(bright music) - Oh, ancient weaver, (thoughtful music) how many hours of your life were spent gathering the wild-grown riches of our home, willow roots and nettles for the reef net?

- [Interviewee] The reef net technology was our economy, our way of life.

- It was really designed for this area, and it was such an abundance of wealth.

- They became the richest hunter-gatherer tribe in the world.

The canning industry started on the Columbia River in the 1860s.

- That took the community participation out so that just one person, the cannery owner, was gonna benefit.

(machines grinding) - Reef netters would go out to the sites, "Oh, there's a fish trap there."

(water rushing) Go to the next reef net site, fish trap there.

(camera shuttering) - Traditionally, reef net sites, they weren't bought and sold, they were actually handed down in families.

(logo whooshing) (waves crashing) I was the skipper's daughter.

(camera shuttering) (camera shuttering) (camera shuttering) So I felt the need to work harder and faster than any other crew member.

(energetic music) (waves crashing) To keep my place on the boat.

(seagulls cawing) (water splashing) I was 22, I believe, I started actually commercial fishing with my dad.

It eventually became home, (camera shuttering) (camera shuttering) being out there on the water.

(camera shuttering) It wasn't something talked about from my dad.

I'd always seen the reef nets out at Lummi Island, but I didn't actually know the history.

(camera shuttering) (adventurous music) It wasn't till later in life that I started learning about reef netting.

The difference in the two ways of fishing is the reef net is permanently fixed, so you're watching the fish come to you, whereas the type of fishing we do with seiners or gill netters is you're watching for fish, and you're chasing them, so it's always a follow the tides, follow the fish, get out in front of 'em.

(fish thudding) (fish flapping) In the last 30 years, we've watched the steady decline of the salmon available to us to be able to harvest.

There's a whole generation of children that haven't had the opportunity to go out on boats with family, whereas we all grew up going on a boat.

(camera shuttering) My husband's name was Larry Kinley.

His traditional name was Chexanexwh.

Larry thought, how are we gonna bring this back to the children?

They've gotta know fishing to know our history and know our importance.

(boat rumbling) Larry got this idea of, let's build a reef net.

And when he wanted to build a reef net, it was like, "Sure."

And I think we got it done within a year.

Currently we have the only tribal reef net.

Luckily, everyone over on Lummi Island were really open to a tribal member building a reef net.

A lot of their gear, Larry noticed, was all like World War II parts, winches.

(winch swishing) There really was an opportunity to build something that was modern, more up-to-date.

We have some wonderful family friends who started a boat-building company here on our property, and that was the person that Larry reached out to for building the aluminum part of the reef net.

We had another group of people that helped us with building all the anchors, and then they actually helped us set all the anchors out there too.

(machinery whining) We've set two sets of anchors.

We've got some on Lummi Island, but more importantly, we have some at Cherry Point, Xwe'chi'eXen.

The world's biggest coal port wanted to build a dock at Cherry Point across a village site.

There were so many reasons to be fighting this, not only the ship traffic and the coal tankers that would be coming in, but the fact that it was a village site, one of our most ancient village sites.

We won't allow it.

- [John] Hey, Chairman, this is Colonel John Buck from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineering.

Good morning.

- [Chairman] Ey'skwechil.

Good morning.

(camera shuttering) - [John] I wanted to let you know that we've made a determination with respect to the request that you sent us last January.

Bottom line up front is that we've determined there is a greater than sentimental impact to the Lummi Nations usual custom fishing rights based on the Treaty of Point Elliot.

And subsequently, this morning, we notified the applicant in specific international holdings, (camera shuttering) a decision on the permit, which was a denial without prejudice.

(attendees applauding and cheering vigorously) - Where the dock would've went is where our reef net anchors went.

I went to a machine shop to get a part off our seiner redone, and I looked up and this picture was on the wall.

And I told the lady that owned the shop that that was our reef net gear.

So somehow this photo was captured the one year that we had our reef net gear out at Cherry Point.

(camera shuttering) (uplifting music) It really puts into perspective how small the reef net is compared to the docks that are there now.

It was a victory, but victories don't last long.

Larry's goal with the reef net was he was hoping to pass it on to Northwest Indian College to get students out on them.

But I lost my husband to cancer, so it kind of fell by the side there.

I know that salmon are resilient, and I know that they will build back up to where we'll have harvestable levels again.

But until then, with the seiner, I'm hoping that we can still get reef net time in.

Because those are our village sites, those are our reef net sites, they're out there, so we have to get out there to be amongst our ancestors.

That's the whole basis of everything.

(somber instrumental music) - My family was one of the pioneer families on Lummi Island.

- The Washington Reef Net Owners Association is a longtime organization of the Reef Net license owners.

(boat engine roaring) - We only have 12 reef netting gears out here.

That's it.

But reef net fishing exists.

Come out here, and witness it right here in the sailor sea.

Touch the water, breathe the air.

Feel the history of this place.

(waves crashing)