Initiative 456 was passed by the voters in 1984.  The measure enacted provisions relating to the management of salmon and steelhead resources, including: 

• declaring that an emergency exists in the management of salmon and steelhead trout resources such that both are in great peril;
• petitioning the United States Congress to immediately make the steelhead trout a national game fish;
• declaring that conservation, enhancement, and proper utilization of the state's natural resources, including but not limited to lands, waters, timber, fish, and game, are responsibilities of the State of Washington and remain within its express domain;  
• declaring that "no citizen shall be denied equal access to and use of any resource on the basis of race, sex, origin, cultural heritage, or by and through any treaty based upon the same";
• declaring that "under the Indians Citizens Act of 1924, all Indians became citizens of the United States and subject to the Constitution and laws of the United States and state in which they reside"; and   
• declaring that "any special off-reservation legal rights or privileges of Indians established through treaties that are denied to other citizens were terminated by that 1924 enactment, and any denial of rights to any citizen based upon race, sex, origin, cultural heritage, or by and through any treaty based upon the same is unconstitutional."

Initiative 456 is repealed in its entirety.

(In support) In 1984 Initiative 456 established a state law which declared that only the state could manage natural resources and that tribal treaty rights were not enforceable.  Treaties are nation-to-nation agreements and are the supreme law of the land under United States Supreme Court precedent.  The current law is unenforceable under the United States Supreme Court cases of U.S. v. Washington and U.S. v. Oregon, among others.  This legislation is an opportunity to correct a historical error and clean up a bad law that no longer applies.

The current language in the law is not just unenforceable but racist.

Initiative 456 was a blatant attempt to undermine court rulings that upheld treaty fishing rights.  The statutes are unconstitutional because they attempt to undermine treaty obligations.  The voters' pamphlet for the initiative was clear that it would preclude tribal members who belong to treaty tribes from being able to exercise treaty fishing rights.

(Opposed) None.