Whitehorse Daily Star

Woman fined for illegal salmon sale; told to make mitts and hats

A Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation woman has been fined and banned from fishing in the Yukon River for 18 months after illegally selling salmon to non-First Nation members.

By Rhiannon Russell on December 16, 2014

A Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation woman has been fined and banned from fishing in the Yukon River for 18 months after illegally selling salmon to non-First Nation members.

Debbie Lynn Nagano, 52, pleaded guilty to the federal Fisheries Act offence, which followed an undercover investigation back in 2011.

Chief Judge Karen Ruddy handed down a $5,000 fine last month in Dawson City territorial court.

Nagano must pay half and make up the rest by creating fur hats and mitts for the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in’s justice program.

In the summer of 2011, someone tipped off a fishery officer that Nagano had sold smoked salmon at the fastball tournament in Dawson City over the Discovery Day weekend.

That triggered an undercover investigation, in which two fishery officers posing as Alberta tourists asked to purchase salmon from Nagano.

They arranged to meet her in September of that year, at a local residence she said was her childhood home.

Nagano sold them 11 chinook salmon, weighing 78 pounds, and five bags of smoked salmon, weighing about four pounds. They paid $500.

The officers then executed a search warrant and seized 1,380 pounds of salmon.

As a member of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in, Nagano is permitted to fish with a communal licence – that allows her to sell fish to other Tr'ondëk Hwëch’in members or beneficiaries of adjacent transboundary agreements in Canada.

“This is not a case in which Ms. Nagano is accused of fishing when or in a location she is not entitled to, or harvesting more fish than she is allowed,” Ruddy said in her written decision.

“The offence in this case is not the sale of fish, but rather the sale of fish to someone who falls outside of the scope of her Treaty rights, though I accept the fact that Ms. Nagano deliberately did so, knowing full well she did not have the right, to be an aggravating factor in this case.”

But Ruddy credited the woman for an early guilty plea. And she noted her lack of a criminal record.

Nagano was raised living a traditional lifestyle, spending summers in fish camps and winters on traplines. She has a close connection to the land and to her heritage, Ruddy wrote.

Several letters of support filed in the court said that Nagano is well-respected in the community, and has worked to pass along her knowledge and preserve Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in culture.

She works for the First Nation as a director of heritage trainee, the decision states.

Nagano’s family was affected by residential schools, and Ruddy credited her for breaking the cycle of violence and substance abuse for her three children and maintaining her sobriety for more than 20 years.

The woman’s background and the offence must be viewed in the context of the Yukon’s chinook salmon industry, the judge said.

Its “vulnerable nature ... and the risks of encouraging others to engage in similar activities” required a strong, deterrent sentence.

While escapement targets – the number of salmon that must return to spawning grounds to ensure future healthy production – were met in 2011, preservation is an ongoing concern. This year, no chinook fisheries opened in Canada or the U.S.

Crown prosecutor Adrienne M. Switzer sought a $20,000 fine, plus an 18-month fishing ban, while defence lawyer Alexa McClaren proposed a $500 to $1,500 penalty and community service or in-kind donations.

Ruddy settled on a middle ground.

For 18 months, Nagano is prohibited from fishing in the Yukon River and possessing any chinook salmon.

“In addition, Ms. Nagano’s aboriginal status, and the fact that her conduct is particularly detrimental to members of her own community and the First Nation fishery in general, suggests to me that there is value in including in her sentence a component that she make reparations to her own First Nation,” Ruddy said.

She ordered the woman to pay $2,500, and make five pairs of traditional fur mitts and five fur hats. These will be donated to the justice program, to be used by participants in land-based at-risk youth programs.

Nagano will spend 12 months on probation while she creates the clothing.

Comments (8)

Up 2 Down 0

H & NL on Dec 22, 2014 at 7:13 pm

JD: What makes you think no one including me didn't complain before whomever got caught? Are you privy to info that we are not? FN people have always been stewards of the land and always will be, nothing that can be done or said will change that. FNs were not responsible for the state of the resource, your people are. Very weak, very weak indeed.

Up 30 Down 2

JayDangles on Dec 22, 2014 at 1:16 pm

@H&NL... I think it's a fair point you make that traditionally, selling, trading resources etc. was common practice for First Nations back in the day... however it was always based on availability of the resource you were trading.
Even traditionally, if numbers were insanely low, I highly doubt you would have seen the Vuntut trading their precious winter caribou supply for ounces of gold, they would have known better.
In this case... this is a very poor example of "wildlife stewards" as many FN's like to refer to themselves as. Numbers are low, lead by example, protect the resource.
As for your comments on DFO... if you disagree with the laws, you are a lot more credible disagreeing with them prior to being caught... Arguing a law after the fact is just embarrassing. Also if I'm not mistaken, the "Yukon Queen" received an Executive Committee screening through YESAB in order to keep operating.... "Thousands of salmon"?? Really? Thousands? hmm... If you don't like the rules, change them, if you can't change them.. deal with it. Can you imagine society if EVERYONE thought they were entitled to break whatever laws they didn't like?

Up 12 Down 66

Home and Native Land on Dec 18, 2014 at 7:29 pm

@JD, long before the coming of the newcomers, this persons relations bartered in salmon with other tribes and groups. This was their form of commerce and it could safely be argued that legally that is still the case. DFO has no problem pursuing some bogus case against one individual for a few fish yet turn a blind eye to thousands of fish that were killed by Holland America boats on the Yukon River for years and were basically threatened before they finally did something about it. DFO authorizes the destruction of thousands of fish and their habitat every year but pursuers one first nation person, sounds like more of the same to me. Wonder who the loser was that had the big mouth?

Up 16 Down 9

B. Foster on Dec 18, 2014 at 4:50 pm

@jay

Fair enough. Safe to say though had she sold the salmon she harvested to the right people she would be fine.
"The offence in this case is not the sale of fish, but rather the sale of fish to someone who falls outside of the scope of her Treaty rights"

So who is it that falls within her treaty rights?
Just seems odd somehow.

Up 36 Down 8

JayDangles on Dec 18, 2014 at 11:38 am

@B.Foster, You did miss something, you oversimplified it greatly in an attempt to make it about race. Her major offence was using her traditional right to harvest salmon that belongs to everyone (salmon in decline) and then selling that product for personal financial gain.
The rules are not complicated, and are put in place to protect the resource. Unfortunately this is all too common, and I am very proud that the DFO Officers are trying to put an end to this....

Up 78 Down 7

Yukoner 2 on Dec 17, 2014 at 2:31 pm

It's time we look at the rules and make them the same for all while there are still animals to harvest.

Up 78 Down 34

B. Foster on Dec 16, 2014 at 9:46 pm

So her major offence was selling her product to somebody with the wrong skin color? Maybe I missed something.

Up 86 Down 20

June Jackson on Dec 16, 2014 at 3:48 pm

And..our salmon is going extinct..why again?

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