Alaska Pacific Fisheries v. United States

240 F. 274, 153 C.C.A. 200, 4 Alaska Fed. 533, 1917 U.S. App. LEXIS 2350
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedMarch 19, 1917
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 240 F. 274 (Alaska Pacific Fisheries v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Alaska Pacific Fisheries v. United States, 240 F. 274, 153 C.C.A. 200, 4 Alaska Fed. 533, 1917 U.S. App. LEXIS 2350 (9th Cir. 1917).

Opinion

MORROW, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from a final decree entered by the District Court of Alaska, in favor of the United States, enjoining the appellants from driving, constructing, or completing any fish-trap or strucfure whatsoever on and at Annette Islands reservation or in the waters appurtenant thereto or surrounding the same and being the waters within 3,000 feet from the shore at mean low tide of Annette Island, in Southeastern Alaska, and from maintaining or operating any trap or structure for fishing therein, and from fishing there in any manner whatsoever, and particularly from driving, operating, completing, or maintaining a fish-trap at or near Cedar Point, Annette Island, and from delivering or causing to be delivered any material whatsoever for the construction of fishing traps upon such reserve or in said waters. The decree further ordered that the defendant Alaska Pacific Fisheries vacate the lands and waters mentioned in the proclamation of the President of the United States of April 28, 1916, and to remove therefrom and to remove any and all structures therefrom heretofore erected therein by it directly or indirectly, and to refrain from in any manner trespassing in and upon said waters and said reserve.

By section 15 of the Act of Congress of March 3, 1891, entitled "An act to repeal timber-culture laws, and for other purposes” (chapter 561, 26 Stat. 1095, 1101 [48 U.S. C.A. § 358]), a body of lands known as Annette Islands, situated in Alexander Archipelago in Southeastern Alaska, on the north side of Dixon’s entrance, was set apart as a reservation for the use of the Metlakahtla Indians and those people known as Metlakahtlans who had recently emigrated from British Columbia to Alaska, and such other Alaskan natives as might join them, to be held and used by them in common, under such rules and regulations and [536]*536subject to such restrictions as might be prescribed from time to time by the Secretary of the Interior.

By the proclamation of the President, dated the 28th day of April, 1916 (39 Stat. pt. 2, Proclamations of the President, p. 52), it was recited that the Secretary of the Interior, with a view to assisting the Metlakahtlans to self-support, had decided to place in operation a cannery on Annette Island. It was therefore necessary that the fishing in the waters contiguous to the therein described group comprising the Annette Islands be reserved for the purpose of supplying fish and other aquatic products for said cannery. It was accordingly proclaimed by the President that the waters within' 3,000 feet from the shore lines at mean low tide of Annette Island, Ham Island, Walker Island, Lewis Island, Spire Island, Hemlock Island, and adjacent rocks and islets located within the area segregated by a broken line upon a diagram attached to and made a part of the proclamation, and also the bays of said islands, rocks, and islets, were thereby reserved for the benefit of the Metlakahtlans and such other Alaskan natives as had joined them or might join them in residence on these islands used by them under the general fisheries laws and regulations of the United States as administered by the Secretary of Commerce.

By section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act of March 3, 1899, c. 425, 30 Stat. 1121, 1151 (33 U.S.C.A'. § 403), it was provided that: ■ “The creation of any obstruction not affirmatively authorized by Congress, to the navigable capacity of any of the waters of the United States is hereby prohibited; and it shall not be lawful to build or commence the building of any wharf, pier, dolphin, boom, weir, breakwater, bulkhead, jetty, or other structures in any port, roadstead, haven, harbor, canal, navigable river, or other water of the United States, outside established harbor lines, or where no harbor lines have been established, except on plans recommended by the Chief of Engineers and authorized by the Secretary of War; and it shall not be lawful to excavate or fill, or in any manner to alter or modify the course, location, condition, or capacity of, any port, roadstead, .haven, harbor, canal, lake, harbor of refuge, or inclosure within the limits of any breakwater, or of the channel of any navigable water of the United States, un[537]*537less the work has been recommended by the Chief of Engineers and authorized by the Secretary of War prior to beginning the same.”

On the 7th day of April, 1916, the appellant Alaska Pacific Fisheries, a corporation, by its agents and employees, entered upon the navigable waters adjacent to Annette Island, less than 2,000 feet south of a point of land designated as Cedar Point, and within 3,000' feet from the shore of the island at mean low tide, and began the erection of a fish-trap in said waters by driving a large number of piles in such navigable waters for the purpose of holding the web to be suspended between the piles; and upon the 8th day of April the appellant named had this apparatus completed for fishing, with the exception of the suspension of the web between the piles. The fish-trap so constructed and being constructed was the usual and ordinary fishing apparatus ordinarily used by those engaged in the catching of salmon in the waters of Southeastern Alaska. The .portion of the trap nearest the shore of Annette Island was. situate 200 feet to the seaward from the line of extreme low tide, and was within the navigable waters surrounding Annette Island. The entire trap is embraced within the area referred to in the President’s proclamation of April 28, 1916, and, as no harbor lines have ever been established at Annette Island, the structure is in waters of the United States outside of any established harbor lines, and has been erected upon plans not submitted to or recommended by the Chief of Engineers of the United States and without any authority from the Secretary of War.

On the 2d day of May, 1916, the appellants were served with a notice, by the assistant United States attorney-for the district of Alaska, that, by virtue of the proclamation, 3,000 feet of waters contiguous to Annette Island, Alaska, had been set aside for the exclusive rights of the Metlakahtlans; and the appellants were warned against trespassing on the said reserved area of waters and to cease driving or attempting to drive any traps for the purpose of catching fish within the said area and to cease fishing any traps within the said area. To this notice the attorney' of the appellant corporation replied that the corporation denied that the President had lawful power to extend a reserva[538]*538tion beyond the boundaries prescribed by an act of Congress or to include public navigable water, and suggested that, as the validity of the rights asserted would have to be adjudicated, the most expeditious manner of making an issue would be to initiate judicial proceedings. The present suit was thereupon commenced by the United States, praying for an injunction restraining the appellants from continuing the construction of the trap mentioned in the complaint, or from fishing same, or interfering in any way whatsoever with the free and uninterrupted passage of fish in and through the waters described in said proclamation, or from in any way trespassing upon the lands described in said act of Congress, or the waters adjacent thereto or upon the littoral rights of the said natives. The complaint also prayed for a mandatory injunction compelling the defendants to vacate the lands and waters and to remove therefrom and to remove said structures therefrom.

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Bluebook (online)
240 F. 274, 153 C.C.A. 200, 4 Alaska Fed. 533, 1917 U.S. App. LEXIS 2350, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/alaska-pacific-fisheries-v-united-states-ca9-1917.