House

Sampson Tulee, a Yakima Indian, was arrested, upon an information being filed in a state court in Klickitat County, Washington, and the petition before us seeks his release from the custody of the sheriff of that county.

On May 16, 1.939, Tulee was charged in an information with having caught a salmon, a food fish, on May 6, 1939, with a dip bag net, and selling the same commercially, without having first obtained a license to do so, as required by 7 Rem.Rev. Stat. of Wash. § 5693. A warrant of arrest was issued, and Tulee was taken into custody by appellee.

The petition herein, after alleging such facts, alleged that Tulee was illegally restrained of his liberty because the Washington statute under which he was detained was unconstitutional and void. The statute was alleged to be void because it violated paragraph 2 of - Article 3 of the Yakima Treaty of June 9, 1855 ( 12 Stat. 951 ) which provides in part: “The exclusive right of taking fish in all the streams, where running through or bordering, said reservation, is further secured to said confederated tribes and bands of Indians, as also the right of taking fish at all usual and accustomed places, in common with citizens of…