The Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission (NWIFC) is a natural resources management support service organization for 20 treaty Indian tribes in western Washington. Headquartered in Olympia, the NWIFC employs approximately 65 people with satellite offices in Burlington and Forks.

NWIFC member tribes are: Lummi, Nooksack, Swinomish, Upper Skagit, Sauk-Suiattle, Stillaguamish, Tulalip, Muckleshoot, Puyallup, Nisqually, Squaxin Island, Skokomish, Suquamish, Port Gamble S’Klallam, Jamestown S’Klallam, Lower Elwha Klallam, Makah, Quileute, Quinault, and Hoh.

The NWIFC was created following the 1974 U.S. v. Washington ruling (Boldt Decision) that re-affirmed the tribes’ treaty-reserved fishing rights. The ruling recognized them as natural resources co-managers with the State of Washington with an equal share of the harvestable number of salmon returning annually.

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  • Oceanography Instrumentation Technician – Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission

    June 26, 2020

    The Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission assists four tribes in the co-management of their treaty rights within the Columbia River Basin. The position offered is associated with the Commission’s Center for Coastal Margin Observation and Prediction (CMOP) department. This position contributes to all aspects of the design, construction, calibration, repair, installation and deployment of estuary […]

  • Biogeochemical Oceanographer – Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission

    June 26, 2020

    Responsible for the quality assurance and control (QC/QA) of complex combinations of biogeochemical instrumentation, integrated in a nationally recognized oceanographic observation network for the Columbia River estuary and plume. CRITFC Employment Opportunities

  • Habitat Restoration Biologist I – Quileute Tribe

    June 24, 2020

    Download Announcement The Habitat Biologist will provide fisheries habitat protection, restoration, and enhancement technical services to the Tribe with an emphasis on wild salmon and steelhead populations in the Quillayute, Ozette, and Goodman watersheds, within the Quileute Tribe’s Usual and Accustomed fishing areas (U&A). This position will function as the project lead within Quileute Natural […]

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  • Decades of Data Supports Fisheries Planning
    For more than 38 years, Quinault Indian Nation fisheries crews have counted Queets River coho in several life stages of life to assist the management of commercial and recreational fisheries on the Washington coast and beyond. Quinault’s smolt trapping and tagging program provides the only long-term continuous data set for coho freshwater production and marine […]
  • Upper Skagit Tribe Opens Brief Sockeye Fishery
    The Upper Skagit Tribe conducted a four-hour Skagit River sockeye fishery on July 6. The small fishery was delayed by one week from the pre-season plan to increase available early numbers of sockeye to meet hatchery broodstock needs. The tribe caught 700 harvestable fish from the estimated 13,000 total sockeye fish returning to Baker Lake […]
  • Tribal Fishermen, Natural Resources Staff Adapt to Impact of COVID on Harvests, Culture
    When the novel coronavirus hit western Washington this winter, shutting down just about everything, tribal fishermen quickly had to figure out how to protect themselves while continuing to harvest. The Upper Skagit Indian Tribe’s council, for example, realized it would be impossible for fishermen to keep six feet apart from their deckhands on their small […]