counterpart on treaty fishing rights, see our post on Winans (1905): Yakama treaty rights vs. fish wheels.
What makes Annette unique
- Congress created the reserve in 1891 and empowered the Interior Secretary to regulate the community uniquely.
- President Wilson’s 1916 proclamation added a 3,000‑foot belt of protected waters for cannery supply.
- The Supreme Court in 1918 recognized adjacent waters and submerged lands as part of the reservation.
- A later 1962 Supreme Court case confirmed the federal government’s continuing regulatory role.
- Alaska’s state jurisdiction does not displace federal authority over the reserve’s core fishing rights.
Why it matters today
The Metlakatla Indian Community remains Alaska’s only federal Indian reservation. Even under Public Law 280’s state jurisdiction framework, Alaska excludes Metlakatla for criminal jurisdiction and recognizes the community’s distinct status. Readers who want a plain‑English overview of that exception can consult the Bureau of Indian Affairs FAQ. The Annette Islands story reminds us that Indigenous nations are maritime as well as terrestrial and that law can reflect those geographies when the record is clear.
Sources
Alaska Pacific Fisheries v. United States, 248 U.S. 78 (1918)
Metlakatla Indian Community v. Egan, 369 U.S. 45 (1962)
Solicitor’s Opinion M‑37034 (DOI): Reserved rights in submerged lands
Bureau of Indian Affairs: Frequently Asked Questions (PL‑280)
Alaska State Museums Bulletin: Background on the 1887 Tsimshian move to Metlakatla
