The Nature of Borders by Lissa K. Wadewitz

Author:Lissa K. Wadewitz [Wadewitz, Lissa K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, United States, State & Local, Pacific Northwest (OR; WA), Indigenous Peoples of the Americas, Nature, Animals, Fish, Technology & Engineering, Agriculture, Forestry
ISBN: 9780295804231
Google: BFxnhh63CnMC
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Published: 2012-09-10T16:03:51+00:00

6

Policing the Border

LIKE HIS FELLOW CUSTOMS AGENT GEORGE WEBBER, PETER Cain firmly believed in enforcing the law. So when Cain watched the Emma, a steamer from Victoria, slink southward from the Fraser River in 1890, slip over the international border, and begin loading salmon in the vicinity of Point Roberts, he was determined to perform his duties as U.S. Customs inspector. Cain managed to board the vessel and ordered the captain to dock in the nearby border town of Blaine. The captain refused. Because Cain was unarmed, his only recourse was to repeat his entreaties and attempt to assert his authority. The Emma’s crew remained unimpressed. The captain then turned his vessel northward and crossed back into British waters with both Cain and a full load of smuggled fish aboard. Cain somehow disembarked in B.C. and immediately wired a customs inspector named Buchanan for assistance. Because Buchanan had no men to spare, he telegraphed one of the U.S. Customs Revenue Cutters to go to Cain’s aid. Cain waited patiently, but the revenue cutter never showed. After going without food for thirty-six hours, he finally gave up his pursuit. Back in his office in Blaine, fuming, he wrote a letter to his superiors about his ordeal. Fish smugglers not only taunted officials across the forty-ninth parallel, they were also brazen enough to ignore agents like Cain who dared carry out their duties with nothing more than a badge and some misplaced courage. Policing the western Canada-U.S. border, as many men quickly discovered, could be a dangerous and humbling pursuit.1

Ironically, some of the least powerful people roaming western boundary waters were those who drew the most ire from border agents like Peter Cain. The illegal fishing, trap thievery, and related border crossings engaged in by wayward contract fishermen and fish pirates all focused official attention on the porosity of the forty-ninth parallel. Canners and trap owners were worried about the mobility of their workforce and their inability to control where fishermen ultimately unloaded their salmon. Because these industry players tended to be wealthy, influential community members, government officials usually took their complaints seriously. When concerns about the future viability of the Salish Sea salmon fishery heightened in the early 1900s, implementing more comprehensive conservation measures and policing the international border took on new urgency. To protect and preserve each nation’s fishing industry and respective salmon supplies, someone needed to secure the forty-ninth parallel, especially out on the water.

Government authorities on both sides of the line thus set out to guard the border and implement more comprehensive conservation laws. Over time, various agencies gradually dedicated more staff, energy, and money to regulating the aquatic borderland and its adjacent waterways. These efforts began in the 1890s, when representatives from both countries met to discuss joint regulations, but for many reasons these early talks did not get very far. Although neither government devoted adequate financial resources to solidifying the forty-ninth parallel or to effectively enforcing the few conservation laws that were on the books, policing

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