Biography
David Sohappy Jr. was a Yakama fisherman convicted with his father, David Sohappy Sr., of selling salmon and steelhead caught outside tribal fishing seasons under the federal Lacey Act. Both received five-year federal sentences. In remarks entered in the Congressional Record on May 18, 1988, Senator Dan Evans announced that both had been released from federal custody in Spokane and argued that their terms were grossly disproportionate to violations of tribal law. Evans placed the prosecutions within the continuing conflict over Columbia River treaty fishing rights and tribal sovereignty. The exact individual release day is not assigned here because the remarks refer to the two men together as released yesterday and today.
David Sohappy Jr. was a Yakama fisherman convicted with his father, David Sohappy Sr., of selling salmon and steelhead caught outside tribal fishing seasons under the federal Lacey Act. Both received five-year federal sentences. In remarks entered in the Congressional Record on May 18, 1988, Senator Dan Evans announced that both had been released from federal custody in Spokane and argued that their terms were grossly disproportionate to violations of tribal law. Evans placed the prosecutions within the continuing conflict over Columbia River treaty fishing rights and tribal sovereignty. The exact individual release day is not assigned here because the remarks refer to the two men together as released yesterday and today. Five-year nominal federal prison sentence. Senator Dan Evans’s May 18, 1988 remarks confirm actual release from federal prison in Spokane. Exact admission, sentencing day, individual discharge day and total actual custody are not established in this source.
Treaty Council News reports that both Sohappys were arrested at the tribal courthouse on August 7, 1986, released the next day, and surrendered again August 22. Its late bulletin identifies both men and Matt McConville in the September 18 county-jail and September 20 Lompoc transfers. These transfers do not restart imprisonment.
The January 30, 1987 Militant places David Sohappy Jr. at Sandstone and reports that prison officials refused a return to the Yakama reservation for tribal proceedings.
